“Fear and discomfort are an essential part of strategy making. In fact, if you are entirely comfortable with your strategy, there’s a strong chance it isn’t very good… You need to be uncomfortable and apprehensive: True strategy is about placing bets and making hard choices. The objective is not to eliminate risk but to increase the odds of success."
In his article, The Big Lie of Strategic Planning, Roger L. Martin argues that for-profit companies tend to stay within their comfort zone and veer toward “planning” (predicting, managing, and controlling) instead of toward “strategic choices” (confronting uncertainty and shaping the future by deciding what to do and not to do).
We also see this comfort zone syndrome with many association strategic planning endeavors. Executives and boards are often risk-averse and prefer to reiterate the status quo. But for those willing to get uncomfortable and make hard choices, strategic planning that is revolutionary, not just evolutionary, can unlock new opportunities and increase the odds of success.
Leaders of associations contemplating the revolutionary route with strategic planning should ask two questions. First, what might those big changes and opportunities look like? And second, why consider them in the context of strategic planning?
Opportunities can span a spectrum:
The key to identifying opportunities is strategic agility and responsiveness to market needs and trends.
And why does strategic planning provide the ideal foundation for introducing and embedding these new opportunities?
McKinley’s strategic planning facilitation, with hundreds of associations of all sizes, points to four reasons that we have outlined below.
Board members are intent on protecting and advancing the association’s mission and vision with a members-first lens. Great care is taken during the strategic planning process to align initiatives to those core defining elements. So when new opportunities are discussed during this process, it becomes imperative to demonstrate how they align with the association’s core purpose and why they make sense to pursue.
Embedding new opportunities in the strategic plan also ensures that these initiatives are lifted up and on the radar of all key stakeholders. The new initiatives are less likely to be backburned as leaders are held accountable to the stated objectives and key results.
Association Spotlight: The Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (AOPT) worked with McKinley to develop their strategic plan, where “Payment and Value” (increasing provider payment through influential legislative and advocacy efforts) was identified as a strategic driver.
As a result, AOPT invested in their partnership with the American Physical Therapy Association’s Payment Consortium, which counsels physical therapists on advocating with private payers for better reimbursement. This partnership unlocked new opportunities for AOPT’s members to improve their bottom lines.
When strategic planning is done right, there is a concerted effort to factor in the voices of diverse stakeholders. Quantitative and qualitative research with members, customers, and other stakeholders uncovers a ton of insights about audience needs and preferences. Further, competitor analysis and an environmental scan can reveal market needs and gaps as well as industry trends. Research equips associations with concrete data, ensuring that strategies are proactive and targeted.
By including the right questions in this research, new opportunities can be identified or validated through data and insights. And the opportunities can be shaped to respond to the current and future needs uncovered by research.
Strategic planning is about making choices and defining priorities. So when new opportunities are embedded in the strategic plan, the association can focus on implementing them and allocate adequate human and financial resources.
The typical challenge with pursuing growth or change initiatives is that they get dumped on someone’s already overflowing plate and don’t get the time, attention and expertise they need to be positioned for success... However, considering new opportunities in the context of strategy will provide the planning framework required to move from concept to implementation.
Clear priorities enable an association to allow the right people to lead the pursuit of bold opportunities and transformational, high-impact projects without being sidetracked by repetitive tasks which can be delegated to others.
Association Spotlight: McKinley helped the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) pinpoint the urgency to innovate on member programs, benefits and services to meet evolving needs in their strategic framework.
As a result, NACUA followed the strategic planning effort by engaging McKinley to conduct a data-driven assessment of the relative performance of their current portfolio of programs, products and services.
McKinley helped NACUA assess the mission, business value and performance of their key offerings in context of the strategic framework and goals. This helped the association make informed decisions on where to grow, sustain, revise and reduce across the portfolio. They were also positioned to identify gaps where new offerings would support the strategic plan and create high value for members.
New opportunities often come with the fear of the unknown, causing anxiety about change. However, a strategic plan engenders an expectation of change and innovation at some level and provides a better foundation to introduce concepts that may even be revolutionary.
The process of socializing the strategic plan across the organization and translating it to operations while tracking metrics lends itself well to the essentials of change management. Getting buy-in for new initiatives, finding champions, clarifying the why and how, and engaging with the detractors — are all easier when new opportunities are integrated into the overall strategy.
Embedding transformational ideas and initiatives in the strategic plan signals a mindset of continuous improvement and openness to change, which can be appealing to members and stakeholders alike. This empowers the association to embrace disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat.
A strategic plan serves as a catalyst for unlocking potential and enabling transformation by providing a structured, forward-looking framework that aligns mission, resources, and stakeholders, while fostering a culture of innovation.
If your association is ready to unlock new opportunities and respond to market needs through strategic planning, let McKinley Advisors support you in charting the path to transformation.