Four phases of strategy

What are these phases?

 

 

• The first phase, Analysis, involves taking time to understand where you (as an Inclusion Officer) are starting from. What was our situation in the past? What is our situation today?
• Once you have a clear picture of where you are starting from, you are ready to being the second phase - Planning. What do we want our situation to look like tomorrow? Here you start making the choices which will define your future direction.
• The third phase, Implementation, involves identifying the steps you will take and putting those steps into action.
• The fourth and last phase, Evaluation, lets you know to what extent you have or have not been successful.

Each of these phases plays a vital role in a successful strategy. We will look at each of these phases in more detail in the section "Making an inclusion strategy".

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Is strategy development a linear process?

On paper, strategy is a logical and linear process moving steadily from Analysis to Planning to Implementation and finally to Evaluation. In real life, however, strategy is actually much more cyclical.

In practice, there can be a lot of overlap between the different phases. For instance, you may have to start Implementing before you have totally completed your Planning. By the same token, you may be deep in the Implementation phase when circumstances change, forcing you to go back to make a new Plan and possibly even a new Analysis. Evaluation will take place at many points throughout the process, not just at the end.

Strategies are cyclical because the situation around us is always changing. No one can predict the future and having a strategy cannot prevent circumstances from affecting your organisation. Having a strategy does not mean that you are trying to control the future. It means that you are anticipating and preparing for whatever the future may bring.

The most effective strategies are those which can respond and adapt to changes as they arise. This means that a strategy should not be just another document gathering dust on the shelf. A strategy is something alive, something which moves and evolves as necessary.
Having said that, it is important to stress that strategy development must begin at the beginning. It is not logical (and certainly not effective) to start implementing action steps before you even know where you are starting from.

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Benefits and disadvantages to strategy

Despite the fact that many institutions have strategies (commercial companies as well as non-governmental organisations), you might not yet be completely sold on the idea. While this booklet is obviously very much in favour of strategy, there are advantages as well as disadvantages involved:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategy

Some advantages to strategy	Some disadvantages to strategy
Strategy objectively assesses your position Strategy defines your direction Strategy provides clear targets Strategy facilitates decision-making Strategy allows you to measure progress	Strategy takes a lot of time Strategy costs money Strategy limits flexibility Strategy tries to predict the future Strategy is only for experts

Many people feel that although the advantages of strategy are very attractive, the disadvantages outweigh any possible benefits. As a result, many people write off the idea of strategy-making without ever having given it a try.

It is interesting to note that the disadvantages listed above stem largely from our perception of strategy rather than from our own experience. If you have never tried to design or implement a strategy, how can you know if it takes time or costs money? And what, precisely, is this perceived loss of time and money measured against?

The disadvantages listed here are not actually disadvantages to strategy itself, but rather they describe problems which can arise when a strategy is not developed in the correct way. These perceived disadvantages are actually commonly held strategy myths. These myths are so powerful that they can strangle the strategy development process before it even gets started. Therefore it is important to understand where these and other strategy myths come from.

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