Kate M: Imagine this. A community arts center committee that meets every month without fail. Seven committed, hardworking people who never say no.

Kate H: And this year, they hung six exhibitions, ran classes four nights a week, and kept the gallery shop open every weekend with just volunteers. They chased a grant for a new kiln, rebuilt the website from scratch, and somehow pulled off the Salah exhibition with only half the usual number of helpers.

Kate M: It's AGM time. The president sits down to write her annual report.

Kate H: And she can list everything they did, pages and pages of it.

Kate M: But when she tries to write about what it all achieved, she's stuck. Are more people coming through the doors than last year or just the same faces? Did the classes pay their way or is the shop still propping them up? Is the center in a stronger position for the future than it was twelve months ago? Well, nobody knows because nobody decided at the start of the year what they were trying to achieve this year.

Kate H: So there's nothing to measure it against. All hands are on deck, but nobody's steering the ship. Busy isn't the same as purposeful. Welcome to The Committee Room.

Welcome back to The Committee Room. I'm Kate Hartwig.

And I'm Kate McPhee. We help small, time poor, volunteer led committees run better meetings, make better decisions, and build stronger structures and systems with less stress and less mess. We do that through this podcast, through my book, Just a Tick, and through Kate's Committee Companion. And together through Fresh Allsorts, we offer all sorts of tools and services, including the constitution composer, our governance health checks, and of course strategic and operational planning that actually works.

The lights are back on in the Committee Room after last week's Halloween special, and today we're starting a new series, Planning with Purpose. Across three episodes, we'll look at why planning matters, how to build a strategic plan, and how to turn that plan into action. And Kate, I cannot believe that we are now six months into our weekly podcast and we're only just getting around to our favorite subject, planning.

Kate M: Well, clearly we didn't plan that very well, did we? Kate, a couple of episodes ago when we were talking budgets, we said that if you were thinking plans, what plans? You weren't alone. We promised we'd come back to strategic planning and here we are, And we're keeping it real. This is planning for small organizations run by volunteers with busy lives, limited time, and better things to do than produce a 10 page plan that nobody reads.

Kate H: Today, we're looking at the big picture. We're taking planning out of the too hard basket and putting it back on the committee table. We'll explain the difference between a strategic plan and operational plans and help you work out where your organisation should start.

Kate M: Because being busy isn't the same as getting somewhere. You can have a full calendar, a packed agenda and enough action items to keep you busy until the next century and still not make much progress.

Kate H: A quick note before we start, this podcast is general information on best practice governance for small to medium associations. It is not legal advice. Okay, let's get planning.

Kate M: In Just a Tick, I say the committee's first job is setting the strategic direction for the organisation. And Kate, that's the first job. It's not item nine on the agenda after you've dealt with the bar roster, and yet plenty of committees who know they should be planning don't. So Kate, in your experience, what gets in their way?

Kate H: Well, it's some version of we are too busy doing things to stop and think about what we should be doing.

Kate M: And that's exactly the problem that I've seen over and over. So when the Committee is always reacting to the next event, the next request, the next crisis, they stop asking the big questions. Where are we trying to go? Are we getting any closer? Is what we're doing helping us to get there?

Kate H: Activity doesn't always equal productivity. You can be flat out all year and still be standing in the same spot.

Kate M: That makes me think of the red queen in the book Through the Looking Glass. Remember she and Alice run faster and faster and faster, but they never seem to be getting anywhere. The queen says to Alice something like... I can't remember the exact words, but something like, sometimes you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place.

Kate H: And that is a lot of volunteer committees rushing around like headless chooks just to keep the doors open. But running faster isn't the answer. The answer is to stop for a while and work out where you want your organisation to be going. That's what planning is for. That's the purpose of planning.

Kate M: The second thing that gets in the way, after some version of we're too busy doing things to stop and think about it is that everyone around the table sort of knows what the organization should be doing. It's in their heads. The trouble is it's a slightly different version in every head, and ideas floating around in committee members' heads are not a strategic plan. An idea without a plan is just a wish.

Kate H: And the third thing is that strategic planning has a bit of a reputation. If you want proof, Google how to develop a strategic plan and see what comes up.

Kate M: It's terrifying. And plenty of what you'll find online, of course, is written for organisations with a CEO and a big boardroom and a budget to match. It's no wonder that so many volunteer committees put strategic planning in the too hard basket.

