Lumen Impact Group
Lumen Impact Group

Strategic Planning: A Roadmap for When the Going Gets Tough

Published: April 9, 2024

The old saying goes, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” This timeless phrase has encouraged sports teams, workers, and everyday folks facing seemingly impossible conditions. Dory in Finding Nemo has a similar proverb to live by: “Just keep swimming!” But how? And where? It seems that when people or organizations get bogged down in the day to day functions of work, a family, or even their own life, they revert to putting one foot in front of the other. But is it enough? At some point, we have to take the time to look up and think about the road ahead. Where are we going and how are we going to get there?

Some of the most important work that Lumen Impact Group does with schools and organizations is strategic planning. For organizations that feel like they can’t squeeze any more into a day or month, the idea of any kind of long term planning can feel arduous and impractical. How can you look ahead when getting from Monday to Friday feels like a marathon? At Lumen we know that the long term payoff is exponential.

Stop and Check the Mirror

How about this: when the going gets tough, take a beat and check the mirror. What is it about slowing down and taking a long hard look in the mirror that is so difficult? Taking stock of the current landscape, the mindsets of those inside and outside of an organization, the whys behind challenges, and the assets to build from requires time, energy, and a willingness to talk about real challenges. But it’s a worthwhile investment and an important part of thoughtful and meaningful strategic planning. An organization can just move forward and create a plan, but at Lumen we believe the best plans are built on a shared understanding of the current state populated by a diverse set of stakeholder voices and the whys behind challenges and opportunities that people both struggle with and pride themselves on.

Build a Roadmap

How nice would it have been if Dory had a clear and detailed map to help Marlin (Nemo’s Dad) find Nemo? I know, I know, that would mean no movie for us, but how much time and energy could everyone have saved if those characters just knew where they were headed? In some ways, the “just keep swimming” mantra pushed the fish away from each other and made things more difficult as they swam in vain.

At Lumen, our strategic planning process helps organizations envision where they are headed and how they will get there. Not only do we help you create a detailed vision for your future grounded in your organization’s mission, but we also help you set priorities so you know what to focus on to achieve your goals. Additionally, defining and tracking key metrics will help you see if your actions are working and determine when course correction is needed. It is SO easy to get distracted putting out fires and doing the day to day work. But having a roadmap will help you go places that get you where you want to be– a purposeful “get going” that can pay off in the long run.

Set Some Guardrails for Decision Making and Pitfalls

No path is without pitfalls, cliffs, and unexpected turns. At Lumen, we believe a strategic plan is a living document that can and should be changed based on your own needs. No path to success is straightforward, but a strategic plan can help you put guardrails on your path to give you guidance and inform decisions when the unexpected arises. In a way, a strategic plan is a tool that can stabilize, protect, and steady a ship when it’s rocking and remind you of your true north.

We realize that it is HARD to pull yourself out of the day to day work to take the time to see the forest through the trees. It can feel impossible to find the time when there are fires to be put out, but the value of strategic planning is in the future – so when the going gets tough, you know where to go.

Testimonials

"“They don’t tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear. That makes a huge difference. We needed to understand our weaknesses in order to make the organization work right, and I was overwhelmed by how they really got it and they helped us to get it too. They were able to do it in a way that really made me want to understand the goals we needed to focus on. I believe Lumen was absolutely the best we could have found.”"
Barbara Sellinger
Cresthaven Academy
"“I’ve been in nonprofits for 30+ years and have used the services of many consultants, but I have never been so comfortable with their commitment to helping us. It was as if the Lumen team shared our need to have a successful outcome and they were committed to the notion that they would indeed bring value to what we were doing.“ "
Caroline Novak
Alabama School Readiness Alliance
"“The Lumen team did a really good job sharing the hard truths with us. Their findings were different from what we were expecting, but they used the information to push us farther than we originally planned. They were candid and didn’t hide anything from us. We’re now on the path to developing products that are very different from what we’ve done before but are hopefully much more useful for the people we serve.” "
Drew Jacobs
National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
"“The management of a federal CSP grant is a really niche area that requires a tremendous depth of expertise and technical know-how. You need to have a microscopic attention to detail when it comes to compliance and reporting timeliness. The Lumen team is excellent at all of the above." "
Tyler Barnett
New Schools for Alabama
"“In my coaching, we make really strong, specific plans for next steps and then we follow up on them in our next conversation. We try to keep those next steps really manageable. When I’m busy, I can’t layer a ton of personal growth on top of my other responsibilities, so we make plans for growth that are baked into the work I’m already doing. That has been really helpful for me.” "
Kristen Forbriger
City Fund