Strategic planning and thinking skills

Strategic planning is about getting your team, department or organisation where it needs to go. Starting from knowing where you are and moving to where you want to get to, our Strategic planning and thinking skills course takes you right through the strategic planning process with helpful tools, techniques and ideas for every stage to enhance your strategic thinking skills.

Want us to deliver this course at your organisation? Contact us for a bespoke quote.

Please note our Standard Private course price is £1469.80 Incl VAT. Our Not for Profit price is £1309.20 Incl VAT.

Certificate of completion

Digital certificate - Included

Strategic planning training course.

Over the two days you will cover:

• defining what 'strategic' means
• using the strategic planning process to help you make choices about the future nature and direction of your organisation
• assessing the benefits and risks of strategic planning
• preparing for the planning process including developing a project plan, identifying your stakeholders
• the value of stakeholder involvement at every phase
• undertaking a strategic review to determine ‘where are we now?' including stakeholder research, collaborator/competitor analysis and understanding when and how to use analytical tools such as SWOT, PEST and the Boston Consulting Group matrix to understand your organisation and its environment
• thinking about the relationship between outputs, outcomes and impact
• identifying strategic direction
• taking a fresh look at what your organisation is, what it does, and why
• clarifying mission, vision, values and direction of travel
• recognising the relationship between organisation strategy and brand identity, and aligning the two
• recognising how the findings of the review will impact on the organisation's strategic direction
• setting strategic objectives
• establishing success criteria
• listing priority areas for action and developing objectives
• applying SMART strategic thinking skills
• using outcomes-based tools
• implementing the strategy
• understanding the key factors involved in implementing strategy
• using action planning tools such as logical frameworking, action planning grids and planning wheels
• communicating your strategic plan
• undertaking effective monitoring and evaluation
• understanding the difference between monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment
• identifying the indicators, and how to measure their achievement
• recognising emergent approaches to monitoring and evaluation such as participatory, real-time, balanced scorecard

This course also includes a year of free support from your trainer.

This course takes place at the Centre's central London training suite.

Our Strategic planning and thinking skills course is suitable for managers with strategic planning responsibility. Although the emphasis is on corporate or organisation-wide planning, the tools and techniques covered will have value for business unit or departmental managers.

The Centre works with people from all sectors including the public sector, voluntary sector, corporate sector and private sector.