The Battle of Your Strategies

Dear Diary,

Today, I want to focus on strategies and goal-setting– long term versus short term. Together, we are going to complete an exercise that creates and assess opportunities. The baseline is intentionality, and the topline is a grasp of the rest of the year, and a plan for the next three years. The focus is on what is possible versus what is currently being completed.

It is important to note that when setting long term goals, you are giving yourself grace and acknowledging what needs time to be done, the pace, and the team structure. You have to question and potentially plan to break down your current process for a rebuild. For example, if you are in a solo shop, your long-term goals are within a very different timeline than a four-person research shop that is supporting 16 fundraisers.

Completing an exercise like this is useful when you are reviewing goals, and reporting goals to your leadership team.

Here is my worksheet, I hope you will show me your work. Let’s begin.

The takeaway from the short to long term goals set in this exercise is to spur innovation and planning. It also calls for more detail and questions. Ask yourself – How can my team grow and truly meet needs? Could our current selves hinder or flatten the growth and impact of our future selves?

Until next time,

September 15th!