How can you lead an inclusive strategic planning process?

Farra Trompeter: Welcome to the Smart Communications Podcast. This is Farra Trompeter, co-director and worker-owner at Big Duck. For today’s episode, we’re going to ask the question: How can you lead an inclusive strategic planning process? And I am delighted to be joined by Dr. Renee Rubin Ross. Dr. Ross is a recognized leader on board and organizational development and strategy, and the founder of The Ross Collective, a consulting firm that designs and leads inclusive participatory processes for social-sector board and staff. She and her team guide leaders and organizations in strategic plans and governance processes that deepen social change, racial justice, and community strength. She directs the Cal State University East Bay Nonprofit Management Certificate Program and teaches strategic planning and board governance for that program. She’s also very lovely and lets me call her Renee, so we’re going to go right into it. This is the second time Renee’s been on the podcast. You may remember her, or you can go back and tune in to episode 98: How can you build inclusive processes in branding and beyond? So this is sort of a part two of that. First, we’re talking about inclusion and branding, and now we’re talking about inclusion and strategic planning. Renee, welcome back to the show.

Renee Rubin Ross: So good to be here, and thank you for having me. And I’m so excited to talk about inclusive strategic planning. Yay!

Farra Trompeter: All the things. All the things. So we invited Renee back, not just because she’s a lovely person and we like to talk about inclusion, but because she actually has a new book out called Inclusive Strategic Planning for Nonprofits: A five-step process to expand energy, alignment, and opportunity. And I was excited to read an advanced copy. It is out now. You can definitely pick it up, and we’ll talk about where you can access it later. And we’ve definitely talked about strategic planning and hosted several other conversations about inclusion on the Smart Communications Podcast. But Renee, let’s talk about what it means to bring these ideas together. What is inclusive strategic planning, and how is that different from the typical strategic planning processes that most nonprofits follow?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah, thank you. Such a good question. And again, thank you for having me. So basically, there’s a lot of books out there about strategic planning, right? That kind of say, “Here’s step 1, 2, 3, 4.” But what seems to be forgotten some of the time is that who is participating in planning really matters. And that’s really the essence of the work that we do and of the process that’s described in the book. I have been talking a lot about this in the sense of people’s voices matter, our voices are–all of us–our voices matter in building our future together and building a future in which all people can thrive. And the only way to do that is to design an inclusive process. So not just, you know, to, so that’s kind of, that’s what the book talks about, you know, the importance of inclusion, but also how to design that into planning.

Farra Trompeter: Great. And, you know, strategic planning processes–I’ve been part of them as a board member, as a volunteer, and as a consultant who presents as part of a strategic planning process–they can be pretty intense. And oftentimes, you know, adding in a layer of inclusion, while people may agree it’s the right thing to do, may not be ready for it for various reasons, and it might not be right for all organizations. And you actually talk about this in the book, and I’d love you to speak about it here in the podcast. How can organizations know if they’re ready for an inclusive strategic planning process?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah. Well, that’s really interesting. I guess I would argue that you’re always going to go, you know, if you can slow down and be inclusive, you’re always going to go further. And because what you’re going to get at the end is a lot more buy-in, a lot more connection, even just a lot more understanding of why we are choosing the goals and strategies and direction that we’re choosing. But I do, in the book, have this matrix that asks leaders to reflect on some questions. You know, are you, are we ready for planning? First step is to say, you know, what’s our capacity? One thing is, you know, strategic planning is often changing the tire, driving the bus, whatever your metaphor is. Also, you know, making sure that the kids are singing along, you know, so you’re doing a lot. You’re actually running your organization, and at the same time, you’re adding in this project, which is a planning project. So first reflecting on, you know, do you have the capacity for planning?

