If you're not sure where you're going, any road will get you there.

In this fast-paced world, we are bombarded with information and longing for time to make sense of it. We must juggle multiple priorities with the needs of special interests and factions. The fires that need to be extinguished each day can easily obscure the organization's vision, mission and core purposes, and the plan set out last year.

Strategic planning is an essential part of building an effective organization, not a luxury to be enjoyed "someday when we have the time." A good plan can serve as a compass to navigate through (or around) the storms that inevitably arise, and can help you determine which opportunities should be pursued or avoided.

A strategic plan can also serve as a resource for your entire organization, assisting with orientation of new members, planning of capital campaigns, development of work plans, and coordination of tasks between groups or departments.

While it would be adjusted to precisely meet the needs of your organization, this strategic planning process could include components like the following:

Leadership team development - strengthening relationships and honing interpersonal skills to support an effective planning process

History - including core values and principles, and learnings from that history

Analysis - of the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Environmental scan - to identify relevant trends that might influence planning

Vision - create or adjust the picture of the organization and its impact at a future date

Strategic initiatives - identify the major paths that will lead toward the vision; o major milestones - determine the specific benchmarks to be used to measure progress.

Board development - plan to increase and sustain membership, and integrate new members seamlessly