1. 509 Organizational Experience
Creating a Strategic Framework for
PATH for women
By: Amanda Phillips
Project Supervisors: Jamie Ross, PhD
and Torrie Fields, MPH
2. Emphasis of Work
Helping PATH for women prepare for
its future, and become more efficient
and effective, by creating a strategic
plan and an organizational
communications plan.
3. Summary of Learning Objectives
• Enhance stakeholder identification and
management skills
• Strengthen strategic communication skills
• Enhance applied skills in situational
analyses
• Develop competencies in strategic planning
4. Preparing to Plan
• Identifying key decision makers
• Clarifying the goals, desired
outcomes, timeline, and procedures
• Reviewing/revising/developing a
mission, vision, and values to guide
the strategic planning process
5. Assess External and Internal
Environments
Determine organizational capacity, threats
and opportunities by:
• Scanning the external environment
• Conducting a SWOT Analysis
• Completing a Stakeholder Analysis
• Performing an internal audit
6. Identify and Manage Strategic Issues
• Analyze the challenges and
opportunities
• Develop a list of strategic issues
• Prioritize that list
• Formulate strategic goals
7. Development and Implementation I
• Operationalize the strategic goals with
strategies and objectives
• Create tactics and an action plan
• Review, revise, and repeat
• Codify the team approved version into a
formal strategic plan
8. Development and Implementation II
Support the strategic plan with strategic
communications
•Create a core message
•Review internal and external scans
•Identify barriers and opportunities to delivering the
message
•Develop a communications plan including goals,
strategies, objectives, tools, and tactics
10. Significance of Work
• Unifying mission and vision
• Clear strategic direction
• Better prepared to engage and communicate
with stakeholders
• A framework and tools to evaluate PATH for
women’s progress toward achieving its goals
11. Future Career Implications
• Strengthened communication and project
management skills
• Gained experience in change management
• Professional group facilitation experience
• Developed business planning competencies
• Interest in strategic planning and
organizational development
My name is Amanda Phillips and today I am presenting my 509 Organizational Experience at PATH for women
PATH for women or Policy Advisory Towards Health for women was founded in 2004 by Dr. Michelle Berlin. The program has expanded from its original emphasis on creating and translating scientific research to inform women’s health policy to now include coalition capacity building and community outreach. As a result, PATH for women has two divisions; one focuses on research and the other focuses on outreach. Dr. Jamie Ross and Torrie Fields are Co-Directors of the outreach division and it is housed at Portland State University’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. The outreach division aims to develop meaningful relationships with interested community members, community organizations, public health professionals, educators, and policymakers regarding issues facing women in Oregon. The research division is housed at Oregon Health and Sciences University’ s Center for Women’s Health where Dr. Michelle Berlin, PATH for women’s director of research is a lead author of the Making the Grade on Women’s Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card. The outreach division draws much of its evidenced-based health related information from the Report Card. PATH for women’s transition into a multi-division organization has produced some organizational challenges. These challenges include A shift in PATH for women’s core mission The need for a vision that encompasses the entire organization and values that will guide the pursuit of the mission and vision Ensuring that both divisions are financially sustainable Limited organizational capacity Identifying and developing the most promising product lines Utilizing the most efficient operational model(s) Employing innovative yet appropriate strategies and tactics to achieve its mission Managing organizational change effectively Gaining visibility, positioning the organization correctly, and increasing PATH for women’s relevance locally and regionally To address these problems PATH for women asked me to develop a strategic plan and an organizational communications plan.
As a result, my learning objectives were to Enhance my stakeholder identification and management skills Strengthen my strategic communication skills Enhance my applied skills in situational analyses and Develop my competencies in strategic planning
To ensure that my project was ultimately useful to PATH for women I began by identifying key decision makers. I then requested a meeting to clarify the goals of the project, desired outcomes, timeline, and procedures. I believed that this approach would allow PATH for women’s staff to take ownership of the project and its results, and that it would make it easier to gain their buy-in at various stages of the project. These key decision makers were my field supervisors Dr. Jamie Ross, Torrie Fields, and PATH for women’s founder Dr. Michelle Berlin. This approach was ultimately even more critical to my project than anticipated. At my initial meeting I learned that PATH for women wanted a unique approach to the strategic planning process. Instead of the traditional approaches that we learn in classes such as Healthcare Marketing and Strategic Planning for Healthcare Organizations PATH for women wanted me to use frameworks which incorporated feminist ideologies. For example, instead of the traditional approach to a stakeholder analysis which requires that we rank stakeholders on their power, resource levels etc. PATH for women wanted me to use a scorecard that focused on relationships, stakeholder needs, and those who would be affected the most by the coalitions that that the organization intends to support. Next we examined PATH for women’s current mission. It was limited in its scope and did not include the activities of the outreach arm. We So we re-wrote and expanded the mission statement. In addition we created a vision statement and values
Once I had a framework the next step was to establish a baseline of PATH for women’s organizational capacity, threats and opportunities. Therefore I performed an environmental scan, conducted a SWOT analysis, completed a stakeholder analysis, and an internal audit.
The external and internal assessments gave us the information that we needed to determine the challenges and opportunities that affect PATH for women’s ability to achieve its mission and vision. From these challenges and opportunities we were able to identify strategic issues that PATH for women should address in its strategic plan. At this stage it was important that we distinguish between strategic issues that need to be addressed during this planning cycle and those that can be monitored and addressed at a later date. Those issues that were high priorities were transalted into strategic goals
Next we Operationalized the strategic goals by creating strategies and objectives to support these goals; Then we created tactics and an action plan which included a timeline and designated responsibilities for each tasks. This was an iterative process. We evaluated each goal, strategy and objective to ensure that they were consistent with PATH for women’s mission, vision and values, that the organization had the capacity to achieve the goal, that they leveraged organizational strengths while reducing weaknesses, and they allowed PATH to capitalize on opportunities while mitigating threats. Once we were satisfied we finalized PATH for women’s strategic plan.
To support the strategic plan and to address some of the strategic challenges that I mentioned at the start of this presentation, we transformed the overall strategy, mission, vision, and values into a core message, and communications plan that improves overall communication with stakeholders, persuades keys stakeholders and the public, and enhances PATH for women’s relevance and position in the community. This communications plan also provided a framework for effective communication that uses PATH for women’s limited resources wisely, and metrics by which PATH for women can measure its success. This communications plan will be implemented over the 2012-2013 period.
My outcomes were A Stakeholder Analysis An Organizational Strategic Communications Plan A Situational Analysis A Strategic Plan
As a result of this strategic planning process PATH for women has a unifying mission and vision, a clear strategic direction, is better prepared to engage and communicate with stakeholders, and a framework and tools to evaluate its progress toward achieving its mission and vision.
As a result of this project I Strengthened my communication and project management skills Gained experience in change management and group facilitation I further developed my business planning competencies and reinforced my interest in strategic planning and organizational development This tremendous opportunity also taught me how to manage a complex project. As a result, I believe that I am even more prepared for a career in health administration.
I would like to thank PATH for women’s staff Dr Jamie Ross Torrie Fields Dr Michelle Berlin And PSU’s faculty and staff especially Dr. Kaimanu, Dr. Gelmon, Becky Fidler and the staff of the Center for Public Service for their support
