Linking Mission to Strategy and Action

[Heather Higgins]

I came across this article on "Linking Mission to Strategy and Action" and thought it would be helpful to share.  I think the pyramid and the explanation of how the parts fit together is a helpful way to understand the interplay between mission, strategy, and action.  

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121119193311-16553-linking-mission-to-strategy-and-action?goback=%2Eptf_16553_true_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=who_to_follow-b

For any organization and certainly for a small non-profit, picking the right projects to pursue can be challenging.  The margin for error is pretty thin.  How do you know which activities to select and how to prioritize them?  Everyone in the organization needs to have a good understanding of the mission and the strategy.  For each activity, you need to ask yourself, how does doing x move us closer to achieving our strategic goal(s)?  If it doesn't, then why are we doing it?  

I don't have it all figured out by any means, but here are some initial ideas as I attempt to process all we discussed at our first meeting.

Mission (or Purpose): 

• To improve the lives of people with disabilities by teaming them with highly trained service dogs
  

2015 Vision:  (snapshot of what the organization will look like at a certain point in time) 

• Teaming x number of people per year with a service dog specialized in one of a limited number of disciplines (physical assistance, autism services, diabetic alert, ???)
• Financial stability - measured how?
  
• Liability to Peggy reduced to x with schedule for completion by y
  
• Organization structure as an engine for growth (roles defined & expectations set for staff & board, all key positions filled)
• Bandwidth of the organization broader than just the staff - significant contributions by Volunteers and Board
• Operational stability & efficiency (repeatable processes & documentation)
• [Planning for permanent facility & capital campaign]
• [Succession planning]

2013 Strategy:

• Improve rate of successful placements
• Improve the success rate of dogs in the program
• Shorten the amount of time it takes to graduate a dog 
• Improve the success rate of clients in the program
• Improve fundraising
• Increase fundraising effectiveness (larger gifts / grants, sustaining gifts, signature event?)
• Increase funds raised (to what level?)
• Ensure we have the right talent in the right positions (ED, Development, Board, etc.)
• Leverage Governance Board for leadership & oversight

Some tactics I see as needs and/or opportunities:

• Balanced Scorecard creation & quarterly review
• Ensure financials are in order: record liabilities (e.g. Peggy's loan), accrue market rent, compensation review, etc.
• Kanban for tracking progress of organizations' discrete projects (stated in bite sized chunks so "done" is achievable) in backlog, research, development, implementation, and done phases.

Well, that's a start and should get the conversation going.  I'm not wedded to any of these ideas.  I'm putting them out there to see what resonates with folks.  We'll need to agree on where to devote our efforts.

Cheers,
Heather

[rpotter]

I would add under "improve rate of successful placements"...

1. Refine process/rubric for identifying clients who will contribute most to the placement being successful (level of potential commitment/follow-through),. and

2. Review and possibly revisit procedures for client follow-up, beyond simply ongoing ADI-required public access re-assessment 

I think reducing the amount of time the dogs are in training will be a challenge and may not be a fair priority.  I think the organization has a good balance here with what the dogs require to learn the needed tasks and to have the maturity to be consistent.  Perhaps the area that could benefit from discussion is considering the balance of responsibility between puppy-raisers and the professional staff in more advanced training.

I think this outline is an excellent springboard for more talking points.  Thanks for getting the ball rolling.

[rpaska]

Under "Improve rate of successful placements"...

-I agree with Rachel about not decreasing the time it takes to train a dog.  I think a better goal might be to aim for all dogs to be placed between 1.5 - 2.5 years of training.

-I think another important facet is the process for disqualifying dogs and perhaps doing it more systematically and sooner.

[jessica.may.mccoy]

I tried to reply via the sdvb...@googlegroups.com e-mail, and it didn't work.  So I'm re-posting through the discussion board.

I think that this is a great article, and I am glad that we're looking at strategic visioning as part of our work, and making sure that we stay connected with the mission.

However, I do want to caution us on getting into the minutiae of these decisions, vs. taking a big picture view.  Perhaps it would be useful to take a look at the things that are on the to-do list and determine which things fall under the realm of STAFF DECISIONS, COMMITTEE LEVEL DECISIONS, and FULL BOARD DECISIONS.

I think that creating a rubric for screening clients, disqualifying dogs falls under the category of micromanaging the staff, when done at a full-board level.  It would probably be best for these tools to be developed by Peggy and the other trainers, along with whomever is on the program committee (who may or may not be on the board, although there should be a board representative).  

One of the challenges of having a small board is that it is more difficult to have distinct committees.  I would like to see the board expand to something closer to the bylaws maximum, and try to have 3-4 people on each of the committees working with staff to make recommendations to the full board.

I'd also like to see us step back and look at how to grow the board and the different committees.

Jessica

[Heather Higgins]

Hi folks.  Thanks for all of the feedback.  I realize I didn't really explain strategic planning very well or distinguish between strategic goals and actions taken to achieve a strategic goal.  

Strategic goals are crafted as end results of efforts.  It's best in setting strategic goals to avoid the really tempting trap of drilling down to specific actions to be taken to achieve those goals or the metrics that we'll use to measure how far along we are towards achieving the goal.  Validating that the goal is both the right thing for the organization and that it is of sufficient priority to make it one of a select few goals for the year are two key steps that the board and ED (and perhaps the rest of the staff too - TBD) need to agree upon.  Once we have our short list of agreed upon goals, then we'll want to determine the best way to measure our progress for each of the goals.  There might be one metric for a goal or maybe 2 or 3 if needed.

As for actions, I agree that we should resist the temptation to "go there."  The staff will know best what actions to take towards the agreed upon goal.  If they want our input, that's fine, but otherwise, let's leave it to them to figure out how to achieve the goals.

Cheers,

Heather

[lmorris80]

Deciding how long a dog is in training or disqualified is based on each dog as an individual.  I wonder if these decisions are better left to the trainers since this is their expertise.