Our approach to strategic planning draws on the Strategic Planning and Performance Monitoring Framework (create link to the page describing the framework) to structure the planning process. It typically consists of two phases. The first phase is designed to review the mission, mandate, priorities and formulate outcomes aligned to the national priorities and outcomes. The second phase involves detailed planning at departmental/ programmes level to formulate the organisational outputs against which the specific activities, budgets and time frames are formulated. The process is flexible and very participative. Strategic planning is an integral part of government’s planning, performance monitoring and evaluation system and our approachhas been developed in line with the guidelines produced by National Treasury that prescribes the planning, monitoring and reporting requirements for public entities.

Strategy formulation is only 20% of the job done. The key challenge is making the transition from strategic planning to implementation – an area that many organisations struggle with. We have worked with many organisations to set up the required governance structures, coordinating capacity and the strategy management capability to make the transition less strenuous. Strategy implementation often involves a change in structure, reorganisation of process and the development of new skills and competencies.