REPORT ON THE STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP

HELD BETWEEN 16TH JULY – 2ND AUGUST, 2008

FOR FUTURE FOR ALL FOUNDATION (FFAF)
ACCRA, GHANA

PRESENTATION BY

AUBERON JELEEL ODOOM

Tel: +233 (0) 20 815 1523 /

+233 (0) 24 238 1376
E-mail: jeleel55@yahoo.com
OCTOBER 2008
INTRODUCTION
 Many organizations spend most of their time
reacting to unexpected changes instead of
anticipating and preparing for them. This is called
crisis management
 Organizations caught off guard may spend a
great deal of time and energy "playing catch up".
They use up their energy coping with immediate
problems with little energy left to anticipate and
prepare for the next challenges. This vicious cycle
locks many organizations into a reactive posture

 An alternative is a well tested process called

strategic planning (SP) which provides a viable
alternative to crisis management
 SP is a step by step process with definite
objectives and end products that can be
implemented and evaluated. It charts a definite
course based on strong indicators of what the
business environment will be like in those years.

 Without SP, an organisation will never know

where it is going—much less know if it ever got
there. SP has taken on new importance in today’s
world of globalization, deregulation, advancing
technology, and changing demographics, and
lifestyles.

 This report presentation will give you an insight

into how a strategic planning process was
undertaken for Future for All Foundation (FFAF) to
develop a three year workable strategic plan.
BACKGROUND OF FFAF
 Incorporated in November 2007 as an NGO

 Committed to develop and build the needed

capacity for the under privileged, street
children and non-literates who have the talent
to be professional footballers but lack the
requisite support in terms of basic formal
education and logistical support

 FFAF believes that football can be one sure

way of reducing poverty levels in communities
once everybody playing football is given the
opportunity without the need to feel indebted
and be manipulated by particular individuals
Has an office located in Odorkor
with staff strength of 6 persons

It is governed by a 5 member board

with the assistance of 18 dedicated
volunteers of diverse professional
backgrounds
 ORGANOGRAM

Management
Board

Executive
Director
Volunteers

Business
Finance Manager Program Officers
Manager

Finance
Fundraiser
Assistant

Support Staff
PROBLEM STATEMENT
 Success in today’s business environment
requires that an organisation's leaders have the
ability to create a vision of the organization's
future direction as well as the course it needs to
get there.

 While various Capacity Building Programs such

as NGO management, Proposal Writing, Project
monitoring and evaluation etc are often extremely
beneficial to the ongoing progress of an NGO,
correct Strategic focus seems to remain the single
most important element in an NGO's success.
 When FFAF was first established, Vision,
Mission, Long-Term goals, Strategic objectives,
and scope by way of a “strategic intent” and
the various activities, outputs, inputs by way
of “action planning and execution” were
never explicitly agreed, adopted and
documented by its Directors. Strategic
planning is one of the integral steps in fulfilling
this.

 It is in this vein that we conducted the

workshop to help them develop a Strategic
Plan.

 Worth noting is the fact that this workshop has

not been undertaken at FFAF in the past.
 OBJECTIVE
The workshop was aimed at
facilitating the directors, volunteers
and staff of Future for All Foundation
to develop a workable Strategic Plan
LITERATURE REVIEW
What is a Strategy?

The word “strategy” has been in use since Sun

Tzu wrote the Art of War in the fourth century
(Sun Tzu 1971) and stated that:

“Know the enemy and know yourself, in a

hundred battles you will never be defeated.
When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know
yourself, your chances of winning or losing are
equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and
yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every
battle”.
The Concept of Strategy in Business

The many definitions of strategy found in the

management literature fall into one of four
categories:

 A plan, a "how," a means of getting from here to

there.
 A pattern in actions over time; for example, a
company that regularly markets very expensive
products is using a "high end" strategy.
 A position, thus, it reflects decisions to offer
particular products or services in particular
markets
 A perspective, thus, a vision and direction, a
view of what the company or organization is to
become
Strategy Definitions :
Strategy According to George Steiner

Strategy According to Michael Porter (1996)

Strategy According to Gerry Johnson and

Kevan Scholes

Strategy According to Jack Welch

Strategy According to Mintzberg and Quinn

(1996:3)

Strategy According to D’Aveni (1994)

Strategy According to Brown and Eisenhardt

(1998:4)
 What is Planning?

Planning is defined differently as:

‘‘A design of desired future and effective ways of bringing it about’’.
(Ackoff)

‘‘A systematic attempt to increase the rate of profitable growth of an

entity in the long run’’. (Perrin)

‘‘The formal process of developing objectives for an organization and

its component parts, evolving alternative strategies to achieve these
objectives and in doing this against a background of a systematic
appraisal of internal strengths and weaknesses and external
environmental changes’’. (Irving)

A process that:-
•involves defining goals
•establishing a strategy to achieving the goals
•establishing a set of activities to achieve the strategies
 What is a Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning (SP) is long-range planning of an

organisation’s “strategic intent” and its execution.
John Bryson (1995) defines Strategic Planning as an
orderly process for envisioning an organization’s
desired future, and determining the required actions
to attain that future.

