Your nonprofit’s strategic plan won’t execute itself. AmPhil’s 3×3 review process will help you put it in action.
The best-laid plans of mice and nonprofits often go awry. That’s not because the plans are bad, or that nonprofit leaders don’t take them seriously. It’s because your strategic development plan is only as good as your follow through. A strategic development plan isn’t going to implement itself, and assuming it will is a recipe for failure.
I’m very familiar with a nonprofit putting in the time, effort, and expertise to craft an ambitious strategy that’s sure to amplify their impact. I’m also far too familiar with that same nonprofit patting themselves on the back and filing that plan away, never to be looked at again.
So, how do you keep your carefully crafted strategic development plan from accumulating cobwebs?
The 3x3 review process. Don’t recoil! This process has nothing to do with multiplication tables, but everything to do with setting you up for success. That success doesn’t come from just the perfect plan—it comes from a perfect (heck, even just good!) plan that builds in consistent review and accountability.
I’m a huge fan of the 3x3 review process because it’s both highly effective and deceptively simple. Here’s how to think about the three aspects, chronologically:
Monthly: The thirty-minute check-in.
This is a quick meeting with leadership to report on progress in implementing the plan. If things are going smoothly, great! But this is also an opportunity for leaders to identify roadblocks and ways to improve communication and collaboration. And, perhaps most importantly, the accountability these check-ins provide keeps staff from pushing the plan to the back burner. Au revoir to “I’ll do this next month” syndrome!
Quarterly: The three-hour leadership meeting.
We all know the pain of endless meetings, but these quarterly meetings are some of the most important on your calendar. This is a chance to go beyond the more surface-level monthly check-ins and really interrogate how the plan is being implemented, what’s working, and—most importantly—what’s not. It’s important to remember that what you typed up in January isn’t set in stone. You have to be ready to acknowledge that those best-laid plans might need to be adjusted. By reviewing the plan and reporting on progress, you’ll be able to identify any changes necessary to meet your goals.
Annual: The three-day leadership offsite.
Getting away from the office once a year gives you the chance to take, to use an unfortunate piece of corporatespeak, the 10,000-foot view of your strategic development plan. What goal are you trying to achieve through this plan? What parts of the plan are and are not advancing that goal? Does it need to be substantively revised, or does your approach to implementing it need to be adjusted? This is when it’s truly important to be humble: if there are flaws in the initial plan, you must be ready to acknowledge and correct them. This is not just about flaws but also opportunities. What new opportunities might you pursue that weren’t on the table when the plan was first created? This time away from your daily to-do list gives you the opportunity to zoom out and think about the bigger picture.
These three steps—really, items you add to your calendar—help to ensure that your strategic development plan moves from a wish to a reality.
Here are a few more things you should nail down to ensure your plan doesn’t fall by the wayside:
- Who owns every task in your plan (the particular individual, not a group or department)
- What that task is (be as specific as possible)
- When it will be finished (an actual date, no “sometime later this year”)
- How the owner will report on their progress
In other words, don’t write your strategic development plan and set it aside. Don’t expect to just cross your fingers and wish your plan into working. Do the hard work of holding yourself accountable by reviewing, revising, and renewing your plan through the 3x3 review process.
I promise, it’s worth it.