Adapt, Accelerate, Release, Add: A Guide to Better End-of-Year Planning for Nonprofits
If you’re working on strategic planning, you might feel overwhelmed by creating a whole new to-do list for your team that will sideline all the tasks already on your plates.
We combat this with our clients by using a framework we call Adapt, Accelerate, Release, Add when we’re working on a strategic plan.
The core concept is that strategic planning is not about starting over or creating a whole new to-do list. Instead, we build upon what is already working (adapt, accelerate). Then, in order to meet our new strategic direction, there may be things we can stop doing (release). Once that’s all sorted, there may be new things to add.
But the main goal? Figure out how our clients’ current daily work fits within their new strategic plan framework.
Upon implementing this framework, our clients express feeling:
A sense of relief
Less overwhelm
Energy and a renewed readiness to get to work
We’ll break down how you can use this approach to avoid burnout as you plan your year ahead.
How to Use “Adapt, Accelerate, Release”
It’s very rare that an organization has goals that require them to start from scratch. More often, their goals reflect many aspects of their current work — but the work needs to evolve as priorities shift.
For the best results, have your strategic goals ready.
First, gather your team for a meeting. Add your biggest activities, priorities, and work projects of the coming year to sticky notes. They can be physical or digital — we love Miro boards for this!
For example, some of the biggest projects at an organization might be:
Restructuring onboarding to be more efficient
Launching an employee resource hub
Increasing major gifts by X%
Planning the annual luncheon
Hosting the annual conference
Next, match your work to each corresponding strategic goal. Note if this is work you will be adapting, accelerating, or releasing.
Adapt
The “Adapt” category is work that you want to continue, but it needs to be adjusted to fit your strategic plan.
Using our example organization, here are some adaptations:
Launching an employee resource hub: The strategic plan calls for more employee engagement. Staff members are asked how they like to receive information first, then a launch plan is developed based on their feedback.
Planning the annual luncheon: The strategic plan calls for renewed focus on storytelling about the business and its impact. In the marketing of the luncheon and at the luncheon itself, client speakers will share success stories to ground folks in impact and real people.
Hosting the annual conference: The strategic plan calls for more focus on corporate sponsors and partnerships. The conference planners will adapt how and who they approach to be sponsors and partners, exploring new ways to ensure mutual benefit.
The current work isn’t tossed in the trash — the conference and luncheon will still happen, and the employee resource hub will be shared. But the how and why have now pivoted to reflect the organization’s strategic goals.
To determine what should be Adapted, ask yourselves:
What is serving us well, but could still benefit from improvements?
What is essential to delivering on our mission, but not in our top 3 priorities?
Accelerate
The “Accelerate” category means you want to add resources or focus in this area. This is now something that has moved up in importance based on your goals.
In our example, the “new employee onboarding” goal may or may not have gotten done this year before this activity. It may not have been the highest priority based on past goals. However, because it will help propel them towards a new strategic goal of higher employee retention rates, it will shift to higher priority.
To determine what should be Accelerated, ask yourselves:
What is going to help us move the most quickly towards our goals?
What needs additional focus based on our goals?
Release
“Release” is just as important as Adapt and Accelerate. This is a category for work that needs to be stopped, either temporarily or permanently. As you work through the sticky note activity, you may uncover differing opinions — and that’s okay. It might prompt some tough but valuable conversations.
To determine what should be Released, ask yourselves:
Does this still fit with our strategic goals?
Is this item still serving us, or are there more effective avenues to focus on?
Is this taking up too many resources (time, money, people, energy) in relation to its effectiveness?
Add
After all of this is done, it’s time to add new action steps that will help you reach your goals. Note: This is only done once all current work has been evaluated for integration into the strategic plan!
Add new work or activities at this step and match the tasks up with the corresponding strategic goal.
And now, you have action steps for your strategic plan!
3 Benefits of This Approach to Strategic Planning
1. Avoid Burnout
We used Adapt, Accelerate, Release, Add with the team at a large public foundation. The team was so relieved when they understood that the strategic plan would include their core work instead of ignoring it.
Their previous plans created a separate to-do list that always felt like an add-on to their already-full plates. The new plan implemented and honored their current workloads.
Your team will be relieved that a host of new tasks aren’t being thrown on their plate. Keeping some core tasks the same while shifting the focus can revive energy instead of expending it.
2. Activate Change by Not Changing a Lot
Sometimes the most powerful change doesn’t come from doing more — it comes from seeing what we already do in a new light. As organizations mature, we often see them shift from measuring activities to measuring outcomes. It’s not always about changing the work, but about changing what we pay attention to.
We’ve seen this propel organizations like the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank forward. In their strategic planning with SWIM, they are shifting their focus from measuring activities to measuring impact. Instead of focusing on pounds of food distributed, they might look at the impact they are having on neighbors who access their services. It’s a reminder that sometimes, a shift in perspective can lead to the biggest steps forward.
3. Streamline Your Focus
Does your organization have a new initiative popping up every week? Are teams constantly brainstorming but rarely executing? Is each team member wearing a lot of hats and feeling like there is too much expected of them?
Adapt, Accelerate, Release, Add can halt the frenetic energy that can accompany goal-setting and help your team resist the urge to add more and more to your plates.
When we helped the Women’s Fund of Omaha with their strategic planning, we were able to link the team’s work to specific goals and strategies. They’re a highly effective team who is capable of juggling multiple priorities well, but we helped them simplify things by writing one word for each goal and for each team. This made carrying out the plan less overwhelming.
Accelerate Your Strategic Planning
We hope this framework is helpful for your team as you sit down (or crowd excitedly around a whiteboard) for your annual planning. Adapt what’s nearly working, accelerate what you want to focus on, and release what’s no longer serving the organization.
We’re cheering you on! If you’d like our help in crafting an ambitious strategic plan that accelerates your organization, schedule a free consultation with SWIM.