But it doesn't have to be like that. A good planning process is designed for your organisation. So a community art centre with 60 members and no paid staff doesn't need the same process as a regional sporting body with a CEO and a dozen staff. It needs to suit your size, your people, and where you're at right now. Now if things are going well, you might only need a steady as she goes plan.

But if your organization's going through bumpy times or you know that big changes are coming, then you're going to need to do some more work.

Kate H: And a good process brings in the people who care most about your organisation, your members, your volunteers and your users, not just the ones with the loudest voices. But don't get stuck trying to design the perfect consultation either. Analysis paralysis can do as much damage as not asking anyone at all. That's why it's nearly always worth bringing in an outside facilitator to design the process with you. There might be a fee, but it's an investment in your association's future.

Kate M: And the payoff is that when everyone knows where you're going and why, your committee, your volunteers, your staff, if you've got them, and your members can all get on with doing their bit with confidence. Nobody's having to make it up as they go.

Kate H: Now before we go any further let's make something clear. Mixing up your plans is one of the most common planning mistakes we see. There are two types and they do very different jobs strategic plans and operational plans. The strategic plan is the 'what'. It looks at the big picture usually over three to five years or maybe a bit less if you're brand new or a very small organisation.

It starts with your vision which describes what you want your organisation to become or to achieve. So for our art centre the vision might be a place where everyone in our town can make, see and enjoy art. Well, that's nice. I go to that art centre. Well, that's exactly the idea of the vision, Kate.

It allows everybody to know what it is that you're all about. Then the strategic plan turns that vision into a small number of big goals. For example, reaching more people in our community, building a stronger base of volunteers and putting the centre on a more sustainable financial footing. Those are the what. They describe where you want to go in broad terms, not the individual steps to get there. There's only one strategic plan and it belongs to the Committee.

Kate M: Operational plans are the how, so they're usually annual or for a particular project. The operational plans set out the steps to reach those big goals in the strategic plan. And they say who's doing what and by when.

There's usually more than one operational plan. So your budget is an operational plan. So is your marketing plan, your volunteer plan, your events plan, and so on. And then there are the one off project plans like making a building extension or organizing your fiftieth anniversary celebration.

And they belong to whoever's doing the managing. That might be a paid manager or it could be a coordinator or a subcommittee or even a working group.

And the rhythm is very different too. The strategic plan is reported on quarterly and reviewed every year. Operational plans are reported on monthly and reviewed every quarter.

Kate H: Now, Kate, in Just a Tick, you describe the two as yin and yang.

That's right. I do. So think of them as two halves of the same whole. They do different jobs, but neither one works without the other.

Kate M: So a strategic plan with no operational plans is a wish list. Operational plans with no strategic plan are just to do lists. Strategy comes first, implementation comes second.

Kate H: So how do you work out which plan something belongs in? Well, here's an easy test. Bring more young people into the art centre. That's a strategy. It goes in the strategic plan because it's broad and aspirational.

Run a Friday night life drawing class for under 25s is an activity that goes in the operational plan. One is a direction, the other is what you do about it.

Kate M: Where we often see it go wrong is where the committee has filled the strategic plan with activities. You know, every opening night, every working day, every workshop, before you know it's pages and pages long and nobody reads it. So the committee ends up spending its meetings sorting out the nibbles for the next exhibition instead of governing. And that blurs the line between governance and operations.

Kate H: It's something we keep coming back to on this show. The governor's job is to govern. The manager's job is to manage. Even when your managers, you know, your operations teams are volunteers or a subcommittee. So before anyone books a planning day, ask a simple question. What kind of planning does your organisation need right now?

Kate M: And Kate, it's really important that people understand that not every committee starts from the same place. There are four situations that we regularly see, so let's go through them one at a time.

Kate H: Okay. Number one, and this is probably the most common, you've got no plans at all. So if you've got no plans, you start with the strategic plan because strategy always comes first. Keep it simple and keep it to one page. This is where an outside facilitator is really useful, especially if your organisation is going through bumpy times or you know big changes are coming.

We'll walk you through exactly what goes on that one page in the next episode.

