Bryson,

John M. (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A

guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. (4th ed.) San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, chp. 7.
Laura Lefkowits, February 25, 2016

Overview
Chapter 7 describes steps 6 and 7 of the Strategy Change Cycle, strategy formulation
and adoption. Bryson emphasizes that, although the two steps are linked, they should
be separated in the mind of planners. Strategy formulation should be a creative and
deliberative process, while strategy adoption generally requires a more formal
approach. Nevertheless, strategies should be formulated with an eye toward adoption
and therefore should be “politically acceptable, technically and administratively
workable, results-oriented, and legally, ethically and morally defensible.”

Specific definitions, strategies and/or approaches described
1) Strategy
a) “A pattern of purposes, policies, programs, projects, actions, decisions, or
resource allocations that defines what an organization is, what it does, and why
it does it.” (pg. 219)
b) A “bridge” between the organization and its environment (even if the purpose of
the strategy is to change the context)
c) An organized response to fundamental challenges, or, strategic issues, or to
achieve goals or a vision of success
d) An action(s) aligned with the organization’s policies, decisions, resource
allocations, and actions large and small: “strategies are prone to fail if there is no
alignment or consistency between what an organization says, what it pays for,
and what it actually does” (pg. 220)
e) As much “art” as science
f) Strategy (patterns of activity) exists in every organization, whether articulated or
not, whether successful or not
i) Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
g) May be “emergent” or “deliberate”
i) Deliberate strategies lend themselves to formal planning for implementation
ii) Emergent strategies are often implemented by “groping along”
iii) Processes that are rushed tend to result in less positive results; organizations
should use “strategic waiting” whenever possible to slow the process down
h) May focus on
i) New or revised rules, institutional redesign, basic changes
ii) Mission, vision, and goals and how to realize them in practice
iii) Programs, products, projects, and services
iv) Strategy delivery in the present
v) Developing future capacity
vi) Maintaining and enhancing stakeholder relations
i) Vary based on timeline and scope
i) Grand strategy for whole organization
ii) Subunit strategies

1
Bryson, John M. (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A
guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. (4th ed.) San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, chp. 7.
Laura Lefkowits, February 25, 2016

iii) Program, service, or business process strategies
iv) Functional strategies (financial, staffing, communications, etc.)
j) Provides the continuing basis for ordering TACTICS toward more broadly
conceived purposes. Tactics are short-term adaptive actions and reactions used
to accomplish limited objectives.
2) Formulating Strategies: what are the benefits?
a) Three agendas always at play
i) What will we keep and improve
ii) What will be initiate that is new
iii) What will we STOP doing (this is the hardest to implement!)
b) Involves highlighting what is good about existing strategies/patterns; reframing,
down-playing, or pruning away what is bad; and adding whatever new elements
are needed to complete the picture
c) Consideration of alternative strategies may enhance organizational creativity and
help with “thinking outside the box”
d) Early implementation of some strategies may facilitate organizational learning
(i.e., test, evaluate, modify, retest) and “emotional bonding” to the new
strategies (adapting to gradual change can be easier than to sudden change) and
heightened morale from experiencing some early successes
e) Work through “failure-in-the-middle” syndrome – the common sense of failure
that occurs between identifying strategic issues and formulating strategies
3) Formulating Strategies: How?
a) The Five-Step Process: Ask these questions. Answers, especially about
implementation, will help to clarify the viability of proposed strategies.
i) What are the practical alternatives, dreams, or visions we might pursue to
address the issue?
ii) What are the barriers to the realization of these alternatives?
iii) What major proposals might we pursue to achieve these alternatives or to
overcome the barriers?
iv) What major actions (with existing staff and within existing job descriptions)
must be taken within the next year or two to implement the major
proposals?
v) What specific steps must be taken within the next 6 months to implement
the major proposals and who is responsible?
vi) Consider the viability of proposed strategies by asking
(a) What is reasonable?
(b) Where can we combine proposals, actions, or steps?
(c) Do any proposals, actions or steps contradict each other?
(d) What are we really willing to commit to over the next year
(resources)?

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Bryson, John M. (2011). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A
guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. (4th ed.) San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, chp. 7.
Laura Lefkowits, February 25, 2016

(e) What are the specific next steps that would have to occur in the next
six months to make this strategy work?
b) The Action-Oriented Strategy Mapping Process (see pages 238-240 if interested)
4) Strategic Plan: strategies may or may not result in a formal plan, depending on what
is most useful for the organization. See pages 240-245 for specifics on strategic plan
and plan adoption.
5) General Guidance and Caveats for Strategy Formulation
a) Be sure to consider varied, “even radical,” options during the process. Don’t rule
things out at first glance. “If an organization is only interested in variations on
existing themes” don’t waste your time with strategic planning.
b) Balance your strategic work between “knowledge exploitation” (using what you
know well) and “knowledge exploration” (learning new things)
c) Evaluate alternative strategies against agree-upon criteria prior to selection of
specific strategies to be implemented. (See LaPiana’s Strategy Screen). Possible
criteria:
i) Politically acceptable?
ii) Administratively workable?
iii) Results oriented?
iv) Legally, morally defensible?
d) Strategy formulation is not linear – it involves deliberation, experimentation,
revision, more experimentation, etc.
e) Remember, even the best strategic planning process may not be successful
because
i) The time is not right
ii) Draft strategies and plans are inadequate or inappropriate
iii) Issues the strategies and plans purpose to address are not the pressing ones
iv) Organization cannot handle the change