Need an updated, creative, and effective Strategic Plan? For your team, organization, sector or community? 

The emerging best practice is to develop the goals and strategies using the input of stakeholders and/or community members right from the start. But how exactly?

The “Now. Wow! How?” exercise is fun, focused, productive, and easy to run. It is a hands-on and in-person exercise that encourages people to think about present (Now) assets or strengths in a group, organization or community, to jointly set “stretch goals” for the future (Wow), and to identify the means of achieving those goals (How). 

Small groups of 5-10 people are first given an overview of the exercise, how it works, the timing, and the desired outcomes. Each small group is then given a large sheet with three concentric rings labeled Now. Wow! and How? Participants take 20 minutes for each round, discuss the central  topic or challenge given by the organizers.

They work together to answer these questions in sequence: What exists now that we can build on? Where do we want to be on this in five years? How do we get there?.

When finished the three rounds, each small group shares their poster and results, and the lead facilitator identifies key findings and ideas coming from multiple groups.

These findings form the first draft of a detailed strategic plan, and the people involved often help finalize and implement it.

Download this 1-page overview of the tool:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bxju6XLwczCmRO3bIGaatO_PRXr6873z/view?usp=sharing 

Contact us for more implementation guidelines at info@engagefor2030.org

 

• this item was profiled in the September 2024 EF2030 newsletter
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• https://engagefor2030.org/