It can therefore be said to be a systematic planning

process involving a number of steps that identify the
vision, mission, values, broad objectives,
competitive environment, key issues, strategy
scenarios, strategic objectives, activities, outputs,
inputs, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The central idea of SP is to provide a way
to reach a goal through adequate
preparation and a strong vision of how the
future will appear. SP takes into account
the factors which will have significant
impact on the organisation’s success and
failures.
Strategic Planning Models

There are a variety of perspectives, models and

approaches used in SP, however there is no one
perfect model or approach for each organisation.
The way that a strategic plan is developed depends
on the nature of the organization's leadership,
culture of the organization, complexity of the
organization's environment, size of the organization,
expertise of planners, etc.

The following models provide a range of alternatives

from which organizations might select an approach
and begin to develop their own SP process:
Model 1: OCIC Strategic Planning Model

Model 2: “Basic” Strategic Planning

Model 3: Issue-Based (or Goal-Based) Planning

Model 4: Alignment Model

Model 5: Scenario Planning

Model 6: “Organic” (or Self-Organizing) Planning

What is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan is the blueprint used to operate a

business that is envisioned in the mission statement and
broadly defined by the objectives developed as a result
of the environmental scan. A road map of making sure
that an organisation is able to have not only a
“strategic fit” within the environment in which they
operate but obtain a “strategic stretch” by gaining a
competitive edge over the competition

The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire

organization and some plans are scoped to one year,
many to three years, and some to five to ten years into
the future.
 Components of a Strategic Plan?

Vision Statement
Mission Statement
Values
Long -Term Goals
Environmental Scanning
Key Issues
Strategy Formulation
Strategic Obj., Output and Activities
Resource Inventory
Implementation Plan
Monitoring & Evaluation
WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY,
DISCUSSIONS & RESULTS
 Date & Venue
The workshop was held over a 6-day period, 19th,
24th, 25th, 26th July, and 1st - 2nd August, 2008
(9.00am to 4:00pm each day) at a beach house
resort of one of the board members.

Population Size
Future for All Foundation is made up of 5 directors,
6 Staff members and about 18 volunteers.

Sample Size
A total of 5 volunteers, 3 directors and 4 Staff
members were used for the planning workshop.
 SP Model Used

The OCIC Strategic Planning Model was used for the

Workshop. Since Organisational Assessment and
Dynamics Team Building interventions have not
been undertaken for FFAF before, we found it
prudent to undertake some team building activities
to open up lines of communication before
embarking on the main strategic planning process.
The purpose of the Team Building Activities was to
get participants to feel relaxed, communicate and
interact and to be able to contribute effectively.
 DAY ONE
TEAM BUILDING / COHESIVENESS ACTIVITIES
Welcome Address
The ED gave a welcome and introductory
address, stating the broad objectives of
the workshop and that it was to let FFAF
develop its own strategic plan that was
workable with inputs from everybody
The following team building activities was undertaken
the First day:

 SELF INTRODUCTION / ADJECTIVAL NAMES

Objective: To know each other beyond names and getting
adjectives that will describe them and rhyme
with their names.

 ANIMAL LIKENESS (CHARACTER SYMBOLISM)

Objective: To get members know more about themselves

 CASH REGISTER EXERCISE

Objective:
 To get community to appreciate diversity of views.
 To let team know that we have been working with assumptions

 ROMANCE IN THE VILLAGE (DAVID AND MARIA STORY)

Objective: Introduce community to values system and its
influence on decision making
TEAM COHESIVENESS EXERCISES-Cont’d
 GROUND RULES
Objective: To establish a set of ground rules for
Planning team

 CAVE RESCUE EXERCISE

Objective: To test the situational decision making styles and
how FFAF function as a unit.
OUTCOMES / OBSERVATIONS OF
TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES

The exercises opened up lines of communication with the

awareness of the need to understand and appreciate that
members are different but such diversity can work in favour of
the organisation once people open up to each other and work as
a team

Generally good to know and understand that assumptions may be

wrong; need to pay attention to details; need to seek
clarification if necessary.

These exercises seem to have put together a cohesive group

ready to share and open up to work together in the strategic
planning process.
 DAY TWO
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP START
INTRODUCTION
Purpose: To help participants gain an understanding of
strategic planning and why they need to do one for
their organisation.

Methodology

CRAFTING THE VISION STATEMENT

Purpose: To develop a strategic vision for FFAF. This is to
attempt to describe the ideal state of FFAF in the
future and to provide a sense of direction and
inspiration for their goal setting. The vision
statement would be what they hope for and what
they want to be.

