Get Aligned with Your Board Chair on Strategic Planning

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A bunch of glass teacups lined up in rows, with different colored tea, silver teaspoons, and sugar cubes on saucers.

Get Aligned with Your Board Chair on Strategic Planning

Involve your board chair from the earliest stages of planning your next strategic planning retreat. This helps ensure her/his and the board’s highest levels of engagement and strategic thinking, and helps avoid process choices the board won’t like. The board chair can take the temperature of the board so you dodge surprises.

Double win: This makes a fantastic relationship-building exercise. See the board chair conversation starters in my book Better Together: The Companion Workbook for more on this.

Here are questions to start the strategic planning conversation with your board chair:

  1. What’s the most hilariously awful experience you’ve personally had with strategic planning, whether in a nonprofit setting or not?
  2. What’s the best and most fulfilling experience you’ve personally had with strategic planning, whether in a nonprofit setting or not?
  3. When is the right time for strategic planning?
  4. What needs to be in place before we plan?
  5. How aligned is the board around the current strategic plan?
  6. How aligned is the leadership team around the current strategic plan?
  7. How aligned is the staff around the current strategic plan?
  8. In what ways is the board executing on the strategic plan?
  9. In what ways is the leadership team executing on the strategic plan?
  10. In what ways is the staff executing on the strategic plan?
  11. What differences of opinion on our strategic direction do you see among different groups at this organization?
  12. What board qualities and skills do we need to implement our strategic plan?
  13. What leadership team qualities and skills do we need to implement our strategic plan?
  14. What staff qualities and skills do we need to implement our strategic plan?
  15. What other questions belong here? How would we answer them?
  16. What insights have we had, if any, as we’ve answered these questions?
  17. How should we sharpen our thinking with input from …
    • The rest of the board?
    • The leadership team?
    • The line staff?
    • Our constituents?
    • External stakeholders?
  18. What’s our next step?