Strategic Alignment
Monthly, quarterly and yearly checkups are a key way you can evaluate your ministry action plans. Take time to review your plan on a regular basis to make sure your objectives, goals, strategies, action plans and measures are strategically aligned. Use the four S’s to check your work:
- Synchronization – Do objectives, goals, strategies and measures have strategic alignment?
- Sufficiency – Are strategies and measures sufficient to achieve your objectives?
- Selectivity – Is your strategy selective? Does it communicate what you’re not going to do?
- Sustainability – Are your strategies and action plans sustainable?
Synchronization
Review your objectives and goals to see if they harmonize with your strategies and measures. If they don’t, then you don’t have strategic alignment.
- Is our strategy aligned with our vision?
- Does it harmonize with our values?
Sufficiency
Carefully assess whether the strategies and measures outlined in your plan are sufficient to achieve your objectives.
- Are your plans too conservative?
- Are your plans too bold?
- What adjustments are needed to reach our goals?
Selectivity
Review the strategy to see if it clearly lays out what you are NOT going to do. For example, I will not do ministry A because it is not aligned with ministry vision and strategy.
- What will we say “no” to?
- What will we say “yes” to?
Sustainability
Ensure that future resources align with anticipated ministry needs. For example, make certain that personnel, facility and ministry needs can be maintained in the long term. Consider ministry growth and expansion in your long range ministry plans.
- Do we have a sustainable strategy?
- Will our action plans produce growth?
- What adjustments are required to make our plans more sustainable?