Methodology
CRAFTING A MISSION STATEMENT
Purpose: To develop a “mission statement” for FFAF by
attempting to get FFAF to determine who they are,
what they do, what their target group is and how
they intend to meet their needs. The general
purpose of the organisation (Why they exist).

Methodology

DEVELOPING VALUE STATEMENTS

Purpose: To develop a set of core values for which FFAF will

uphold as the right way to conduct their business. An
attempt to carve a yardstick for measuring their
behaviour or actions both internally and externally.

Methodology
DEVELOPING LONG TERM OBJECTIVES
Purpose: To develop broad statements of intent as informed
by the mission statement of FFAF. A set of long-
term objectives that should be able to achieve the
mission statement.

Methodology
DAY THREE
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
Purpose: To establish the internal strengths and weaknesses of
the organisation as well as the external factors that

brings both opportunities and threats.

Methodology

DEVELOPING KEY ISSUES

Purpose: To identify 4 key issues that if not considered by
FFAF could either go against their very existence
as an organisation or if considered could give

them a competitive edge.

Methodology
 STRATEGY FORMULATION

Purpose: To develop various strategic scenarios from FFAF’s

SWOT analysis in an attempt to:

 Exploit environmental opportunities by using their

strength to take advantage of the opportunity out there.
 Defend against environmental threats by capitalizing on
their strength to reduce vulnerability of the threats
 Correct organizational shortcomings by remedying existing
weakness in order to take advantage of the opportunity
 Cut losses in the face of threat that can not be overcome
by retrenching inside the environment.

Methodology
DAY FOUR
 CRAFTING STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Purpose: To develop objectives from the strategies adopted

from the “strategy formulation exercise” which
must address the key issues critical to the survival
of FFAF. Unlike the “long-term objectives” which
are broad in nature, these must be SMART
meaning:

 Specific
 Measurable
 Attainable
 Realistic
 Time bound

Methodology
 CRAFTING OUTPUTS FROM STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
Purpose: To formulate what needs to be delivered to get the
strategic objectives achieved by way of milestones.
The deliverables by way of output which must be
stated in past tense as if they had already been
achieved will need to follow chronologically and be
“SMART”

Methodology

DEVELOPING ACTIVITIES FROM OUTPUTS

Purpose: To formulate detailed activities that need to be
undertaken for outputs to be achieved. The activities
which must be stated in present tense will need to
follow chronologically and be SMART

Methodology
DAY FIVE
CRAFTING SUMMARY OF INPUTS FROM ACTIVITIES

Purpose: To put together a complete list of the required

resources needed by way of a budget for the
activities to be undertaken.

Methodology

RESOURCE INVENTORY

Purpose: To show or identify where the resource as

indicated in the listed inputs will be funded from
thus either “internal” or “external”.

Methodology
DAY SIX
CRAFTING AN IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Purpose: To put in place an implementation plan for each

activity detailing milestones, timeframes,
responsibility, funding and assumptions that will aid
in tracking by way of monitoring

Methodology

DEVELOPING A MONITORING AND EVALUATION PLAN

Purpose: To put in place a monitoring and evaluation tool

that when combined with the Gantt chart will help
FFAF in tracking the activities by way of objectively
verifiable indicators, means of verification and
timeframes.

Methodology
 CLOSING
We gave explanation on three major keys to successful
implementation of the strategic plan as being:
 Commitment
There must be a commitment to implementing the strategies
recommended by the strategic planning team
 Credibility
There should be nothing exclusive or secret about the strategic
plan so it should be open to all for review
 Communication
There is the need to assure each person that although he or she
may not be on the planning team, everyone can have input and
evaluate the recommendations. It is up to the staff and team to
determine how to fulfill each objective.
 Evaluation of Workshop
Finally, an evaluation form was given for their feedback.

 Overall, the workshop was successful in

achieving its objective of producing a
strategic plan.
 Final evaluation of the workshop reflects
participants’ encouraging impressions.
 Participants were enthusiastic throughout
the workshop and their keen interest helped
a great deal in making it fruitful though it
was tasking on both facilitators and
participants
 LIMITATIONS
 The access organisation chosen for the workshop was different
from what was used for the organisation assessment and dynamics
team building interventions since the previous access organisation
could not make available its staff for a 5 day period.

 Working in a new organisation meant the need to have a

cohesive group and getting to know each other which increased
the challenge of the time needed to undertake the exercise. It
had to be increased to 6 days and broken into segments since it
was not possible on the path of both the facilitators and
participants to have a 6 days continuous workshop taking into
consideration the busy work schedules.

 Working with a Non-Governmental Organisation with no

planned budget for such a workshop meant it had to be
co-sponsored by the facilitators.
CONCLUSIONS
The strategic planning workshop resulted in
the production of a formal workable strategic
plan. The workshop helped participants in
identifying how their business can realistically
secure opportunities given the organisation's
environment and existing resources. They
understood it was worth the time they spent
in identifying how to best position their
organisation to meet existing resource
demands to allow the organisation to succeed
and grow
Thank You
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