Part 1: Getting Started
The Strategic Planning Process
Conducting awareness campaigns “strategically” means
applying the standard strategic
planning
process to the planning and execution of your activities to raise
public awareness of literacy.
There are four basic
steps in the strategic planning process. In
simple terms, these are:
Where are
we now?
Where do we want to be?
How will we get there?
How did we do?
In the initial phase of the process,
all relevant information is gathered and analyzed to produce a short
list of Key Issues. These are the most critical factors affecting
public awareness of literacy and they become your focus for the rest of
the
plan. By clearly establishing the Key Issues upfront and relating all
subsequent activity back to them, your completed plan will concentrate
your resources and energy where they are most needed for success.
The
plan itself has five
sections, as outlined below. These
correspond to the four steps of the process, plus an overview which
establishes
the fundamental ground rules for how your organization will operate.
The
challenge lies not in understanding the strategic process, which is
fairly simple, but in
having the
discipline to apply it initially, and then to adhere to it so
that
new learning can be identified for future benefit. (To
access further details, templates to
create your own plan, or examples from actual plans, click on the links
below.)
A. Strategic
Overview
The Strategic
Overview section establishes “the big picture” of how your organization
will conduct
itself in raising public awareness of literacy issues.
This overview is consistent with your organization’s values,
vision,
philosophy, and operating procedures,
and it provides
guidance (i.e., “sets policy”) for the eventual selection and execution
of
Tactics. It is important to appreciate the
difference between
“strategy” and
“tactics”. Because tactics are short-term initiatives designed to
address the
current
situation, they change as conditions change. Strategy,
however, states the fundamental philosophy of
how your
organization will conduct public relations and, once established,
rarely (if
ever) changes. When tactics are consistent with strategy, your
organization’s philosophy
and values are translated into action. The Strategic
Overview sets the stage for this.
B. Situational
Analysis
This section contains
all information relevant to public awareness of literacy. It
starts with a review of external and internal conditions. This could include external information
such as demographic data and trends (such as the level of literacy
awareness
itself), the activities of other literacy
organizations, or government policy, and internal factors such as
facilities, funding, and
staffing. This section incorporates the key learning you have gained
from your
experience, and ultimately results in a concise list of Key Issues,
which become the focus for the remainder of your plan. Because
it is
documented, important knowledge
gained through experience will continue to benefit your organization
after changes in key
personnel. Although Situational
Analysis can include any relevant information, the standard
components are Review of Operating
Conditions, SWOT Analysis, and Lessons Learned, which lead to Key Issues. Identification of the Key
Issues
is a
critical turning point in the strategic planning process.
Defined loosely as what
stands between
you and success, the Key Issues lead directly to the setting of
Objectives
for the coming year, and then to the tactical initiatives that will be
carried
out to reach those Objectives.
C. Objectives
Once the Key
Issues have been identified, specific targets are set for each one. In some cases, a Key Issue can be addressed
completely by activities carried out in the course of a single plan. In
other cases, however, several
steps
are necessary over many years before a Key Issue is no longer “key”. Having
attainable
intermediate Objectives allows for periodic success while
you continue to work toward your ultimate goal. Objectives
must be realistic, precise, and measurable so
that it is clear what is expected
and so that after the fact there is no debate as to whether or not a
particular
Objective was accomplished. (However, that there
could still be plenty of debate and valid
reasons
as to why an Objective was not achieved!)
D. Tactics
Tactics are the
specific initiatives conducted to achieve the
Objectives, thus
ultimately addressing the Key Issues. It
is
this direct linkage back to what is standing between you and success
that
ensures your resources will be deployed optimally. Often,
more than one Tactic is necessary to
achieve a particular Objective, but it is also common for a major
tactical
initiative such as a Public Service Announcement or an event to address
more than one Key Issue. The completed
Strategic Public Awareness Plan will detail a series of Tactics
that,
in total, will address every Key Issue with enough combined activity to
achieve
the Objectives.
E.
Assessment
The initial step
in assessing results is a simple “yes/no” determination
of
whether or not the Objectives have been achieved. From
there, a more subjective discussion may
ensue as to “why” or “why not” certain Objectives were achieved. Reasons will fall into two broad categories:
those within your control, and those you could do nothing about. The goal of assessment is not to make
excuses, to place blame, or to find a scapegoat, but to understand what
has
occurred
and how to do better in the future. All
significant new learning, whether positive or negative, is incorporated
into
the Lessons Learned portion of future plans, and thus your
organization learns from its experience and consistently improves
from plan to plan.
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