At SWIM, we create strategic plans for more than a dozen organizations per year in the anti-hunger, health care, higher education, economic well-being, and philanthropy sectors. We deliver customized strategic plans for organizations based on the moment they’re facing.

Each unique plan is based on our foundational approach to strategic planning, with three phases of opening and closing. During each phase, we ask: Are we opening up new ideas or are we narrowing the number of decisions we need to move forward?

P.S.: If you have 3 minutes to spare, watch this blog post in video format.

Phase 1

In Phase 1, we’re discovering the context of what your organization is walking into as a plan. This often includes surveying the board, staff, and stakeholders. We do market research and study relevant data to understand your world. Then, we narrow in and refine the planning process based on that context.

Phase 2

In the next phase, we’re thinking about the future: Who is your organization, and who do you want to be? What are the identities and directions you can take that will move your vision forward?

We want to open up ideas of:

Who you might be in the future
How you might change
How you might adapt and accelerate the things that you’re already doing

Then we make a choice: What are the things we're going to move forward because we agree that they will set a clear vision and strategy for your organization?

Phase 3

Phase 3 asks: What do we do now? How do we explore all the implications of our vision and strategy?

We think about all the ways your team could carry your vision out, then choose and prioritize a few.

An Adaptable Process

While this is a pretty firm philosophy, we know that differences in organizations change the context of this plan.

To understand your unique situation, we discuss scenarios like:

“When I imagine 7 years in the future, I think our organization will have experienced…”

And then we place a marker along a spectrum from:

Incremental organizational improvements on one end to a complete organizational reboot on the other.

If your marker is closer to “Incremental organizational improvements,” we might not need to do a lot around resetting a vision, mission, strategy, and goals (phase 2). We might want to adapt and change what we’re already doing to get to agreement on a vision and mission, then spend more time in phase 3: exploring implications and choosing priorities and investment.

On the other hand, if you’re hoping for a complete reboot because of your current environment, we might spend extra time understanding your context (phase 1) and thinking about what we need to research in the outside world that might change who you are as an organization. Phases 1 and 2 might take longer.

“Having a game plan ahead of time was reassuring for us and our board. The structure, along with the flexibility to adapt, made it feel like this was truly a process for us, with us.”
— Sarah Helleso, Director, Try Pie Bakery

Strategic Planning Example

Here’s an example of what these phases might look like in practice.

On phase 1, you’ll see:

Discover context: Onboard consultant, engage with the steering committee and staff, review internal data, external scan, field research
Refining process: Prioritize issues and process with the steering committee

Phase 2 contains:

Exploring identity & direction: Multiple stakeholder engagements, feedback loop with stakeholders, steering committee sifts insights
Choosing identity & direction: Board retreat, plan drafted and affirmed

And Phase 3 features:

Exploring implications: Explore metrics, align policies with new plan, feedback loop with stakeholders
Choosing priorities and investments: Staff development tactics, timeline and resources, implementation plan launch

When we dive into a plan, these sticky notes will change based on the unique needs of each client. We start with a firm philosophy but are willing to change and iterate based on the organization's strengths and where the environment around them is moving them to go.

Start on Your Strategic Plan

You can count on SWIM to deliver a customized process for your organization and the moment you’re facing. Schedule a time to connect with us today.

SWIM's Approach to Strategic Planning