Essay 1

Question 2 The value of strategic planning is in the process itself and not the plan. Plans

are made every day, but it is what goes into the planning process that will

determine the viability of the plan. To what extent is this statement true and

how is this strategic planning process applied to public sector organizations

in modern societies. Illustrate your answer with case studies

 To truly discuss the truthfulness of the statement, one must first define strategic

planning and outline, with examples, the steps in the process of strategic planning. For this

essay, I will use the strategic plans of the Ministry of Social Development and Family

Services in Trinidad and Tobago and the Department of Social Development in South Africa

as examples.

Strategic planning is a management tool and is defined as “a disciplined effort to

produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or

other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it” [ CITATION Bry04 \l 1033 ]. It is a set of

concepts, procedures and tools used to devise, document, implement, and control the

activities necessary to achieve organisational goals and objectives while improving its long-

term performance all of which is guided by the outcome of methodical and rigorous

examination of the internal & external environment. the organisation’s strategic direction is

decided on leading to the development of specified procedures and policies to achieve the

goals and objectives for a specified period through efficient use of available resources.

[ CITATION Alm19 \l 1033 ].

Strategic planning seeks to answer four questions. The first question to ask is Where

the organisation is at present which allows for leadership to lay the groundwork for

developing the strategic plan. The next question to be asked is where the organisation is

going to determine the direction in which the organisation is heading. Next is how are we

going to get there which identifies what needs to be done to get to where the company wants

to be. Finally, it seeks to answer how to monitor and evaluate progress made. In seeking

answers for these questions, the organisation begins to take to the steps below to develop the

strategic plan.

The Planning Process

 According to Bryson and Alston (2005) the first phase of the planning process lays

the groundwork for the overall strategic plan itself. The organization must first determine its

ability to do strategic planning where the capacity exist, a plan for planning must be

developed. This would outline the time and resources to be committed to developing the plan

to ensure that the resources are allocated appropriately.

The organisation must now take a complete look at its environment, both external and

internal, to determine what must been done to achieve the end game. The environment in

which the organisation operates accounts for the reason for the existence of the organisation,

particularly in the Public Sector. As such many factors, including, socioeconomics, politics:

locally and internationally and technologies to name a few. Within the organisation its

strengths and weaknesses must also be identified, as well as the direct external opportunities

and threats. These analyses will clarify the conditions or situations within which the

organization operates. Engagement of stakeholders within the public sector involves both the

internal (staff) and external (other agencies, clientele, etc.), also provides useful information

about the needs, experiences, and expectations of the those affected by the organisation’s

operations as well as provides context for understanding the existing issues.

An example of the use of an environmental scan is the Ministry of Social

Development and Family Services. In their strategic plan they outlined summarized results of

the PESTLE and SWOT analyses providing a platform on which the strategic plan can be

supported and sharing with the stakeholders’ information on the overarching factors affecting

its work. It was also noted that through this analysis the Ministry of Social Development and

Family Services gathered data, primary and secondary, by engaging its internal and external

stakeholders through strategic workshops, meetings of a technical team of the Ministry tasked

with developing the Plan and other engagement activities.[ CITATION Min18 \l 1033 ].
 Similarly, the South African Department of Social Development outlined the results

of the situational analyses employed. The situational analysis described in the Strategic plan

shows that it was based on statistical data and briefly outlined the performance environment

in which the Department operates. The Plan also shared some of the recent changes to the

Department due to an expansion of its scope of works and clientele and stated that it was in

the process of building its change management capabilities to enable facilitating change

management and broader organisational transformation processes [ CITATION Dep \l 1033 ].

Vision statement is defined by Richard Lynch (2015) as having an image of the of the

futuristic role and objectives of an organisation beyond the present environment and

competition. Thus, it communicates the organisation’s desired direction, providing the focus

for achieving its ideals. For example, the Vision Statement in the Strategic Plan 2018-2023of

the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services in Trinidad and Tobago is that it

will be “A dynamic, service-driven organisation that delivers premium social services

towards the achievement of sustainable human and social development.” Another example is

that of the Government of Saskatchewan as outlined in the Ministry of Social Services Plans

for 2020-21 which is “…to be the best place in Canada – to live, to work, to start a business,

to get an education, to raise a family and to build a life.” [ CITATION Mni20 \l 1033 ].

