After the SWOT, Formulating Issues and Focal Points

On January 14th, the KCC Sangha met to discuss KCC's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats/challenges (SWOT).  This work was a preliminary step in beginning to hone down the major categories of strategic focus.  As a way of transitioning into that next step, meeting organizers asked attendees to fill out 3x5 cards and identify the areas that seemed most pressing to them.  It was a good time to get a first sense of things--the SWOT items and discussion were freshly in mind.  Peter F graciously agreed to take the cards you filled out and collapse them into categories.  There were, of course, a lot of answers given by just one or two people.  (Peter's chart is at the end of this post.)  Four responses, however, were given by large numbers of people, and two others were also mentioned frequently.  Have a look:

1. Communication (28)
2. Fundraising and financial transparency (27)
3. Volunteers; organizing, management, mentoring (27)
4. Urban Center (22)
5. Program and practice groups (13)
6. Succession (11)

On Monday following that meeting, members of the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) met and we spent the majority of the meeting further discussing these categories.  One of the difficulties is thinking about how to frame these categories conceptually.  With little effort, we can divide KCC's activities into major areas--facilities, finances, operations, volunteers, programs, communications.  But these categories alone don't suggest a strategic orientation.  It's easy enough to imagine that the strategy for one or more of these categories is just "continue with current practices." 

A panoramic view of the January 16 meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Take the urban center as one example.  We have known for well over a decade that the current site at 73 NE Monroe is inadequate--too small, too few meeting rooms.  But what is our strategic goal?  Do we merely want a bigger center, or do we want a different center, and if so, what kind?  Asking these questions is more useful than just identifying categories--they help bring the larger category in to sharper focus. After kicking ideas around for an hour, members of the SPC began to get a deeper sense of what we were actually looking for--and realized we had a lot more work in front of us.

What are your thoughts?  If you were limited to five or six strategic initiatives over the next five years, what would they be? 

At the next SPC meeting (Monday, Jan 23), the committee will step back from this discussion in order to try to lay out a firmer timeline of events, with members identifying how much time and work they can commit to the process.  Then we'll be back at it, focusing back in on the strategic plan.


A document containing the aggregated list of suggested topics for KCC's strategic direction are below the jump.



SWOT Meeting Priority Card Responses