Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 5th Edition

CHAPTER TWOThe Strategy Change Cycle: An Effective Strategic Planning and Management Approach for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

No, I can't say as I ever was lost, but once I was bewildered pretty bad for three days.

—Daniel Boone

Make-believe is at the heart of play, and also at the heart of so much that passes for work. Let's make-believe we can shoot a rocket to the moon.

—Diane Ackerman, poet and essayist

This chapter presents my preferred approach to strategic planning and management for public and nonprofit organizations, collaborations of various sorts, and communities. This generic approach, called the Strategy Change Cycle, does what public and nonprofit scholars assert planning should do—if it is to be strategic planning (Bryson, Edwards, & Van Slyke, 2017). Specifically, planning that is strategic will demonstrate:

• Close attention to the particulars of context, including the decision-making context, when designing the strategic planning approach
• Careful thinking about purposes, goals, and situational requirements (e.g., political, legal, administrative, ethical, and environmental requirements)
• An initial focus on a broad agenda and a later move to a more selective action orientation
• An emphasis on systems thinking—that is, working to understand the dynamics of the overall system being planned for as it functions, or ideally should function, across space and time, including the interrelationships among constituent subsystems
• Careful attention to stakeholders, ...