Shifting Sands: How Issue-Based Planning Helps Organizations Navigate Uncertain Times

In today’s rapidly changing landscape, organizations are reaching out to Clarus in need of planning approaches that are more targeted and responsive than traditional strategic planning. While comprehensive strategic planning remains valuable for setting long-term direction, many nonprofits, public agencies, and educational institutions in particular are finding themselves facing more immediate challenges and opportunities that require a different approach.

Clarus developed an Issue-Based Planning approach in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as organizations were forced to respond to unprecedented disruption to their operations, employee engagement strategies, and funding structures. Today, our clients are once again reporting a need for “Issue-Based Planning” due to significant uncertainty and change to economic and workforce policies, grants and funding structures, and organizational health priorities.

When Is Issue-Based Planning Right for Your Organization?

Issue-based planning shines when your organization is experiencing a need to:

· Adapt to shifts in federal funding priorities or regulatory frameworks

· Face an immediate challenge requiring quick, coordinated action

· Respond to significant environmental shifts

· Target strategic attention to a specific program or department

· Navigate resource constraints that make a full strategic planning process impractical

· Develop contingency plans for significant shifts in funding structures that help sustain key programs

Our Approach to Issue-Based Planning

While more focused than full strategic planning, our issue-based approach maintains key elements that drive successful outcomes:

Implementation-Ready: We prioritize actionable plans from day one, focusing on critical needs rather than exhaustive possibilities. This approach ensures that your organization can begin implementation immediately after plan completion.

Concise Documentation: Rather than lengthy reports that gather dust, we deliver one-page summaries or roadmaps that capture essential priorities and serve as practical management tools.

Targeted Stakeholder Engagement: We gather crucial insights through focused interviews or surveys with key internal stakeholders, ensuring plans are grounded in organizational realities.

Organizational Development Lens: We integrate considerations of leadership dynamics, team structures, and communication patterns throughout the process.

Strategic Planning Issue-Based Planning

	Strategic Planning	Issue-Based Planning
Purpose	Establishes clear direction and goals for an organization so individuals and teams know what to focus on and why it matters	Develops a focused, agile framework to address a specific organizational challenge, opportunity, or uncertainty
Life of the Plan	Up to 3 years	Up to 18 months
Deliverable	One-page strategic plan, summary report, and consultant recommendations	One-page strategic plan
Stakeholder Engagement	Engage leaders with knowledge and perspectives on all units and levels of an organization	Engage leaders with knowledge on perspectives on the key issue or opportunity at hand
Organizational Development	Incorporates attention to leadership dynamics, team structures, and communication patterns	Incorporates attention to leadership dynamics, team structures, and communication patterns
Planning Timeline	About 4 – 6 months	About 2-3 months

When circumstances demand quick, focused planning rather than comprehensive strategy, issue-based planning provides the structure and clarity organizations need. By maintaining the core elements of good planning while adapting to immediate needs, this approach helps organizations navigate challenges without losing sight of their mission.

Is your organization facing a specific challenge that might benefit from this approach? We’d love to hear about it and explore how issue-based planning might help you move forward with confidence.