Renee Rubin Ross: And then second of all, looking at your stability of your finances and also your program, and reflecting on that as well. I did get an inquiry recently from an organization, you know, sadly, in these times, that this is happening a lot, that was about to lose some very large funding, and then said, “Well, we think now’s a good time for strategic planning.” Now is a good time for some planning, but not for building a three to five-year strategic plan. What you want to do if you’re in that moment of financial instability is do some more short-term planning. Right? And again, as inclusive as possible. Really asking people in an expansive way, what might some sources of, you know, funding be? And what do we want to do given the challenging moment we’re in, what do we want to do? So, strategic planning, I mean, it’s a funny thing. In the book, I mostly talk about building a longer, let’s say, three-year plan, but sometimes people do reach out, and when they’re talking about thinking strategically, it can be smaller or bigger depending on the circumstance you’re in. So I guess the shorter answer is in the book; there’s a matrix that asks leaders to reflect on a couple of questions about readiness for planning.

Farra Trompeter: And I’ll just say, I agree with you, that it is always worth time to bring in inclusion. So just in that conversation, I realize I could have stated the question a different way, but I agree with you that readiness might be more about the planning itself, and that ideally, assuming your culture does value different voices and is considering who’s in the room and who’s making decisions that can come into branding, that can come into planning, that can come into all the different things that we’re doing.

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah. So my background is in education, and I do think a lot about behavior change. How do we model internally, you know, the way that we want to be together, and then bring that out to the world too, right? So the idea that we’re listening to one another, that your voice and perspective have value, that you know something that I don’t know, and putting that all together in a structured way, you know, we could build a vision that is quite useful and relevant and compelling to our community.

Farra Trompeter: So I love how easy it is to follow the steps in your book. And I want to spend a little time with step one: kickoff. And in that, you highlight the importance of organizations clarifying their “why”. What is it about defining motivation and setting a shared purpose that is crucial to getting started with inclusive strategic planning?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah. Thank you for the question. So many people talk about, you know, Simon Sinek, starting with the why, also Priya Parker talking about, you know, having a gathering and saying, “Why are we gathering?” And I think of, in some ways, strategic planning is this, you know, one- to two- to five- to nine-month gathering. And you really do want to start with saying, “What’s our purpose in coming together and having these conversations?” In the book, I share a very like, detailed way to lead this conversation. But it’s not that complicated. It’s really just a matter of saying, “What are we noticing? And given all of that, why do we want to do planning now?”

Renee Rubin Ross: The thing that’s really exciting about it is that people have different perspectives. One person says, you know, “We need to do planning because we need to improve our fundraising.” “We need to do planning because we have these opportunities with these partners.” Or, you know, “We’re thinking about investing in a new facility.” But people kind of come into the room with different ideas. And even just hearing those ideas and collecting them gives the group as a whole, first of all, an appreciation for each other, and also a sense of, “Yeah, wow. This was on my mind, but I didn’t know that Jose also was thinking that. And given that, wow, all right, there’s more desire for clarity than I realized.”

Farra Trompeter: And one of the other pieces that you also talk about as part of kicking off is really about thinking about who’s doing what, and you suggest roles for how people should engage in the process, particularly deciders, builders, and sharers. So I love those phrasing, and I was wondering if you could talk about what each of those roles are, what maybe their responsibilities or expectations are, and what are the benefits of bringing in this approach of deciders, builders, and sharers?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah, thank you. So concentric circles, the deciders are in the middle. So when we lead a process, usually we meet with the deciders. It might be somewhere between one to four or five people. We meet with them every two weeks to keep the project on track. These are the people that have the final decision, authority for the plan. That’s pretty common, I think, to have deciders in strategic planning. Actually, what’s not as common is the second layer, which we call the builders. And what builders do is builders answer the question: What do we want to see in place in the next three to five years as a result of our actions? That’s the practical vision. So they’re building the vision for the organization, and they’re also working on the goals that they’re going to be carrying out. The deciders might be the executive director and board president, or, if it’s a small org, might be a couple of board members.

