The Staff’s Role in Nonprofit Strategic Planning

Most nonprofit leaders know staff should be involved in strategic planning. Far fewer can say what "involved" means: which staff, at which points, deciding what — and how their expertise should be weighed against board and beneficiary input. In this episode of Changemaker Conversations, Alyssa Conrardy and Lindsay Mullen pick up where last month's board episode left off. They dig into what staff should own, what they shouldn't, who "staff" actually means when you're building a planning committee, and why the closest people to the work still aren't a substitute for the voices of the communities you serve. Here's what you'll learn in this episode: Why plans built by boards alone fail at implementation, even when the strategy itself is sound The four problems that surface when staff receive a plan they didn't help build, including the one that has nothing to do with disagreement What to do when a board says it can't speak transparently with staff in the room (hint: it isn't a strategic planning problem) How to size and staff a cross-functional planning committee, and how everyone not on it should still be engaged Why staff can't serve as a proxy for the people your organization serves, and how Shared Power™ strategic planning keeps institutional position from deciding whose voice counts | MENTIONED | Episode 17: The Board’s Role in Nonprofit Strategic Planning Episode 15: What Does a Facilitator Actually Do in Nonprofit Strategic Planning? Episode 8: The Four Roles That Make—or Break—Your Strategic Planning Process Prosper Strategies’ Strategic Planning Services | CONNECT | ChangemakerConversations.com for show notes and additional resources Prosper-Strategies.com to learn more about our strategic consulting practice Hello@ChangemakerConversations.com with topic suggestions, guest recommendations or questions On LinkedIn with Alyssa Conrardy, Lindsay Mullen and Prosper Strategies