KHA has three models for strategic planning that have proven successful for organizations: Quick, Broad, and Deep. While each contains elements of the important core of strategic inquiry and development, our approaches are shaped by the intent and appetite of the client. Below, we've included short examples that highlight features of these approaches and results.

Quick Model
Ken Hubbell & Associates facilitated a participatory strategic planning process with the Mississippi Delta Children's Partnership between February and June, 2008. The intended expectation was to generate a short 3-5 year strategic plan for an enlarged network of children's advocates in the Delta that extends the current children's villages and their programs.

We facilitated a series of 4 day-long sessions for up to five folk from EACH of the village programs for a total of about 20 participants. The sessions incorporated strategic thinking, mapping, shared visioning, and planning activities aimed at the key strategic question: How will we accelerate positive impact for educational excellence for Delta children? KHA helped fashion the ideas into a concise 3-year plan that immediately attracted additional investment from the Bernard van Leer Foundation to help launch a new coalition "hub" and build a policy platform around lessons from the initial rural partners.

Broad Model
KHA collaborated with The Colorado Trust staff on an intense series of 3 two-day strategic sessions in the last quarter in 2008 to shape a new 10-year program strategy that would catalyze access to health for all Coloradans. The organization's learning team developed highly detailed strategy metrics to guide the initial implementation and we followed up with periodic reflection and assessment retreats to track initial progress, emerging learnings, and possible shifts in strategy to adapt to the turbulent environment of the 2008-10 recession.

The effort incorporated extensive data collection, sessions to map the pace of change over decades in the state around key public health variables, causal systems mapping, scenario development coupled with intentional staff leadership development. Early impacts include internal changes to expand the evaluation program to one focused on strategic learning.

Deep Model
KHA worked with Arkansas's Old State House Museum to shape a new strategic plan to expand the agency's statewide impact, diversify its funding support, and create sustainable partnerships in public, private and non-profit sectors. OSH leaders were intent on building staff leadership capacity and learning during the process, so we added in serious study and testing of new leadership frameworks. The process was constructed around a monthly cycle of all-day offsite retreats for a year for a dozen staff and advisory committee champions.

We added in historical research and exploration into the last 50 years of culture and history in Arkansas (the museum is over 50 years old) and oral history of the museum's myths, significant achievements, cultural legacy and key lessons. We hosted a special session with outside resource experts on Arkansas' cultural tourism industry and built extensive scenarios to test the possibilities and necessary ingredients to trigger a heritage renaissance. The process included building clear diagrams of the agency's business model, theory of change, and places for leveraging maximum change inside a state heritage ecology that is heavily influenced by the vagaries of state government policies, resources, and funding cycles.

In the first year of implementation, the agency developed précised departmental change strategies to move toward the new strategic goals, streamlined the number and approach to developing large, custom exhibit installations, and initiated new support mechanisms and formal relationships with key support groups. KHA continues providing periodic coaching and strategic assessment sessions to help OSH continue adapting the plan.

Ken Hubbell & Associates (KHA) develops opportunities for people and communities. We provide consulting services including research, facilitation, strategic planning, design and project development for a diverse client base that includes city governments, state agencies, private foundations, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses. Here is a summary of our client projects.

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