Renee Rubin Ross: And then the builders is a much larger group. It could be anywhere from, you know, even over 50 people, the whole board and staff, or just the leadership team and some of the board. So it’s really the people who are going to be working on it, who are going to be doing the work going forward, and get to say, “Hey, this is what I’ve seen. Here’s the community needs that I’ve identified, and here’s some challenges. Here’s what I want us to be working on. And also, here’s some realistic goals. You know, I don’t think we can raise $3 million next year. Sorry! You know, I think we’re, you need to scale that back.” So those are the builders. And then that third group is the sharers. So that’s, you know, people who are consulted in focus groups, and interviews, or surveys. So again, I think most processes have the deciders and the sharers. It is really the builders that allow the whole process to be a little bit more inclusive and expansive.

Farra Trompeter: Well, I appreciate that you weave communications throughout the book. So obviously, thank you for including our friends in communications as we think about strategic planning. And you have communication checklists offered throughout the process. What made you bring in these checklists? And can you talk a little bit, maybe share some examples of what the communications checklists are?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah, so I’m going to, I’ll just be honest, why not? You know, and talk about how the book emerged as an inclusive process. So, where it started was I was trying to have something to explain to our potential clients about what strategic planning is. But I wanted to get some feedback, and so I opened it up to beta readers, some of whom I know and some of whom I don’t know. A lot of them are people who are working in nonprofits. In the end, I had about a hundred people who signed up to be beta readers and about 30 who read the manuscript. The feedback that I got was, first of all, that what I had in there could be useful for a lot of people who were doing this process on their own. But I needed to shift the tone a little bit and just make it more about how some of your listeners would be moving through strategic planning on their own.

Renee Rubin Ross: So, given that, one of the things that came out was the idea that, you know, that throughout the process, if you’re really going to do this in a thoughtful way, it is so helpful, and I’m sure that this has come up so many times on your podcast too: Don’t wait until the end to communicate, right? So every step of the process, if you want to build connection to what’s in your goals and strategies and to your vision along the way, there are opportunities for communication. So that’s really how it came out. How that got included was a question from some of these beta readers around what could we be communicating? And then me thinking, “Oh my gosh, you’re right. Absolutely.” This is something that our clients are doing. So, for example, just for example, you’re about to kick off strategic planning, even for people who aren’t involved, who aren’t going to be builders, maybe you’re not involving all your board members, only some of them. You can still have a conversation with the board and say, “We want to let you know we’re going to be doing strategic planning. Here’s some of the questions we’re going to be working on. We’re going to be talking about funding and facilities, and if you have anything you want to share with us. Some of you will be part of focus groups or interviews, but we also want to hear if you have some thoughts.” In each part of the process from the beginning to the end, there are opportunities… there are lots of keeping you in business.

Farra Trompeter: Thank you so much for that!

Renee Rubin Ross: Lots of opportunities for communication.

Farra Trompeter: No, I appreciate. We often have conversations here on the podcast and certainly with each other and with our clients about the value of bringing communications in throughout a process, but at the beginning and not the end. So thank you for incorporating that. But speaking of the end, toward the end of the book, you do talk about developing internal and external communications about the strategic plan, which of course resonated with me. And at Big Duck, we’ve worked on several projects over the years where we’ve helped organizations frame and roll out their strategic plan to different community groups. We’ve also helped people use the strategic plan to kickstart a major fundraising campaign. And I’m just curious, in the spirit of internal and external communications, what are some tips you have for how organizations might share the strategic plan internally and externally?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah, so, and I love your ideas as well. So starting with external, you know, have a party! Have a party to celebrate the creation of a strategic plan. Post on social media. We just finished with Construction Trades Workforce Initiative. I noticed they did a series of videos that they put on LinkedIn and other places. Each video highlighted one of their strategies. And this is all about, you know, union organizing and workforce development, bringing careers to people who might not have the opportunity to have these careers in construction and other areas. So, website, you know, certainly creating a section of your website where you talk about your strategic plan. I think that, as you are trying to build supporters, people really want to know: What’s this organization working on? I have no idea. You know, I, so the more that you can share and kind of do that storytelling around these goals and strategies, the more powerful it can be. So that was the external piece.

