And the winner is . . . Good Strategy by 63% to 37%!
This was fun and thanks to everyone for playing along. In fact, it was so fun that I am thinking of turning this into a mid-term question for my grad class on Nonprofit Strategy at Maryland.
Is “Good Strategy” the “right” answer?
It all depends on your reasoning.
A number of people pointed out that the only way for a Plan to be “Great” is for it to be based upon a Great Strategy. Aha! This was a pretty good answer. Holding this assumption then you get BOTH a Great Strategy and a Great Plan. So those of you who pointed this out definitely get an “A.”
Another “A” answer for the Good Strategy option is from friend and former student Rahul Shah who points out:
“A great plan would be useless if the overall strategy does not guide the organization towards achieving their mission. The strategy is really what incorporates the mission, vision, organizational goals and much more as you know. If you can't clearly zero in on the intended impact, a great plan will not ensure you are working in the desired direction. This is why I believe a good strategy is more critical than a great plan (yet we can't deny that both are still very important!).”
Yes, Rahul, we can’t deny that both are important – vital actually. Thanks to everyone for participating. And with that, we are closing up the Blog Shop for 2014. Happy Holidays to all and I’ll be back in touch in the New Year.
