Respond to discussion-

Respond by offering an alternative perspective of the most important element of the strategic planning process.

Reminder: Be sure to support your posting and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources and/or current literature. Use APA formatting to cite references in your posting and responses.

Strategic planning is mentioned as being a deliberative, disciplined approach to helping key decision makers in organizations figure out what they think the should be doing (Bryson, 2011). This process can obtain more failures than successes. With that being said, it takes a wise and skillful leader to invest in the plan and connected various parties to the plan. Strategic planning can be explained as "articulating an organization's mission, vision, goals, and the nature of the common good and public value to be created" (Bryson, 2011, pg. 20). Though strategic planning cannot stand alone- it needs to be equally supported by successful leadership and management. Leadership being the act of doing what is right and management being the act of doing what is right.

Within strategic planning it can be necessary to work backwards then forward. Looking at a time line, seeing how much time is required for given work and a plan to be put in place. Dividing the period of time into sections/meeting times of where the issues can be addresses (Laureate Education, 2008) Doing "ideals" in a planning meeting focus around worse and best case scenarios. Along with ideals is incorporating new questions of looking inside the organization. Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to revisit the organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are at hand. Besides monitoring trends of SWOT, there is the need to "monitor important external stakeholder groups, especially those who affect resource flows (directly and indirectly)" (Bryson, 2011, pg. 20). These are defined as customers, clients, payers or funders, dues-paying members, and regulators (Bryson, 2011). Communication and relations with these stakeholders is important in order to have a team of decision makers.

Bryson (2011) relates strategic planning to an individual's life by saying that everyone on some level is thinking, acting, and learning about various elements of their life. In my life, I know my purpose and the things I must do. This could be my greater purpose in the world and the things I must do daily to keep up with my job and the various things I schedule; appointments, meetings with friends, and weekly volunteer commitments. Through reading Strength's Finder by Tom Rath, I was able to take as assessment and see my strengths as well as the weaknesses of these strengths. My strengths are; maximizer, empathy, adaptability, consistency, and harmony. I know the big issues that I am facing in my life and what strategies that have worked for me to overcome past obstacles. Being able to define success is another part of looking at strategic planning in my own life. Using a life model of strategic planning can easily help one transfer the fundamentals to an organization.

References: Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.