Renee Rubin Ross: And then internally, we have a lot of conversations around how do you shift from something that is on paper to something that becomes part of your work. People use different systems. Sometimes people are using, you know, like Asana, people use RACI. But when we do planning with clients, we do create a one-year implementation plan with quarterly benchmarks so that there’s a sense of what’s going to happen each quarter. There should also be a conversation for the board, right? What is the board implementation plan, and what pieces might the board be responsible for? So, yeah, lots of opportunity, but I think it’s like, again, knowing that–– I say it in the book–– most of the time, if you’ve done a good job, you will have more ideas at the end of planning, because people are inspired. People care about the work.

Renee Rubin Ross: And it kind of goes back to who is responsible. We had a situation where a client came up with a strategic plan, and then the ED was going to be responsible for 12 new projects. And he already had a full-time job, you know, so he pretty much figured out that wasn’t going to work. And then, you know, they had to think about, all right, is there someone else that they could bring on board who would possibly be responsible for some of this? Or does some of what they thought would go into the first year need to be moved into the second year? You know, again, that’s part of–– It’s great to have a vision, it’s great to have ideas, but you also need to do that kind of capacity piece too.

Farra Trompeter: Yeah. And some of the other ways we’ve thought about communications, too, is even just simply the language of the plan. We once had a client we were working with shared with us an 11-slide deck that had 11 different pillars on their strategic plan. Actually, excuse me, I think it was 45 slides, about 11 pillars. And we were just like, “No one’s going to be able to hold this.” And we wound up rewriting it to five pillars, in language that anyone could put their heads around. I think sometimes, you know, I know mission and vision statements are often written in strategic planning processes, and when they’re done kind of in a bubble of a board or a small committee, sometimes it loses the ease of understanding. It starts being very jargony. And so, again, this is another place to bring someone in from a communications perspective to say, “Are we clearly articulating what we want people to understand and take away from this? Or are we making it even harder and therefore not useful?”

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah. And I think it is really interesting, like, who is the audience? Who’s the audience for your plan? You know? And people have had different answers. You know, sometimes it’s like the audience for our plan… And so it depends on the culture of the organization. Our audience is the staff, and we’ve all come together as a group. We’ve built these goals, and now we want, in the document that we create, we’re actually going to create some narrative around the meetings that we had, the conversations, what we learned about what’s going well and what we still need to, you know, put more focus on, and what our vision is. So sometimes it might be the staff, other times it’s like, the audiences are major donors, and we want to hand this to them and foundations who have been asking us for a strategic plan. So kind of like thinking about, “Okay, well, depending on the audience, and maybe there’s a few versions too, what do we need to explain?”

Farra Trompeter: Yeah. Well, I hope this conversation has sparked at least one idea for everyone listening when it comes to your strategic plan. And if you want more, be sure to visit TheRossCollective.com to learn more about inclusive strategic planning and to get the book. Well, Renee, before we go, is there anything else we haven’t talked about that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Renee Rubin Ross: Yeah, I think one of the questions I’m getting these days is, you know, “Wow, we are living in very uncertain times. Can you still do strategic planning?” And first of all, you could look at the matrix, you know, but I’ll say that at any time, it is so important for people to come together and say, “What are the most important conversations for us to have now?” The answer might be “Yes. We need a plan to focus our work, even in this uncertainty, and to stay focused.” And it might be a, you know, a one-year plan, it might be a three-year plan, these kinds of processes and kind of scale up and down. But if you know that you have the capacity, then doing strategic planning can really be valuable to just stay focused on what’s most important to all of us.

Farra Trompeter: Great. Well, thank you for that. And thank you for being here today, and I hope everyone has a planful rest of their day.

Renee Rubin Ross:Alright, thank you.