Before the First Planning Session: Laying the Foundation for Successful Strategic Planning

There is a moment when a group walks into the first strategic planning session full of energy and goodwill—and it can feel like the work is just beginning. But in my facilitation practice, strategic planning begins long before anyone walks into a meeting room. That first session is not the launch—it is the moment the foundation becomes visible.

The preparation that happens in advance—largely under the radar, rarely celebrated—is the equivalent of the five-story parking garage beneath a building. Nobody sees it, but it brings the stability that holds everything aboveground in place. No architect would design without it. I do not develop a strategic plan without it.

While my first blog in this series was about the role of a strategic plan, this blog will look at preparing for the strategic planning process: Consider it a look behind the curtain.

Laying the Foundation

In every strategic planning engagement I take on, three areas of preparation are non-negotiable. I work through each of them collaboratively with a small design team from within the client organization—the people who know the context, the history, and the landscape.

These three areas are: naming the driving need, considering who needs to be involved, and compiling what is known about the current situation. Below is a roadmap for addressing these areas.

Articulate what is driving the need to plan now

It is critical, before the planning begins, to get clear on the strategic juncture the organization faces.

For some organizations, strategic planning happens on a regular cadence—every five years, for example. That rhythm has real value. It keeps leadership consistently focused on the big picture. But even within a scheduled cycle, it is worth pausing to ask: what is driving the need to plan right now, at this particular moment?

Each moment offers its own unique answer to that question, and the answers help surface what I call the strategic focus question.

A well-crafted focus question takes this shape:

In light of [what has shifted or is looming large]... over the next 3-5 years, how will we work together to [what we want to achieve]... so that [the impact we want to have]?

Below are a few examples of what that looks like in practice.

For the City of Shelton, a community of just over 10,000 navigating significant growth yet wanting to protect the aspects of the city that felt distinctive, the focus question needed to hold that tension. It became:

Over the next 3-5 years, how will we work together to guide Shelton's growth so that we meet the needs of current and future community members while preserving the character that makes Shelton special?

For a city-led tourism initiative bringing together stakeholders that had never worked together before, the question formed was:

Over the next 3-5 years, how will we work together to amplify Lynnwood as a strategic gateway and destination for visitors to the greater region?

In a smaller city where a mini strategic plan was developed, the group was guided by this question:

Over the next 3-5 years, how will we work together to guide Carnation's future embracing the 'small town feel' and community spirit that attracts residents and visitors alike?

A well-crafted focus question does not just frame the planning. It motivates participants, elevates priorities, and drives strategy. Getting clear on it before the planning begins is not a preliminary step. It is essential, strategic work.

Consider who needs to be involved

Who is represented at the table determines what gets surfaced, what gets missed, and who will own the outcomes.

This sounds obvious, but in practice it is one of the most consequential decisions in the entire planning process—and one of the most frequently underestimated. The tendency is to invite the people who are already in the room, and in community engagement, the voices that show up most readily are not always the most representative. (One staff member from a city I worked with observed it plainly—a handful of people emailing regularly had begun to shape policy, while the broader community remained largely unheard.)

The question of who needs to be involved has two distinct dimensions:

• The first is internal. Who from within the organization needs to be involved in developing the plan? Leadership and senior staff are the obvious starting point, but the people who will ultimately be responsible for implementing the plan need to have had an authentic role in creating it.
• The second dimension is community. Elected officials bring vision and accountability to the process, but they are not psychic. A plan that truly moves the city forward—one that reflects what the community needs, hopes for, and wants—is strengthened immeasurably when the community has had a voice in shaping it.

In one recent engagement, I invited councilmembers to place stickers on a map of their city to mark where they lived, a place they loved, and an area they identified as a blind spot. The exercise elevated something important: an awareness of what they did not know—and from there, a curiosity about the voices that could fill those gaps in their knowledge.

Structured, facilitated community conversations surface diverse perspectives, give more voices a meaningful role, provide robust input that informs the plan, and contribute significantly to building trust between the city and the community it serves. I like to explain this as: “People support that which they help to create.”

Identify which data will best inform the planning

Given that planning time is precious, the question is not which data exists but which will be most powerful in helping the group begin the work. What does the group need to see, understand, and discuss together in order to have a shared foundation of knowledge as the planning begins?

The third ‘invisible’ thing I do, prior to the first planning session, is work with the client team to evaluate which information will help orient the planning group to the current landscape.

We identify the data and information that will be most helpful, making sure that when the group gets into the room, they can build a shared picture of current reality rather than be hampered by unspoken assumptions about where things stand.

It is implicit in the functioning of a GPS that it knows where you are starting from. That shared starting point is what allows the planning to move forward with clarity rather than getting tangled in competing versions of the current situation.

Why This Matters

These areas of preparation—naming the driving need, identifying stakeholders, and compiling what is known about the current situation—form the essential groundwork that determines whether the planning that follows produces focused and effective strategic direction—and a plan the whole organization and community can drive forward.

The preparation is invisible. The results are not.

In my next blog, I will explore a strategic planning process that is structured yet flexible and highlights the key elements that keep sessions dynamic and focused.