Participants in the organisation get involved in strategic planning in Thailand
It has been a long day. Senior team leaders joined me to develop plans and evaluate current projects and issues. Simply put, the focus today was meant to clarify where the program in Thailand is going over the next year or more, how it is going to get there, and how we will know if it got there or not.
I spend countless hours thinking about all the complex issues of the organisation, goals to work toward the mission and a variety of scenaros that might effect our results. I think I sit somewhere between issues-based strategic planning and organic strategic planning.
I prefer to examining issues facing the organisation and find strategies to address those issues and action plans. I also try to articulate Openaid’s vision and values, and then draw action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values.
Before today started, I felt comfortable knowing much of what will go into the strategic program direction. However, development of the plan greatly helps to clarify the organization’s plans and ensure that key leaders are all “on the same script”.
The size of Openaid, expertise of leaders and planners, will change greatly during 2011. This will significantly effect the program in Thailand. Huge emphasis is placed on key staff selection during July-December 2010 and on roles and responsibilities being enacted in a timely fashion.
A frequent complaint about Openaid is that information about projects and programs is poorly communicated. We are faced with having to make difficult, major decisions about staff in Thailand and the management process involved with information management. In the implementation of the plan, you will see a new staff appointment in Thailand: Administration Management. This person will strategically record and control information management, identifying current issues, results, and next step planning etc, providing key information to specific audiences.
In general, we want different types of volunteers - available for specific work with the team in Thailand - needed at different times in the work/planning process. For example, monitoring and reporting processes need to be strengthened to report current issues and results. During July-December 2010 we will target young Australians to assist with strategies needed to address the issues and meet the goals.
The Management Committee in Melbourne will be used more to help understand the day-to-day issues of the organisation, and help the ED to manage the top-level issues of the organisation.
Current projects in Chonburi (Pattaya and 5 surrounding villages) and Isaan (northeast and border with Laos), as well as in Chiang Rai with Burmese migrants, will be carefully managed with a series of small moves that together keep the organisation doing things right as it heads in the right direction. 3 staff will coordinate this work. We understand that there is no “perfect” project and team members are doing their best at strategic thinking and implementation, and learning from what we are doing to enhance the program the next time around. I believe the broad perspective - taking the long view on what we want to do and how we’re going to do it - is vital. Team members will develop specific skills through ongoing experience in project management, strategic planning, and monitoring and evaluation.
Today, I asked team members to stand back and take a hard look at what we want to accomplish and how we want to accomplish it. I am responsible ultimately for strategic thinking and guiding implementation, keeping things right and heading in the right direction. Not all goals will be reached in the coming 6 months. In this case, performance will be reviewed and plans conducted in time to identify the program goals to be achieved at least over the 2011 fiscal year. Resources needed to achieve these goals, and funding needed to obtain the resources, must be realised. These funds are included in budget planning for the coming fiscal year (see Peter Richardson).
Today provides clear focus for team members in Thailand. Everyone’s opinions are important in order to build consensus about where Openaid is going. I believe team members will produce more efficiency and effectiveness, and realise satisfaction and meaning around the common vision.
Justin Whitecross
ED
