The indispensability of planning for small charities and social enterprises
Julian Lomas
“Plans are worthless, but planning is essential”
As with all famous quotes, there is plenty of dispute about exactly what Eisenhower said (another reported version is “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”), but we believe that this old military adage holds true for any organisation making plans for the future.
The essential idea is that the details of a plan designed in advance are often incorrect, but the planning process demands the thorough exploration of options and contingencies and the knowledge gained during the planning process is crucial to the selection of appropriate strategies and actions as events unfold and the context shifts.
Yet for many, particularly smaller, organisations business planning remains a dull chore undertaken because some funder, Trustee or consultant said that the organisation should have a plan. Having seen the weighty tomes that many charities and social enterprises produce as “business plans”, I share this cynicism.
However, while in some very small and simple organisations it may not be necessary to have a planning document, I think that is rarely the case. A good, concise plan can have many uses, particularly as a tool to communicate ideas and strategies to others. It really should be short and focussed. A few pages is usually enough, sometimes with subsidiary plans or appendices to set out more detail such as an operational plan for the next year, financial models or plans and/or a risk register.
The very act of writing down plans will often help order thinking and crystallise ideas in a way that general discussion rarely does, especially for assigning resources to planned activities.
“Fetch me a pen, I need to think”
Another reason for planning is that it’s a great way to build a shared sense of purpose and understanding of strategy amongst Trustees/Directors and staff/volunteers (and possibly others). In our view, shared ownership of strategy and direction are the point of a plan and, therefore, the process of preparing a plan is often far more important than producing a pretty, glossy document at the end of that process.
If you involve the right people in an engaging way when developing your plans, they will understand what you want to do. More importantly they will understand why you want to do it. If they feel ownership of the plan, they are very likely to work harder to achieve it, even if they don’t necessarily agree with everything you want to do.
We realise this sounds resource intensive but, depending on the complexity of your organisation and context, it could be as simple as having half a day away together to talk through ideas. At the other end of the spectrum, you could take weeks working with a facilitator to gather individual views, identify key strategic options and work through them in a series of well structured and engaging workshops or away days. All shades of grey between these approaches are possible and only you will know what is right for your organisation. Just don’t let “we’re too busy to plan” become your excuse. This will only cost you time and resource later because you and your colleagues won’t have the shared purpose and understanding that will help you deliver more effectively and efficiently.
It can also be helpful to develop a culture of continuous planning within an organisation, such that continuous dialogue and discussion about ideas and plans plan becomes “how we do things round here”. A culture that encourages informal discussion of plans, objectives, resources etc (as well as formal settings like team meetings, Board meetings or individual appraisals), will make it an easy job for someone to write a plan.
Our advice is to think of planning as a process not a product and embed continuous planning in the culture of your organisation.
You can read more about the support we offer for business planning or contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to discuss further how we could help your organisation plan for the future without it becoming a chore.