STRATEGIC PLANNING: An effective tool for Building Strong Trade Unions in Africa

1. STRATEGIC PLANNING: An effective tool for Building Strong Trade Unions in Africa 21 May, 2013 Presentation by Inviolata Chinyangarara Senior Specialist, Workers’ Activities

2. Outline • Overview of Strategic Planning • Strategic Planning Framework • Situation Assessment • Strategy Development • Strategy Implementation • Next Steps

3. What is Strategic Planning? • Strategic planning is “a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organisation is, what it does, and why it does it” (Bryston, 1995).

4. What is Strategic Planning? …..contd • Through strategic planning, organizations can: • Examine the environment in which they exist and operate • Explore the factors and trends that affect the way they do business and carry out their roles • Seek to meet their mandates and fulfill their missions • Frame the strategic issues they must address • Find ways to address these issues by reexamining and reworking organisational mandates and missions, service levels and mix, costs and financing, management, or organization. • To be effective, strategic planning must be action oriented and must be linked to tactical and operational planning.

5. Interactive ABCs St of Strategic Planning • Throughout a strategic planning process, there are three fundamental interative questions that an organisation must ask itself? A Who and what are we, what do we do now, and why? B What do we want to be and do in the future, and why? C How do we get there? • The strategic planning process provide a reasonable and structured approach to answering the questions?

6. Benefits of Strategic Planning • Strategic planning is intended to enhance an organisation’s ability to think and act strategically. The benefits include: • Increased effectiveness – The organisation’s performance is enhanced, its mission furthered, and its mandates are met. In addition, the organisation responds effectively to rapidly changing circumstances. • Increased efficiency – The same or better results are achieved with fewer resources. • Improved understanding and better learning – The organisation understands its situation far more clearly. It is able to conceptualise, if necessary, and to establish an interpretive framework that can guide strategy development and implementation.

7. Benefits of Strategic Planning contd • Better decision making – A coherent, focused, and defensible basis for decision making is established, and today’s decisions are made in light of their future consequences. • Enhanced organisational capabilities – Broadly based organisational leadership is improved, and the capacity for further strategic thought and action is enhanced. • Improved communications and public relations – Mission, vision, goals, strategies, and action programs are communicated more effectively to key stakeholders. A desirable image for the organisation is established and managed. • Increased political support – The organisation’s legitimacy is enhanced, its advocacy base broadened, and a powerful and supportive coalition developed.

8. Poor excuses for avoiding Strategic Planning • We do not have policy board support. • There is no top management support. • Strategic planning won’t lead to perfection. • We are too big (or too small) for strategic planning. • We have a union. • We have personnel policies and individual performance goals to take care of this. • We do not know where to start. • We have already done it – years ago. • We are perfect already.

9. Strategic Planning Process VISION Hope of what the organisation will be like in the future MISSION Organisation’s distinctiveness and stakeholders’ expectations VALUES Uncompromised guiding principles of the organisation STRATEGIC THEMES STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES STRATEGIC OPTIONS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES SITUATION ASSESSMENT External Analysis Internal Analysis

10. Vision Statement • Vision • What the organisation aspires to be and the expectations of stakeholders when the mission is being accomplished. • Hope of what the organisation will be like in the future. • It is a snapshot of the future that the organisation wants to create. • Origin of Vision • Vision is acquired from an appreciation of the history of the organisation, a perception of the opportunities present in the environment, and an understanding of the strategic capacity of the organisation to take advantage of these opportunities.

11. Vision Statement • When thinking about the vision for our organisation, consider the following points: • As we look toward the future, we believe our organisation will / should become … • If we are successful at everything we are trying to accomplish today, what will our organisation look like five years from now? • We want our organisation to be “thought of” as … • What attributes do we most want our organisation to achieve? What characteristics should be considered as the essence of organisational excellence in our field of endeavour? • In the future, our employees will have and be seen as … • What characteristics reflect significant professional achievements in the mining industry and are recognised as reflections of competence by all relevant stakeholders? • The realisation of this vision will bring ___ to all of us … • What fundamental, positive changes will occur to us and our stakeholders if we achieve the vision we have set for ourselves?

12. Vision Statement • An Aid to the Development of a Vision Statement • A Clear Hope (profile) for the Future • Challenging and about Excellence • Inspirational and Emotional • Empowers Employees First and Clients / Customers Second • Prepares for the Future – Addresses key social concerns – environmentally sensitivity • Memorable and Provides Guidance – Use of memorable terms – first, best, and others.

13. Mission Statement • A mission statement is an action – oriented formulation of the organisation’s reason for existence. • A mission statement clarifies an organisation’s purpose and indicate why it is doing what it does. • The mission statement should be developed in light of who the organistion’s stakeholders are. • The mission statement for your organisation should also serve to define how you propose to get from where you are to where you want to go. • It should be meaningful yet concise.

14. Values statement … cont’d • A value statement should identify how an organisation conducts itself and what system of values it wishes to operate under, with both internal and external stakeholders. • If an organisation wants to develop a values statement, the starting point should be the following: • How do we want to conduct our business? • How do we want to treat our key stakeholders? • What do we value? • An effective values statement process often gives important insight into the organisation’s goals and strategies.

15. SWOC Analysis External Environment General Operating Opportunities Challenges S W O C Players Analysis Internal Environment Strengths Weaknesses

16. External Environment • External environment analysis explore the environment outside the organisation in order to identify the opportunities and challenges the organisation faces (and ideally, in conjunction with stakeholder analyses, to identify key success factors). • External opportunities are outside factors or situations that can affect your organisation in a favourable way (e.g. new funding from a program, political support for a potential project, a chance to modify an outdated mandate, etc.). • External Challenges are outside factors or situations that can affect your organisation in a negative way (e.e.g loss of funding, increasing demand for a specific service, union / management conflicts, etc).

17. External Environment…cont’d • The three major categories might be monitored in such an exploration: • Forces and trends • Key resources controllers • Actual or potential competitors or collaborators and important forces affecting competition and collaboration. • The three categories represent the basic foci for any effective external environment scanning system. • Forces and trends usually are broken down into political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal categories.

18. External Environment - Factors • Political – Legal Factors • Economic Factors • Social - Cultural Factors • Technological Factors • Environmental Factors • Demographic Factors

19. Internal Environment • Internal environment analysis is to identify its strengths and weaknesses; that is, those aspects of the organisation that help or hinder accomplishment of the organisation’s mission and fulfillment of its mandates. • Internal strengths are resources or capabilities that help an organisation accomplish its mandates or mission (e.g. professional staff, adequate resources, leadership, etc). • Internal weaknesses are deficiencies in resources and capabilities that hinder an organisation’s ability to accomplish its mandate or mission. (e.g. lack of effective communications, absence of clear vision or mission, flawed organisational structure, noncompetitive pay structure etc).

20. PlayersValueNet is used to describe the cast of players and relationship with each other) government Organisation Competitors Other TUs NGOs

21. End of Presentation Thank you for your kind attention!