08stratplanning

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Module: Strategic Planning

Introduction

All organisations need to plan. In addition, all organisations need to be clear about theirstrategy. This module looks at strategy and broad strategic planning in very generalterms. It will help radio stations to develop broad strategy and to plan how to achievethat strategy.What's missing is the detailed planning of day-to-day progamming andbroadcasting.

Broad Aim

The aim of this module is to clarify the link between mission, strategy and plans, and togive participants a view of the strategic planning process.

The hidden agenda in this module is to do some strategic analysis and strategic thinkingabout community radio stations and the sector as a whole. It is really important tochallenge 'sloppy' thinking and easy answers in this module.

Training outcomes

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

Review the mission of the organisation

Conduct a SWOT analysis

Identify the critical strategic issues facing the organisation Choose from among a set of alternative strategies

Set SMART objectives

Plan how to implement the objectives

Process guidelines

This workshop is most useful when run in-house as part of a planning process. If you

are planning to use the workshop to conduct an actual planning session, then you willprobably need three days to run the planning workshop. If you wish to use the planningworkshop as a learning experience, then you will need to discuss the steps and methodsyou are using and reflect on them with the group as you go through the workshop. Forexample you would remind people where you've been: "In our first session we re visitedthe mission, now we are doing the first half of the SWOT analysis - which is the analysisof the Strengths and Weaknesses of the organisation."

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Using this material in a purely training situation is more difficult, especially where youhave a group made up of different organisations. In this case, you should either havepeople working with colleagues from their own radio station, or you could suggest thatsmall groups focus on one station only for the workshop on planning.

Please make sure that you are familiar with the material before you tackle this module, it

is not easy!

Total time required for this module: Minimum time 12h30 min -chosing selected activities as suggested below. To work through thewhole module would take three to four days

Materials required for this module:

Flip chart Permanent Markers for the facilitator

Prestick

1 set of notes/ manual per person

Session Time Notes and suggestions

Activity 1: What isstrategy?

15 min Do a brief introduction on strategy, then ask participantsto buzz in pairs and answer the questions on strategies.The kinds of answers you are looking for:

Stations target different groups: e.g. youth/ middle aged,economic classes, etc

Stations focus on education, music, talk shows, etc

Stations are public broadcasters (supported by the state) orcommercial (supported by advertising) or community - mix withsome funding.

Stations have different approaches to advertising etc

Activity 2: The 'right'

strategy

45min Ask people to work in groups and develop a list of

criteria.If people do not understand the concept of criteria, ask them tothink about what they look for when they are buying a new car(e.g. price, size of engine, age, speed etc), or if they were tochose a husband (age, temperament, economic status, healthetc) Point out that the criteria should be prioritised and thenapplied.

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Session Time Notes and suggestions

Activity 3: What isstrategic planning?

15min Brief input on strategy, and overview of the flow chart.

You may not have time to do all the stages of strategic planning in a training workshop. Thefollowing are some of the important activities that you could usefully cover even with a groupmade up of people from different stations.

Stage 2:

SWOT

1h30 min

15 minintro, 1h ingroups, 30- 60 minplenarydiscussion

The SWOT analysis - strengths and weaknesses. Do thisin small groups, with each group focusing on one radiostation, or on a 'typical station'. You could have one ortwo groups looking at a rural station, and one or twolooking at urban stations. You can get a full report on thediscussion - which will raise useful issues, or you couldsimply ask groups share their experience of doing theanalysis. Point out that the more honest people are, themore useful this kind of analysis is. If we hide theproblems from ourselves, we cannot find solutions.

Make sure that people don't use glib judgments like: 'lackof commitment' or 'people are not serious' - encouragethem to keep asking "But Why does this happen?" Theanalysis must unearth root problems (which may beinternal or external) not just surface symptoms.

Stage 3: SWOT 2h 30 min Stakeholder Analysis - you could do this for thecommunity radio sector as a whole, as a way ofillustrating it. It is quite useful to do in plenary. Start with abrainstorm of all stakeholders. Give each person two orthree coloured cards and ask them to write onestakeholder per card, and then come and stick them up

on the wall. Categorise them and then prioritise the 5most important stakeholders.(Remember that the term'stakeholder' does not imply either a positive or negativerelationship: some stakeholders are friends, some areclearly competitors, and many are groups or peoplewhose support and co-operation we could gain.)

Put people into 5 small groups with one stakeholder eachto analyse. The group will need to answer the questionson page 11, and report on them to the big group.

Remind them that the stakeholder analysis must beconcluded with identifying the Opportunities and Threats

for the sector or the station.

Example of headings for a wall chart analysising stakeholders

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Stakeholder

Theiraims (ingeneral)

Whattheywantfrom us

What wewantfromthem

Problems /comments

Advertisers

To sell alot oftheirproducts

Largeaudiences ofpeoplewho willbuy theirproducts

Money Our listenersare nothighincome -so we arenot seenasattractiveby manyadvertisers

Note that in this example, I have used a broad category (advertisers), in fact to do agood stakeholder analysis, you need to name and analyse all potential advertisers (i.e.all the actual companies that you may want to approach for advertising). Your analysismust be as specific as possible, and may require you to do some in-depth research. Inreal life, you would do the brainstorm and prioritising of stakeholders in one session.

Then allocate stakeholders to different people, who will go and do research and preparetheir analysis for the next session.

Setting Objectives 4 - 5 hours Input and exercises : 30 - 45 min: Give a brief overviewof what an objective is and why you need them.

Then discuss 'SMART' objectives and do the exercise inbuzz groups "are these SMART objectives?" (Activity 4page 21). It is worth spending time doing this properly, aspeople really need to learn to write good objectives.

Some people teach you to always write objectives in a

set format. The format is not important, what is importantis that the objective must describe the outcome that youare working for. The objective must give you a reallyclear picture of what you intend to achieve not what youwill be doing! (So avoid objectives like: "we will run threeworkshops" and rather describe the outcomes of theworkshops " as a result of our education activity,workshop participants will be able to fix a transmitterwithout the help of outside technicians."

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Group work on setting objectives (1 to 2 hours ingroups, 1 hour plenary)

Put people into groups and ask them to set objectives fora radio station that one group member belongs to. (e.g.objectives for an education campaign, a health

campaign, a fund-raising campaign, a year plan for thestation as a whole etc.) Let them pretend to all bemembers of that radio station.

Make sure that the Objectives they develop describeoutcomes (what will be different at the end of thecampaign, or year) not activities (not 'holding threeevents!). Events are part of the action steps, not theobjectives.

If you can see that groups are struggling, get them backinto plenary, chose one objective that a group is workingon and get the whole group to help you develop it into a

SMART objective.Get them to present their objectives to the group forcomment - and invite critical comment about the'SMARTness' of the objectives.

Planning Minimumof 1 houringroups, 1hour inplenary

Group work on planning:

Then suggest that each group does planning, using theplanning tool (page 24) on one or two objectives. Againpresent this to the whole group for comment.

Planning to plan 45 min This is a good concluding activity: Do it in small groups,

and then have a plenary report from one group only.

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