Planning
The informal milestones are often the ones that confirm an emerging plan is on track.
A partner imagines a creative new strategy to pursue a redefined goal. They articulate new, slam-dunk answers to an investor or a donor’s tough questions. They envision new ways to fortify their team’s connection to its shared calling.
Effective planning illuminates unseen opportunities.
And long before these insights spark, the process that elicits them is shaped by the factors that define your work – your vision, mission, expertise, team, decision-making structure, strengths, needs, culture, and more.
Inquiry, dialog, and close, attentive listening propel this work from start to finish.
When it’s created in a process that’s consciously tailored from the outset to meet a leader, an organization, or a business’s unique needs, a thoughtful plan cultivates victories that make a difference.
Q: What’s this work?
A: Supporting partners who want to hone their day-to-day work to sharpen their long-term results.
With some partners, we carefully articulate vision, mission, values, and goals. With others we build a detailed business plan, a strategic plan, an operational plan, or other custom tools that meet a partner’s unique needs.
Q: Who’s it for?
A: For leaders, businesses, community institutions, and teams who’d like to clarify where they’re going and how they’re getting there. My partners often initiate this work to hone results, support fundraising, attract investors, and professionalize operations.
Q: How does it happen?
A: We outline a process that’s informed by the defining aspects of your work, including your vision, mission, niche, revenue model, team, culture, and decision-making structure.
I learn about what you do and how you do it. We clarify what the ideal plan will accomplish for you. We explore and, if helpful, hone your version of success. This guides our approach to everything that follows.
For some partners the next steps include: refining vision and mission; clarifying outcomes and strategies; identifying needs and gaps; articulating objectives and key results; assigning accountability; creating timelines; and building mechanisms to monitor and evaluate progress. Others need a less formal structure that functions as a touchstone and keeps an effort on track.
In every planning project, we build unique tools to support a partner’s pursuit of their singular vision.
Q: What’s it done for your partners?
A: Effective planning brings discipline, thought, rigor, and clarity to any work. It has helped my partners:
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Articulate an inspiring vision and mission
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Clarify and achieve goals
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Attract supporters, clients, donors, and investors
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Select priorities
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Support, manage, and evaluate projects
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Evaluate opportunities
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Strengthen leadership
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Build and retain first-rate teams and equip them to deliver
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Collect valuable perspectives from internal teams and external partners
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Address challenges and fill gaps
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Develop strong brands and effective websites
Q: But my work is art, not business. . .
A: No doubt: they’re different and need to be planned differently. I don't recommend the same approach to planning for artists and businesses (or even for different partners who work in the same field). The successful version of this work is unique for each partner.
And creators do share at least one trait with business and nonprofit leaders: they benefit when they set aside a defined space explicitly to think about their work with rigor, depth, and an eye on the future.