
Jeff Rock Consulting, LLC
10244 Candura Drive
Waynesboro, PA 17268-3814
(717) 387-1746

Strategic Planning
At Jeff Rock Consulting, we believe a strategic plan is a tool that provides guidance in fulfilling a mission with maximum efficiency and profitable impact. If it is to be effective and useful, it should articulate specific goals and describe the action steps, metrics and resources needed to accomplish profitable success! As a rule, Jeff Rock Consulting believes most strategic plans should be reviewed semi-annually and revamped every 18 months to two years.
A successful strategic plan is, by definition, a usable plan–one that informs the employees of the organization’s activities as well as its long-range view, and one that yields meaningful improvements in effectiveness, capacity and relevance. No organization exists in a static environment. Social, political and economic trends continually impact the demand for its offerings and services. Even as advances in technology present new opportunities, they also generate new expectations. Needs and community demographics are all subject to change. So too are methods for delivering programs and services. It is thus essential that a strategic plan reflect the external environment. Programs, services and operations should be reexamined and reshaped in light of current realities and future projections.
At Jeff Rock Consulting, we believe it is important to understand the limitations as well as the possibilities of strategic planning. A strategic plan is not a wish list, a report card or a marketing tool. It is certainly not a magic bullet or a quick cure for everything that ails an organization — especially if the plan winds up on the shelf. What a strategic plan can do is shed light on an organization’s unique strengths and relevant weaknesses, enabling it to pinpoint new opportunities or the threats caused from current or projected problems. If you and your board and staff are committed to its implementation, a strategic plan can provide an invaluable blueprint for growth and revitalization, enabling an organization to take stock of where it is, determine where it wants to go and chart a course to get there.
Why vision matters:
A strategic plan cannot succeed unless it is derived from a clear vision of what the organization will look like at a specific point in the future. This vision is encapsulated in a written description of the organization’s desired future state in terms of budget size, client base, staffing levels and program areas and other parameters. (Alternatively, a vision statement may focus outward on the organization’s societal impact. Sometimes the vision is so self-evident at the outset of the planning process that the statement virtually writes itself. But more often, the existing vision may be hazy, ambiguous or outdated. Indeed, the effectiveness of many organizations is hampered by conflicting visions, or myopic visions devoid of “big picture” thinking.
At Jeff Rock Consulting, we believe that regardless of the starting point, an external scan and organizational assessment are essential prerequisites for drafting an effective vision statement. They ground the process in reality, thereby helping stakeholders narrow their choices or see opportunities that they had not previously considered.
At Jeff Rock Consulting, we will help your organization convene a retreat for planning committee members and other key stakeholders to develop a vision for the future.
A vision statement should be explicit, straightforward, measurable and, above all, concise!