Institutionalizing the Planning
Function |
Improvement Needed |
| Little | Some | Much |
|
| 1 | Do top executives take formal responsibility for the organization's
strategic planning? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 2 | Is strategic planning a top priority activity that is performed on a
regular basis (e.g., each year)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 3 | Does your agency provide resources (managers' time, staff support,
etc.) for strategic planning implementation? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 4 | Does your agency consistently follow a defined set of procedures
in its strategic planning process? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 5 | Do all managers whose work might be affected significantly by
strategic plans participate in the planning process? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
Establishing the Strategic
Foundation |
Improvement Needed |
| Little | Some | Much |
|
| 6 | Does your agency have a written mission statement?? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 7 | Has this mission statement been distributed to all the agency's
staff? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 8 | Do all the agency staff, particularly management and higher-level staff
understand this mission? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 9 | Does the organization have written longer-term goals (3-5 years) and
short-term (1 year and less) goals? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 10 | Do these goals list quantified measurable targets? (e.g., how many
customers will be served?) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 11 | If appropriate, do the goals specify targets by region? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 12 | When appropriate, do the goals list quality, time frame, and cost
targets? Are they observable or measurable? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 13 | Do the goals appear realistic yet challenging, based upon
experience and/or customer research? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 14 | Does your agency have information systems in place which facilitate
measuring actual performance versus goals? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 15 | Do management and higher-level staff whose responsibilities
are affected participate in setting goals? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
Conducting the Strategic
(Situational) Diagnosis |
Improvement Needed |
| Little | Some | Much |
|
| 16 | Does your agency periodically gather information about its
customers, stakeholders and other external factors which affect its operations? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 17 | Does the external/market analysis identify key threats to the
agency? Key opportunities? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 18 | Does that analysis include detailed analysis of the agency's
geographic target audiences? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 19 | Is your agency's performance and operational characteristics
compared on a regular basis to its perceived "competitors"? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 20 | Are demographic, behavioral, and other trends among the agency's
customers and potential customers analyzed? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 21 | Does your agency regularly assess its operating environment
as a whole, weighing new competitors and concepts, new technologies, procurement
practices, labor practices, etc.? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 22 | Does your agency assess institutional factors such as the cost
and availability of funds, congressional and Executive Branch politicking, government regulations,
and the economy? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 23 | Does your agency have knowledge of and access to sources of
information about its customers, stakeholders, and other external factors? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 24 | Does your agency analyze its own business operations
objectively? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 25 | Does this internal analysis identify the key strengths and weaknesses
of the organization? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 26 | Does the analysis include political and other external factors
which affect your agency's budget? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 27 | Does it include a consideration of funds for promotion of the
agency's activities? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 28 | Does it include quality of customer service and, in general,
employee productivity? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 29 | Does your agency regularly assess its human resource development
programs (recruitment, training, promotion)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 30 | Does your agency's management information system provide
relatively easy access to the internal data discussed above? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 31 | After completing its external and internal analyses, does your
agency review the mission and goals in light of the apparent threats/opportunities and
strengths/weaknesses? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 32 | Based upon such a review, does the strategic diagnosis culminate
in identifying key strategic issues (e.g., redeployment of staff, change in direction of
activities)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
Developing Strategic
Plans |
Improvement Needed |
| Little | Some | Much |
|
| 33 | Does your agency use strategic (situational) diagnosis to formulate
strategic plan options? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 34 | Does your agency consider performance enhancement options
(e.g., cost reduction, alternative suppliers, production technique improvement)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 35 | Does it consider customer education possibilities (methods for
keeping your customers apprised of the many ways that they can use your agency's
services)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 36 | Does your agency consider organization and management options
(such as restructuring, merging with other agencies)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 37 | Does the organization consider research and development options
(e.g., product/service enhancement, new products)? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 38 | Are formal evaluation study findings factored into your strategic
planning process? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 39 | Does your agency decide its strategic plans based upon feasibility
and risk/return criteria? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
Managing Strategic Plan
Implementation |
Improvement Needed |
| Little | Some | Much |
|
| 40 | Does your agency make strategic decisions (implementation action
plans) based upon the strategic plan? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 41 | Does your agency clearly assign lead responsibility for action
plan implementation to one person? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 42 | Are sufficient resources allocated for implementation? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 43 | Does your agency set clearly defined, measurable performance
standards for each element of the plan? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 44 | Does your agency develop an organized system for monitoring
how well those performance standards are met? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 45 | Does your agency review monitoring data regularly, and revise
strategic decisions as appropriate? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
| 46 | Are individuals responsible for strategic planning and
implementation rewarded for successful performance? | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|
Scoring Summary |
| To perform a summary analysis of the quality of your organization's performance
in each of the broad areas of the strategic planning process, calculate the average score for each
of the Self-Assessment Questionnaire categories in accordance with the following
instructions. |
|
| Institutionalizing the Planning Function (items
1-5) | Score |
| Total of numbers for items 1-5 = _____ divided by 5 = | |
|
| Establishing the Strategic Foundation (items
6-15) | Score |
| Total of numbers for items 6-14 = _____ divided by 10 = | |
|
| Conducting the Strategic Situational Diagnosis (items 16-
32) | Score |
| Total of numbers for items 15-32 = _____ divided by 17 = | |
|
| Developing Strategic Plans (items
33-39) | Score |
| Total of numbers for items 33-39 = _____ divided by 7 = | |
|
| Managing Strategic Plan Implementation (items
40-46) | Score |
| Total of numbers for items 40-46 = _____ divided by 7 = | |
|
| Examine the scores for the major categories. Those with relatively high scores
(4-6) indicate that the organization needs significant improvement in these categories. Within the
high-scoring categories, note any specific items that rated "5" or "6" for
special attention. |
|
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