2. STRATEGIC PLANNING: An Effective Tool for Building Strong Trade Unions in Africa 21 May, 2013 Presentation by Inviolata Chinyangarara Senior Specialist, Workers’ Activities 21st May 2013

3. 26 May 2010 Outline Overview of Strategic Planning Strategic Planning Framework Situation Assessment Strategy Development Strategy Implementation Next Steps: how trade unions can adopt this framework as a tool for building strong trade unions in Africa

4. 26 May 2010 What is Strategic Planning? Strategic planning is “a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organisation (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it” (Bryston, 1995).

5. 26 May 2010 What is Strategic Planning? …..contd Through strategic planning, organisations 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, product or service levels and mix, costs and financing, management, or organisation. To be effective, strategic planning must be action oriented and must be linked to tactical and operational planning.

6. 26 May 2010 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? C How do we get there? B What do we want to be and do in the future, and why? The strategic planning process provide a reasonable and structured approach to answering the questions?

7. 26 May 2010 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.

8. 26 May 2010 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.

9. 26 May 2010 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.

10. 26 May 2010 Strategic Planning Process MISSION Organisation’s distinctiveness and WORKERs’ expectations VISION Hope of what the organisation will be like in the future VALUES Uncompromise d guiding principles of the organisation STRATEGIC THEMES STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES SITUATION ASSESSMENT STRATEGIC OPTIONS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES External AnalysisInternal Analysis

11. 26 May 2010 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.

12. 26 May 2010 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?

13. 26 May 2010 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 /workers –Prepares for the Future – Addresses key social concerns – economic and environmentally sensitivity –Memorable and Provides Guidance – Use of memorable terms – first, best, and others.

14. 26 May 2010 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.

15. 26 May 2010 Mission Statement … cont’d Components of Mission Statement –Target workers / –Principal service delivered –Geographical/SECTORAL domain of operations –Commitment of specific values –Explicit philosophy

16. 26 May 2010 Values statement Values are the principles (innovation, integrity, teamwork, and so on) that guide decision making and are held dear by members of the organization. These are principles the managers and employees will not compromise while they achieve the mission and pursue the vision. Values are the things organisations and people stand for – the fundamental principles that, along with the mission, make an organisation unique. Most often, values relate to ethical behaviour and socially responsible decision making. Other values are also specific to a particular organisation and type of behaviour that has either characterised its members’ behaviour in the past or behaviour to which members collectively aspire in the future.

17. 26 May 2010 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.

18. 26 May 2010 Internal Environment External Environment SWOC Analysis StrengthsWeaknesses OpportunitiesChallenges Players Analysis SWOC GeneralOperating

19. 26 May 2010 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).

20. 26 May 2010 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.

21. 26 May 2010 External Environment - Factors Political – Legal Factors Economic Factors Social - Cultural Factors Technological Factors Environmental Factors Demographic Factors

22. 26 May 2010 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).

23. 26 May 2010 Players ValueNet is used to describe the cast of players and relationship with each other) Suppliers CompetitorsCollaborators Customers Organisation

24. 26 May 2010 Overview of strategic issues identification The identification of strategic issues facing an organisation is the heart of strategic planning process. The previous stages have been designed to provide information that will help frame the strategic issues in the most constructive way. A strategic issues is a fundamental challenge affecting an organisation’s mandates, mission, product or service level and mix, clients or users, costs, financing, organisation, or management. The purpose of identifying selected strategic issues is to enable the organisation to focus on key challenges or policy choices.

25. 26 May 2010 Benefits of strategic issues I Identification Attention is focused on what is truly important –It helps to recognise that in terms of immediacy of the attention they require, there are three different kinds of strategic issues;  Issues that require no action at present but that must be continuously monitored,  Issues that can be handled as part of the organisation’s regular strategic planning cycle, and  Issues that require an immediate response and therefore cannot be handled in a more routine way.

26. 26 May 2010 Questions for identifying key strategic iss issues What is the real issue, conflict, or dilemma? Why is it an issue? What is it about the organisation’s mission, mandates, or SWOCs that makes it an issue? Who says it is an issue? What would be the consequences of not doing something about it? Can the organisation do something about it? Is there a way to combine or eliminate issue? Should an issue be broken down into to or more issues? What issues are missing from the list, including issues that the organisation’s culture might have kept us from recognising?

27. Strategy Formulation Formulating and adopting strategies and plans to manage the issues 26 May 2010

28. Key questions for refining s Strategies What is really reasonable? Where can we combine proposals, actions, and specific steps? Do any proposal, actions, or specific steps contradict each other, and if so what should we do about them? What (including the necessary resources) are we or the key implementers really willing to commit to over the next year? What are the specific next steps that would have to occur in the next six months for this strategy to work?

29. 26 May 2010 Monitoring and Evaluation Projected 5 year performance measures for strategic objectives 5 Years Performance Indicators Strategic Objectives MeasuresBaselineTargetsYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5

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