Driving Force Impacts
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation.
Driving Forces Table reprinted with permission from Neil Gustafson, Instructor, University of St. Thomas' "Macrocontemporary Scene" course in its Executive MBA program.
(This document is referenced from Strategic Planning.)
During strategic planning, consider the following grid when conducting a scan of the environment that is external to the organization. The grid can be used in scenario-based, strategic planning. Scenario planning is a useful technique that often provokes planners to really be strategic in their planning.
From the perspectives of each of the two alternative sets of assumptions (A and B) below, for your selected driving force (listed in the left-hand column), describe the conditions that you think might might prevail in the U.S. regarding your organization. Select a certain number of years in the future in which to describe your scenario, e.g., 3, 5, 10 or 20 years out. Then compile an overview scenario for the future of your organization, based on the scenarios A and B that result from considering each driving force.
|
That Could Effect Future of Your Organization |
Best-Case Conditions/Effects |
Worst-Case Conditions/Effects |
| Business (types, vitality, location, capital availability, management, philosophy, etc.) | ||
| Communications and access to information | ||
| Economic conditions (e.g., GNP, productivity, inflation, etc.) | ||
| Education (elementary, secondary, higher, life-long, etc.) | ||
| Employment and labor force characteristics | ||
| Energy (e.g., availability, types, uses, costs, etc.) | ||
| Environmental conditions (air, water, soil) | ||
| Equal opportunities (women, minorities) | ||
| Food (production, distribution, consumption) | ||
| Governance (structures and operations as a government) | ||
| Health and human services | ||
| Housing (types, location, conditions, costs, etc.) | ||
| International relations (economic, social, political) | ||
| Life-style conditions | ||
| Natural resources (minerals, fuels, foreign products, etc.) | ||
| Politics (voting, political parties, lobbying, methods of influence, etc.) | ||
| Population (growth or decline, composition, distribution, etc.) | ||
| Religion and ethics | ||
| Security (personal, property, crime, law enforcement, etc.) | ||
| Technology (communication, medical, military, robotics, artificial intelligence) | ||
| Transportation (auto, rail, air, etc.) | ||
| Other |
For the Category of Strategic Planning:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For-Profit Specific
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Nonprofit-Specific
Field
Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Step-by-step guidelines to customize and facilitate planners to implement the best strategic planning process to suit the particular nature and needs of their nonprofit. This is one of the few books, if any, that explains how to actually facilitate planning. Includes many online forms that can be downloaded and used by planners. Many materials in this Library's topic about strategic planning are adapted from this book.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Also See
Planning and Project Management -- Recommended Books
