Mar. 19, 2009 - The Strategy Screen

In the last few blog entries, I’ve tried to convey the point that organizational strategic planning is not just an exercise completed a various intervals, it’s not merely a snapshot in time—effective strategic positioning is an organizational frame of mind.

I’ve also posited that that frame of mind must be built on a foundation of solid governance structures and operational policies. If you have to interrupt your strategic advance to repair the road, you won’t get far. So, let’s assume the association homework has been done: you’ve crafted your organizational identity through your mission statement and a realistic business plan that takes into account your competition, your assets, and your liabilities. You now know what you are as an organization, what work you do, and how you maintain adequate and consistent income to support your mission.

And further, you’ve completed your organizational audit: you know how you do your work, and that you have a governance and policy structure that will support your mission. Now what?

Well, the groundwork is done and now it’s strategy time!! Strategies are the interesting part of any organizational profile, I think: they are the specific actions you take to do your work (carry out your mission), and all strategies must be evaluated using that principal criterion.

If you’re an association manager or leader, you know that strategies come at you like bullets—every time a member says something like, “I wish we had a weekly marketing session” or “Why don’t we sell tickets to the Alzheimer’s Bowl-a-thon”, a strategy has been suggested. Perhaps the head of your local economic development corporation says, “I wish we could see what development properties are available in the MLS”—presto! A potential strategy! Or a zoning administrator calls the association office and complains, “If Realtors don’t take ‘For Sale’ signs out of the road right-of-way, I am gonna confiscate the $%^&*(! things!” YoooHooo….strategy! Or if a major internet search engine says, “We are going to let people put properties available for sale on our website at no charge”….any body home in the Realtor organization? The need for a strategy is knocking….

The first step is to have your strategy awareness level fired up. Developing organizational understanding of what a strategy opportunity is and being able to take advantage of the need for a response can’t be delayed because it isn’t time yet in your planning cycle: your association must be ready to respond NOW.

Peter Drucker says, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”. And of course, that’s always the pitfall of being alert to opportunity—the need to evaluate using a consistent set of evaluation tools is fundamental to long term success. 

In his book, “The Non-Profit Strategy Revolution”, David LaPiana suggests that every organization develop its own ‘Strategy Screen’. He defines the ‘Strategy Screen’ as a set of criteria that your organization uses to choose whether or not a particular strategy is consistent with its identity. 

Developing the Screen is an act of association self-discovery. You can’t really complete one unless you’ve agreed on your organizational identity as I’ve described it in the second paragraph of this blog. But having done that homework, you can now say, “These are our values. We will apply these values to every strategy, every expenditure of organizational resources we have.” 

Here are the questions which must be asked in developing a tool which will allow the association to screen its activities:

1.       Does the proposed activity (strategy) support our mission? Be careful here: you might want to add a degree of support ranging from ‘Not at all’ to ‘A little bit’, to ‘Absolutely!’. That way, the evaluator can weigh Realtor Ron’s idea to have a Hot Dog Cook Off against Realtor Ruby’s suggestion to sponsor a First Time Homebuyer Trade Show.

2.       Does the proposed strategy enhance our competitive advantage? One of the competitive advantages Realtor associations have is that they are real estate experts. When Realtor Ron proposes a Hot Dog Cook Off, one might question how the Realtor competitive advantage is enhanced….

3.       Is the strategy financially viable? An adjunct question, of course, is ‘what is viability’—does the strategy need to pay for itself? Show a profit? Or is it a part of the member dues investment?

4.       Is the strategy consistent with our culture? This latter question is one that is often neglected, I think: Realtors, for instance, have quite a different culture than accountants or physicians or dental hygienists. Of course, that’s a generalization—but understanding the profile of the real estate salesperson and/or broker, general as it may be, is crucial to adopting strategies that work.

5.       What other criteria do we have that we need to articulate in our strategy screen?

A.      NAR policy requirements?

B.      Quality criteria? (and how do we measure the quality?)

C.      Geographic scope? (local, regional, state or nationwide?)

D.      Customer Scope (new members, seasoned members, young members, etc.)

E.       Public Positioning (as a community leader or an association forerunner?)

F.       Strategy does not jeopardize other alliances.

And so on. Of course, your association list will be totally individual, and represent your particular organizational values. But using LaPiana’s Strategy Screen will give your group a consistent way to evaluate strategies as they occur for consideration.

LaPiana suggests that Items 1 and 2 should be in every Strategy Screen, but in other respects the rest of the list items will be unique to your association. I would envision this screen would accompany each and every strategy presented to the Board of Directors or whatever approval body is appropriate to your association.