5. Strategic Planning

Introduction

This section offers information and advice about a very important piece to a NGBs success - having a quality strategic plan. This chapter looks at why having a strategic plan is important, the key steps in developing a strategic plan and how to analyse its effectiveness. Also included in the downloads are a number of example strategic plans from various NGBs as well as a set of guidelines for developing your next strategic plan.

Rationale

In the Irish Sports Council's Statement of Strategy, Building Sport for Life, we have defined our mission as planning, leading and co-ordinating the sustainable development of sport in Ireland. One of the priorities is facilitating the development of sporting bodies through capacity and capability building within those bodies. It is in this context that Sport Ireland has fostered the development of strategic planning in National Governing Bodies to assist them in delivering on their key goals in an effective and structured manner.

National Governing Bodies do not deliver their sports in a vacuum. There are many thousands of dedicated volunteers in local clubs and communities supporting and administering sport. Without them, sport could not exist.

In conjunction with their volunteer base, many National Governing Bodies are now moving from the volunteer base to one with full time professional staff. This provides many challenges to organisations but also allows them to become more strategic and professional in the delivery of their sports to their members.

The priority of National Governing Bodies is to increase access to opportunities for participation in sport for all as well as developing pathways for athletes towards excellence. National Governing Bodies are also responsible for the governance of their sport and ensuring that their organisation is run in a democratic and strategic manner that is in the best interest of their members..

This resource has been produced by Sport Ireland to assist National Governing Bodies to undertake the strategic planning process. It is based on practical advice for facilitating the process as well as providing a template of how the strategy should be drawn together.

Glossary of Key Terms

• National Governing Bodies (NGBs): These are the National Bodies, affiliated to the European and World Governing Bodies for that sport, set up to govern and deliver the sport to their members.
• A Board of Directors, made up from representatives of the membership, elected at an AGM in line with the Rules and Regulations of the organisation.
• Strategic Planning: The process whereby the interested parties in the NGB discuss, agree and describe what is best for their sport and what steps they will take to progress its development.
• Vision: It represents the ultimate aim. The members need a vision of what their NGB should be like at some point in the future. However, visions must also be realistic. A vision should therefore be challenging but ultimately achievable and reflect the particular nature of the organisation. A National Governing Body should seek to "sell" its vision to its internal and external stakeholders so that they can help to achieve it.
• Mission: The mission of a Governing Body sets out simply what it will do to achieve its vision. Everything the NGB does, or wants to do, should be tested against its agreed mission and anything that does not fit the mission should not be progressed.
• Core values: The "things we believe in" are our core values. Many people believe in honesty, for example, while others are happy to do dishonest things in order to make money. Typical examples of NGB core values include equality of opportunity; social inclusion; fair play; quality training; excellence in standards and that sport should be valued for its own sake rather for some other reason.
• Goals are a key foundation for the NGB's strategic plan. They are long term aspirations, which will lead to the achievement of the vision and are compatible with the mission. Goals are difficult to quantify so it can be difficult to say if they have been fully achieved; alternatively, it is always possible to do better against them. Typical goals might be "to promote more participation" or "to develop a more efficient training structure at local level".
• Objectives are things the NGB will set out to achieve which, if successful, will contribute to the achievement of goals. There may be several objectives related to one goal. For example, a goal of promoting more participation might lead to a series of objectives such as:
  - To run a club development programme
  - To promote the "sport for all" ethos
  - To develop links between local schools and clubs
• Performance indicators are used to measure whether the NGB is being successful in relation to its objectives. A performance indicator relating to an objective of encouraging existing clubs to participate in a club development programme will be the number of clubs participating this year, next year and so on.
• Targets relate directly to performance indicators. They are measurable, realisable, specific and cover a set time period. A target might be to have ten clubs participate in the development programme in the next year and another ten to do so the year after.
• Stakeholders are people or organisations who will be affected by the NGB and what it does and may be interested in working with it. Stakeholders can be internal or external.
• Internal stakeholders are people, groups and agencies who are part of the NGB with an interest in how it goes about its work and what it does. For NGBs, the main internal stakeholders are usually members, officials and coaches, athletes, local sporting clubs/organisations, local community and voluntary groups and the local people. These groups and individuals can also be described as the members of the NGB.
• External stakeholders are people who are not members of the NGB but interested in what it does or affected by it. They may include International Federations, facility owners and providers, the media, sponsors, Sport Ireland and Government Departments/agencies.
• SWOT Analysis is used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the organisation. Looking at the NGB in this way helps to create a picture of the current state of play and is often useful in deciding a plan of action.

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Chapter 5

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