This Bonus Break is the second installment of a multi-part series about strategic planning. This series is based on a lunch and learned that I presented last month, and I am breaking the lunchtime presentation into several Bonus Break podcasts.  The first part of the series was released last week, and it focused on determining if you need a new strategic plan and whether your organization is ready to actually begin the planning process. You can hear that Bonus Break episode here.

Once you are ready to roll up your sleeves and begin planning, it’s a good idea to understand the stages of strategic planning.  There are four distinct stages of strategic planning that we will discuss over the next several segments in this series, and these stages are: The environmental scan, drafting the initial strategy, board feedback, and finalizing the plan.

This bonus break dives into the first stage of planning process: The Environmental Scan.