I was recently talking to an organizational Executive Director who’s thinking about a strategic planning process.
He wants the planning process to get his board more engaged.
But he doesn’t think the board will take time to participate in a real planning retreat.
This becomes a bit of a chicken and egg problem — if they won’t participate fully in a robust process, how do you get an outcome that increases their engagement?
I wish I had a simple answer.
One technique is to “trick” them into greater engagement by engaging them one on one with a consultant. And then have the consultant fold them into additional conversations culminating in a short, but productive retreat.
In the end, though, no trick can replace leadership — either from the Executive Director, a board chair, or some other board champion who can rally board members to participate in a planning process.
Short of that, I worry about organizations that go through the motions of planning, without a real investment, and then expect a transformation in the organization.
More realistically, a strategic planning process that lacks serious board engagement can still be valuable as a tool for an Executive Director to get some real planning done, with buy-in from the board. But buy-in and engagement are not the same.