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Strategic planning is important to all organizations but too often the focus of strategic planning events focuses on defining what is important. But in reality the most important decisions in strategic planning are deciding what should not be done. Nick Tasler makes this point well in his May 2014 HBR post titled, 3 Myths That Kill Strategic Planning. Tasler quotes Napoleon, “One of history’s greatest strategic thinkers, Napoleon Bonaparte summed it up this way: “In order to concentrate superior strength in one place, economy of force must be exercised in other places.” If dead, despotic French emperors are not really your style, Michael Porter said it like this: “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.””

Especially in associations, there is never a shortage of good ideas, important issues, or needs of members to be addressed. Unfortunately, too often strategic plans become bloated laundry lists of “important” things that an organization wishes to accomplish. But strategic planning requires that some ideas be abandoned in order to ensure that adequate time, attention, and resources can be dedicated to a more focused set of priorities.

Tasler emphasizes this point as follows: “While productive teams log overtime hours in order to knock out one important project after another on a first come, first serve basis, strategic teams decide which projects will contribute most to the declared strategy of the organization, and put the rest of the “important” projects on hold.”

This is particularly true in associations where resources are often scarce, memberships have diverse and varied needs and interests, and there is a tendency to want to be responsive to all members.  Corver and Byers in their acclaimed book Race to Relevance offer the following advice for associations: “Rationalize Programs Services and Activities: Instead of adding a long menu of low-impact services for members, associations should offer a narrow list of "home run" services members can't live without.” They make the point that the bigger problem for most associations is not identifying new opportunities to serve members, but rather eliminating low value programs that drain resources and provide limited value.

Strategic planning is really an exercise in establishing priorities and prioritization by its very nature implies ordering among possible candidates for action and making conscious decisions to not purse some goals so that others might be achieved. Are you focusing on both sides of the equation in your strategic planning efforts?