Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is a management tool, period. As with any management tool, it is used for one purpose only: to help an organization do a better job – to focus its energy, to ensure that members of the organization are working toward the same goals, to assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. In short, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.

This course is aligned to Unit Standard 15219 – “Develop and implement a strategy and action plans for a team, department or division”. It is a NQF level 5 course and carries 4 credits.

Duration: 2 days

Learning Outcomes:

• Developing a strategy for the department/division
• Developing action plans for the department/division
• Implementing action plans
• Reviewing action plans.

Course Outline

Module 1 Introduction and Definitions

1.1 Components of strategy

• Vision
• Mission
• Goals
• Objectives

1.2 Models for developing strategy

• Model One - “Basic” Strategic Planning
• Model Two - Issue-Based (or Goal-Based) Planning
• Model Three - Alignment Model
• Model Four - Scenario Planning
• Model Five - “Organic” (or Self-Organizing) Planning

1.3 Techniques for identifying strengths and weaknesses e.g. SWOT analysis

1.4 Approaches and tools for strategy implementation e.g. Balanced Scorecard

Module 2 Developing a strategy for the department/division/section

2.1 Analysing the strategic plan of the organisation with a view to aligning the operations of the section/department with it.

2.2 Aligning the mission statement of the section/division/department with the mission statement and strategic plan of the organisation.

2.3 Setting clear objectives

2.4 Involving stakeholders on the process

Module 3 Developing action plans for the department/division/section

3.1 Ensuring that the action plans are in accordance with the strategy

3.2 Ensuring that the action plans are complete and include provision for contingencies

3.3 Documenting the action plans to show tasks, responsibilities, timeframes, performance measures and resource needs.

3.4 Including existing organisational tools for implementing strategy in plans.

3.5 Involving stakeholders in the process.

Module 4 Implementing action plans

4.1 Communicating strategy and action plans to the team, department or division.

4.2 Ensuring that implementation matches specified action plans

4.3 Ensuring that implementation makes optimum use of available resources

Module 5 Review action plans

5.1 Conducting reviews of the implementation against departmental/divisional/sectional objectives

5.2 Communicating results to stakeholders throughout the process

5.3 Making amendments to plans if necessary to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of department/division/section

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