Leading the Strategic Planning Process - Club Managers ...

Leading the Strategic Planning Process 119This discussion often will go on for some time, as participants share theirdefinition or view of the club in ideal terms. Be careful not to rush this discussion. Itis the most foundational discussion in the entire process, because it sets the club’sdirection. And expect to get a variety of answers—though there may be less variationamong answers if the meeting is attended by board members alone. Typically,“Mercedes-Benz,” “BMW,” and “Jaguar” top the list of responses.A logical follow-up question establishes the current state of the club and highlightsthe disparity of members’ views and responses: “Continuing with our caranalogy, what kind of car is the club presently?” This question is similar to the first,but forces the participants to assess the club’s actual and current status—what theclub is—rather than an intended ideal. Again, plan for an extended discussion asparticipants voice their opinions about how the club meets expectations and whereit may fall short—all in the context of the club as an automobile. And, as before,expect to get a variety of answers. In addition to the answers listed above, answerssuch as “Volkswagen,” “Bentley,” “Chevrolet,” “Ferrari,” and even “Edsel” are notuncommon.While it may seem that you have opened the proverbial “can of worms” withthis question, the answers are important clues to what the club’s members trulythink about the club in its present condition. Celebrate the fact that you now haveactual data to work with! To turn this data into useful, practical information, youmust compare the ideal and actual descriptions of the club. This is an effective “gapanalysis” of where you are presently as a club and where you want to be ideally asa club.After comparing answers and identifying the gap, you and your plannersshould analyze the answers in terms of the participants’ demographics and membershipcharacteristics (as much as club tradition and member preferences allow).For example, if most of your tennis-member respondents described the currentstate of the club in terms of economy or low-end cars, then you might considerexamining the tennis department and operation—its facilities, staff, and programs—tosee why it is falling short in the opinion of these members.Sometimes it is necessary to probe for more details, in order to elicit richerinformation for use in decision-making. Asking the question “What kind of car isthe club presently?” to assess members’ actual perception of the club is good as faras it goes, but if the discussion stalls, you can also ask more specific and probingquestions, such as:• What model is the car?• What is its condition?• What is the quality of its stereo? its tires?• What options does this car have?Depending on the willingness and enthusiasm of your group, you may needto keep probing to get people engaged and talking. (Once you get them talking,don't forget to make sure that all of their responses are recorded—this will getmore difficult as the pace of the discussion picks up.) For example, if members