Developing a Strategic Plan for a Program in Communication
Sciences and Disorders
Definitions: Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning
Systematic process through which the program agrees on and
builds commitment among key stakeholders to priorities that are
essential to its mission and responsive to its operating
environment. The intent is to sharpen the program's focus so
that program resources are optimally used to achieve the
program's mission. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort
to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide
what the program does, and why it does it, with a focus on the
future. Simply, strategic planning is answering three questions:
Where are you now? Where do you want to be/go? How do/can you get
there? Strategic planning closes the gap between where the
program is and where it wants to be.
Strategic Plan
A document that covers a period of 2-3 years in the future. It
outlines the step-by-step progress the program plans to make
toward completing its mission and achieving desired outcomes. It
also identifies who is responsible for carrying out each piece of
the plan and when it will be accomplished. To be successful, a
strategic planning process must be dynamic, ongoing, adaptive,
and inclusive. It must enable the program to present a vision and
mission to which the program will strive, to set desired
outcomes, and to identify specific strategies for attaining these
outcomes.
Components of the Strategic Plan
The strategic plan for your program will contain content for
each of these components:
- Vision
- Mission
- Envisioned Future
- Focus Area
- Issue(s)
- Outcome(s)
- Indicator(s) of Success
- Strategies to Achieve Outcomes