Lynch (2015) defined a mission statement as ‘the business that the organisation is in

against the values and expectations of the stakeholders.’ A mission statement identifies the

organisation’s work, its beneficiaries, and how the work is done. It provides a strong basis to

keep management focused as it provides a sense of purpose to its staff and differentiates it

from others within the same industry. The Ministry of Social Development and Family

Services’ Mission Statement is “to enhance the quality of life of the general population, with

emphasis on the vulnerable, through a network of integrated, accessible social

services.”[ CITATION Min18 \l 1033 ] while the Mission Statement of South Africa’s
Department of Social Development is “To transform our society by building conscious and

capable citizens through the provision of comprehensive, integrated and sustainable social

development services.” [CITATION Dep \l 1033 ] Both statements clearly speak to its work of

the respective agencies and to the staff who they are serving and to what end.

At this stage, the organisation is now equipped with the necessary information to

guide the development of the goals and objectives, to be achieved in the set timeframe. This

allows for the staff and stakeholders to be informed of the way forward. In the cases of the

Ministry of Social Development and Family Services in Trinidad and Tobago and the

Department of Social Development in South Africa both outlined their organisations’

strategic goals and objectives.

The Ministry of Social Development and Family Services of Trinidad and Tobago for

the period 2018-2023 identified four (4) goals which were each accompanied with objectives

to lay out in the Ministry’s new direction in two (2) parts: three (3) the core strategic goals

addressing the key areas for improving business outcomes for the ministry and one (1)

strategic goal for enabling and strengthening the institutional capacity. [ CITATION Min18 \l

1033 ]. While the Department of Social Development of South Africa for the period 2015-

2020 identified five (5) goals laying out in the Department’s new direction. [ CITATION Dep \l

1033 ]

Creating a strategic plan is not enough. Each of the organisations mentioned above

discusses so far saw the need to break over arching goals into objectives thus laying out the

roadmap toward achieving the gaols. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Social

Development and Family Services the ministry outlined its implementation framework in a

tabular format. Each goal and its respective objectives were placed in individual tables of five

(5) columns namely, objectives, major initiatives (for accomplishing the set objective),

performance indicators, time frame and enablers/Barriers. Each objective was broken into
major initiatives geared toward its accomplishment with performance indicators and

estimated timeframe for completion of each initiative stated. The final column was used to

further note the factors which may either facilitate the successful implementation or

even cause challenges. This approach allows for the Ministry to view the finer details of

plans for the five (5) year period while demonstrating that its goals are attainable in

increments. This also informs all stakeholders of what can be expected from the organization

while also allowing them to prepare for either faster implementation or details in the process.

South Africa’s Department for Social Development on the other hand broke their

work into programmes guided by the goals and outlining the objectives for each programme

and thus its goals. However, they did not outline as detailed a plan for implementation as

Trinidad and Tobago’s. they did however in outlining the objectives break each one down to

state the High-Level Outputs and Baseline to be achieved. They also, unlike the Trinidad and

Tobago counterpart

Monitoring and Evaluation is an essential process of tracking progress and where

needed recommend adjustments. When all is completed the process also allows for a review

of what was done to identify challenges faced toward preparing plans. In the case of the

Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, Monitoring refers to continuous

collection of information related to implementation activities toward achieving the goals and

objectives outlined in the Implementation Framework. This determines what is done and

evaluate operation efficiency. Periodically, it calls for and making judgments on overall

effectiveness of the strategy, taking necessary action for improving effectiveness and

identifying lessons to guide future planning.

As outlined above, a lot of work and planning goes into the development of a strategic

plan. As such, the statement that “the value of strategic planning is in the process itself and

not the plan. Plans are made every day, but it is what goes into the planning process that will
determine the viability of the plan it is my belief that” rings true. While it is possible to

develop a plan with minimal information, it would be difficult to determine what is needed if

one is unable to first review data on the environment and needs of the stakeholder to

determine the best direction in which to move an organisation.

At the end of the planning process, it is the process of planning and gathering

information of quality that serves as the needed input resulting in an organisation’s strategic

plan, which serves as a guide on how the goals are to be achieved, being the outcome of this

process. This is the foundation on which a good, strategic plan is developed and thus it is

what determines to the extent of the plan’s potential effectiveness.