Kate M: Situation two is where you've got a strategic plan but no operational plans. So that's a destination with no route. So you need to build this year's operational plans using the strategic plan as your map. So you line up everything that you're doing and everything you're planning to do against the goals in your strategic plan. Then you'll be able to see what connects to the strategic plan and what you're doing only because you've always done it.

Kate H: Number three, you've got a strategic plan and an operational plan or two, but nobody's looked at them since before the last AGM or possibly the one before that. Meanwhile, the world has moved on. Your members have changed, your volunteers have changed, and the counsellor's probably changed your lease. So book in a review. Or if the plan has run past its use by date, or most of the people who wrote it have left the committee, consider starting afresh.

A plan nobody around the table helped to build is very hard to get behind.

Kate M: And the fourth situation, the last one, you've got a strategic plan and an operational plan all three, and you review them every year, and they actually guide your decisions. Well done. So your job now is to keep those plans alive, bring them to meetings, test decisions against them, report on progress.

Kate H: That last part is where a lot of committees fall over. The strategic plan gets built, mentioned in the annual report, filed and never opened again.

Kate M: Kate, that's a ghost plan. That's a close cousin of last week's ghost policies. Technically, it's still there, but nobody can see it and it doesn't do anything.

Kate H: A plan that doesn't guide decisions isn't a plan. It's just another document.

Kate M: And planning isn't one and done. Things change, so your plans will change. That's fine. That needs to happen. It's better to have planned and changed your plans than not to have planned at all.

Much better to have loved and lost, isn't it Kate?

Kate H: Yes. Something we're very familiar with. So here's a quick test. Does your organisation have a vision? Could every person on your committee tell me your organisation's vision from memory right now?

Kate M: If the answer is no, that's your starting point.

If you don't have a vision statement at all, then creating one is the very first thing you need to do. If you do have a vision statement, but nobody can remember it, then it's either too long, too generic, or it just doesn't reflect your organisation anymore. So that's going to need some work. So let's sum up. Doing lots of things isn't the same as doing the right things.

Planning is how you get off the treadmill and ask the really important questions for your organisation. The strategic plan is the what, big picture, usually three to five years, bit less if you're brand new or very small. There's only one strategic plan and it's owned by the committee. Operational plans are the how. They're usually annual or project based, who does what and by when, and they're owned by whoever manages that area of activity.

Yin yang, you need both, and each plan needs to stay in its own lane.

Kate H: As some wise person said, never mistake activity for achievement. A committee can be a bit like the white rabbit going back to your Alice in Wonderland analogy, always rushing around, fretting about being late and never quite getting where it needs to go. And while you're busy dealing with whatever's urgent, you could be missing what's really important. So let's get back to our four situations because this is where it gets practical. Where's your organisation right now? One, you have no plans at all.

Two, you have a strategic plan but no operational plans. Three, your plans are past their use by date. Or four, your plans are alive and guiding your decisions but are they being reviewed? Work out which one is your organisation and that tells you where to start.

Kate M: So listeners, your improvement challenge for this week is to pull out the minutes from your last three meetings. Count how many decisions mention your strategic plan. Then count how many decisions were about hanging the next exhibition or fixing the kiln or chasing overdue class fees. That tells you whether your committee is governing or managing. And remember around the committee table, the job is to be governing.

We've talked today about the value of an outside facilitator. Well, running planning workshops is something we both do. If your committee is ready to get its plans out of the too hard basket, we'd love to help. Our contact details are in the show notes.

And if you've got a governance question you'd like us to tackle on the show, the contact form is at thecommitteeroom dot com. Au. Chances are if you're wondering about it, else on another committee is too.

Kate H: And remember, you can leave us a voice note in our WhatsApp Committee Room community on 0421 451 655. If today's episode has been useful, subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts and share the link with someone on your committee or another committee, especially if planning has been sitting in the too hard basket for a while now. The show notes are at thecommittereom.com.au.

Kate M: Next time, we're rolling up our sleeves and building a strategic plan. How to look back, how to look around and how to look forward, how to work out your vision, your future goals and the strategies to get there. And Kate, we're going to talk about BHAGs. That's big hairy audacious goals, and every committee should have at least one. So that will be episode 28, Which Way From Here?

Until then, I'm Kate McPhee, Kate two.

Kate H: And I'm Kate Hartwig, Kate one.

Kate M: And this has been The Committee Room. Remember.

Kate H: You don't need good luck if you've got good governance and some really good plans.