N ational Organisational

Development Network

The planning process

An organisation may produce separate documents for strategic, operational and supplementary plans
for presentation purposes particularly if it is a large one. It is important to recognise that the
organisation in fact, should have one planning process to achieve a common strategic direction.

Steps involved in an effective planning process

1 Pre-plan Obtain a pre-plan position for the organisation. This is a combination of the
position: information in the annual report and annual review, which should include
various financial, statistical and background information for both the internal
operations and external influences of the organisation. This will help
objectively describe the current position of the organisation.

2 Strategy One of the key activities will be either to review or identify the vision, mission
formulation: and objectives for both long and short term and the key performance
indicators to form the strategic plan. This stage should be derived from an
inclusive approach with key stakeholders to assist with buy-in from them
during the implementation stage.

3 Strategy To ensure a planning document is relevant to the people within the

implementation: organisation using it as a management tool. The detail of what, who, when,
where, how and the financial implications will need to be worked through.
This is particularly important to help formulate the fully costed annual
operational plan.

4 Strategy Commonly the most neglected stage of the planning process is the
evaluation: monitoring, evaluation and review of the plan. If you cannot monitor
something, then how can you manage it? Monitoring systems need to be put
into the plan to enable management to evaluate and review the progress of
the organisation’s planning documents).

The planning process should be seen as a continual process rather than compiling documents that
once finished remain on the shelf untouched. The organisation’s strategic and operational plans
should be documents that are referred to regularly, and reviewed and changed at various times in the
future as internal and external influences change and various objectives are achieved. Figure 3 shows
the role of the four steps in formulating the strategic versus the operational plan.

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 Figure 3

So although strategic plans may be developed for four or more years and operational plans for one
year, Figure 3 clearly indicates the cyclical nature of planning. The strategic and operational plans are
documents that should be evaluated regularly against each other to ensure they remain relevant to
the organisation. For example, the annual review of the operational plan may determine that some of
the strategic priorities in the strategic plan need to be modified to enable the organisation to be
responsive to change. Good plans are dynamic by nature and not etched in stone, as a lot can change
in four years.

Therefore, the annual review of the operational plan should feed back into the strategy formulation on
an annual basis, rather than once every four years, to ensure the strategic priorities for the
organisation are current, and to check if modification is required. This is why the process is described
as one process rather than separate processes for the organisation’s strategic plan versus the
operational plan.

Figure 4 represents an overall planning process and aims to help develop and review the organisation’s
planning documents as one plan.

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 1.
1. Pre-plan
Pre-plan position
position Annual
Annual Report
Report and
and review
review of
of previous
previous plan
plan

2.
2. Strategy
Strategy formulation
formulation Internal
Internal analysis
analysis External
External analysis
analysis

Develop
Develop vision/mission
vision/mission and
and values
values
Strategic
Strategic planning
planning level
level

Formulate
Formulate long-term
long-term objectives,
objectives, strategic
strategic priorities
priorities and
and
rationale
rationale

Generate
Generate Key
Key Performance
Performance Indicators
Indicators

Identify
Identify the
the short-term
short-term priorities
priorities and
and links
links to
to the
the strategic
strategic
3.
3. Strategy
Strategy implementation
implementation
plan
plan

Develop
Develop the
the fully
fully costed
costed operation
operation plan
plan and
and any
any
supplementary
supplementary plans
plans Costed
Costed planning
planning level
level

Adopt
Adopt and
and implement
implement plans
plans

4.
4. Strategy
Strategy evaluation
evaluation Evaluate
Evaluate performance
performance

Figure 4

Step 1: Pre-plan position

Without an accurate assessment of the organisation’s pre-plan position, it is difficult to establish a
starting point for the development of a new plan. This section forms the introduction by providing
facts and figures about the current status of the organisation that should be derived from the annual
report. It is a snapshot of the organisation showing critical information on the standing of the
organisation at the commencement of the plan. For example key quantitative measures may include:

• high performance results

• participation numbers (that is, members, coaches, officials and volunteers)

• key financial indicators and results.

Review of the previous year’s plan

This section should list the tasks that were proposed for the previous year, identify the extent to which
they were completed, state the reasons for failing to achieve any of the performance targets and
identify the implications of this for future years. This can be presented in a tabular form, following a
similar structure to the plan itself, and can be complemented if necessary by a more detailed
discussion in the text of any of the more important issues facing the organisation.

The review should include a financial summary for the previous year that shows the income and
expenditure items and an indication of actual financial performance against projected budgets for the
previous 12-month operational planning period. This review, which is based on the annual projected
operating budget, will assist the organisation in its financial planning for the coming year.

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This review of the operational plan is not the same as an annual report. The review relates specifically
to the operational plan, and should be tightly presented to limit itself to this function. The annual
report and audited statements may cover some of the same points but their scope will be wider and
the context broader. The annual report and audited statements should be seen as complementary and
consistent with the annual audit and analysis of the previous year’s operational plan.

Current staffing structure

A staffing structure is a flow chart showing the reporting relationships within a sporting organisation
and clearly identifying the people that are responsible for the various activities the organisation
undertakes. The chart should include and identify both paid and unpaid positions.

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