Strategic Planning Guidelines - The Irish Sports Council

Step 1: Plan the Plan
Before the work of actually producing the plan can really start, a number of key decisions
have to be taken. These decisions will affect the eventual outcome, so they require
careful consideration:
• The composition of the “planning team”: the last section suggested the creation of a
team to oversee the planning process. This should be a group of no more than about
half a dozen people – more than this and it can be very difficult to arrange meetings –
who are committed to the long term good of the NGB. Ideally, they should have no
personal axes to grind: they are on the planning team to represent the area as a whole,
not a particular interest group/sport.
• How the plan is going to be prepared: at the outset it is important to determine
whether the plan preparation is to be done completely “in-house” or will involve an
external facilitator and the broad approach to be adopted. This guide is intended as a
template, which NGBs can adapt to their own particular needs.
• Identify key internal stakeholders: NGBs have a number of internal stakeholders
who will be affected directly by the planning process and outcomes of the plan.
These will include:
� The NGB’s partners
� Its members
� Professional staff: NGB staff is likely to be affected by the preparation of a
strategic plan. Staff must be included in the process, otherwise might gain the
impression the plan is being prepared behind her/ his back.
� Others (this is dependent on specific NGB circumstances)
• Decide on the key external stakeholders: NGBs also have external stakeholders –
the organisations with which they interact such as clubs, sponsors, the Irish Sports
Council and Government Departments. In addition, if there are outside organisations
with which the NGB is likely to wish to work in partnership, it will often help to bring
them in to the planning process. In many instances external stakeholders will not
wish to be involved on an ongoing basis but this does not mean they should be
ignored.
• Set a broad timetable for the planning process: preparing a strategic plan nearly
always takes longer than expected at the outset, so build some “float” time into any
programme for the preparation of a plan. When setting the overall programme, the
key dates on which to base the plan timetable are usually:
� The end of the financial year: the best time to start implementing a new strategic
plan is at the beginning of an ISC funding year. This allows an existing budget to
continue while the plan and related new budget are prepared
� When the NGB has to submit its plan to the Irish Sports Council. Any deadline set
by the Council will obviously be a critical date to take into account when planning
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