By: Lauren Bissler

Project 4: Strategic Planning

Its important to have a clear vision or goal that we want to achieve within the future and having specific objectives is important to help us deliver our vision or goal. However, what many businesses, companies, and people lack is a strategic plan. In order to create and implement a strategic plan, we first need to know, What is a strategic plan? There are several different models and processes that people implement, however the concept remains the same. As defined by the Management Library, Strategic planning helps determine where a business or organization is going over a specific time period, how they are going to get to their destination, and how they will determine whether or not they got there (Management Library). When does a company and organizer implement a strategic plan into their business? Strategic plans are created when the organization is continuously changing which a plan many be created and carried out a few times a year, or when an organization is just getting started, with reviews and updates quarterly. In order for a planned change to be implemented and be successful, it must be built on a foundation of a strategic planning model which will initiate the planning activities. The initiation phase is the key to the desired change and outcome (Planning change, 2009). Strategic planning overlaps and relates to our first discussion topic of What Does it Mean to Manage Change? within chapter one and two by discussing the process model of how to begin and implement a plan when changing and/or creating a business, company, organization, or introducing new technology into a program. Over time, many companies and school districts will change the way they operate in order to become more effective. But in order to effectively and efficiently manage this change, its important to create a strategic plan that can help them successfully make that change. Within the text, it discusses that success is determined by measuring the performance against the goals and objectives that are stated in the strategic plan. (Haddad, 2002). Within chapter three, it talks about the important of a pilot group to help debug problems prior to fully implementing the changes into the organization. In addition, its important to have cross-functional teams which consist of a variety of member across several departments to help make decisions based on what is best for each group, rather than obtaining input from one specific group (Haddad, 2002). The comic strip below of Dilbert relates to the importance of cross-functional teams when making decisions.

Strategic planning is a process of developing a goal-orientation, step-by, step process that must be aligned and support the organizations missions and objectives as stated in the text Managing Technological Change (Haddad, 2002). As you can see, strategic planning relates to this course, because in order to identify and manage the advancements of technology over time, its important to follow the necessary steps in the planning model and evaluation to successfully achieve an overall goal. There are many steps when creating a strategic plan as outlined in the graphic organizer below.

Steps of a Strategic Planning Model

1. Environmental Scan -External and Internal Scan -SWOT:
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

-SCOT:
(Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Threats)

2. Mission and Values -Continuous development and revisions. -How an organization views itself. -Whats the organizations purpose? -How does the organization operate?

3. Goals, Objectives, and Strategies -To achieve the mission statement, specific goals, objectives, and strategies are created and implemented.

6. Action Plan with Timetable & Milestones -Put their plan into motion with a specific time frame and achievable milestones.

5. Modernization Readiness Assessment -Determine the organizations readiness in three parts. 1 surveys 2. questionnaires 3. interviews

4. Determine Needed Technology -Is technology needed to advance the organizations strategy and meet their goals?

In order to fully understand the strategic planning process, you need to have a foundation and knowledge of the steps of strategic planning. I have provided visual aid resources of videos that I found on the internet that relate to the strategic planning process that will help make connections and explain the material and information. It should help provide a new perspective to the information aside from what is presented within the textbook. The first step in the strategic plan process is Environmental Scan which determines the -SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats or the SCOT: Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats. In the link provided, is a one minute YouTube video clip that summarizes SWOT in a business which helps connect the reading from Managing Technological Changes to this video. Link:

Strategic Planning-SWOT. Or you can copy and paste the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH1EljfXp-0 The second step is the Mission and Values which should answer the questions of Whats the purpose of the organization or why does it exist? Its important to not only know what a mission statement is and why an organization should develop and be continuously making necessary revisions, but how to write a mission statement. According to the website, My Strategic Plan a mission statement describes your organizations purpose for existence. Some mission statements will include what the organization does and others may explain what it will produce and provide to the consumers (m3 Planning, 2012). By identifying the components necessary to write a mission will help make connections to the importance of having a mission statement for an organization, which is why I provided a short, four minute video clip of How to Write a Mission Statement. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtyCt83JLNY The third step in the strategic planning process is Goals, Objectives, and Strategies which refers to how to achieve the mission statement. Within the text, it discusses that success is determined by measuring the performance against the goals and objectives that are stated in the strategic plan. (Haddad 2002). I have provided a couple of images that relate to this step and meeting the overall goal of the mission statement.

The fourth step is Determine Needed Technology which makes decisions based on the need of technology in order to meet the plans goals. Whereas the fifth step of the strategic planning process is Modernization Readiness Assessment, which relies on different parts: a survey, a questionnaire, and individual interviews. All will help guide the process of change within the organization. I have provided a photograph of a group of soldiers working together to achieve a common goal and soldiers also have to be ready for anything at any given time, which relates to this step since it takes more than one person to effectively make a change.

The last step in the strategic planning process is an Action Plan with Timetable and Milestones which implements the plan that was created within a specific time frame to achieve the goals and objectives. Its important when reading about strategic planning that the life cycle of technology will advance through many developments from strategic assessment, to planning, then moving into implementation, and finally evaluation. The primary model of this concept is known as STS (sociotechnical systems) which tries to improve and enhance the relationship between technical and social systems through the participating of companies and/or organizations of employees in a work analysis and design (Haddad, 2012). I have provided a list of key terminology that is important to know to help you understand and make connections to the readings, text, and information about strategic planning. 1. SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. 2. SCOT: Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats. 3. Cross-Functional Teams- consists of workers from a variety of departments to help make decisions to optimize the performance of the organization. 4. Systems Integration- relationship that is meant to occur as two codependent systems that work together. 5. STS (Sociatechnical Systems Theory)- explains the benefits of a cooperative approach to change. It also refers to the way work is organized, structured, and managed. It focuses on the work systems rather than the individual job. 6. Lean Production-short production cycle, reduced inventory, and work teams in attain a high level of efficiency and quality, which is a Japanese system.

References Text:
Haddad, C. (2002). Managing technological change. Sage Publications, Inc. Management Library. (n.d.). All about strategic planning. Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/strategicplanning/index.htm Planning to change: Strategic planning and comprehensive school reform. (2009). Retrieved from https://learn.kent.edu/bbcswebdav/internal/courses/14682_14688.201310/wikis/course/e7 c7d8a10d46498d80bd643128fdd627/fb56ba1a745d491bb47288b7a618bc0b/rutherford_p lanning.pdf

Images:
Dilbert Comic Strip. Retrieved from: http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Strategic%20Planning Strategic Planning Goals. Retrieved from: http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/2861?e=cadden_1.0-ch07_s02 Strategic Planning Major Components. Retrieved from: http://21stcenturylibrary.com/2010/06/24/21st-century-library-strategies/ U.S. Readiness. Retrieved from: http://www.defensestudies.org/page/3/?s=Tom+Donnelly

Videos:
How to Write a Mission Statement . Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtyCt83JLNY Strategic Planning: SWOT analysis in 1 minute. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH1EljfXp-0