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Flexibility wins the day
In the chaos of D-Day, one thing was clear: flexibility wins. Just as Eisenhower learned, the value of planning lies in aligning your team to adapt as events unfold—something every nonprofit needs more than ever in today’s challenging environment.
Why? Because strategic success isn’t about sticking to a rigid plan—it’s about alignment, adaptability, and execution. The real power of planning comes from ensuring your team not only understands what matters but also why it matters. Your strategic plan should serve as a guidepost, not a rigid roadmap.
That’s why leading organizations—including BoardSource®—are moving away from 3-5 year strategic plans in favor of adaptive frameworks like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). That doesn’t mean getting away from long-term thinking, that’s the indispensable part. We recommend approaching your long term goals as 3-year strategic pillars, and keeping the detailed planning to an actionable one-year timeframe with OKRs.
OKRs provide a structured yet flexible way to:
✅ Align your team around measurable, meaningful outcomes
✅ Increase transparency on progress toward key goals
✅ Encourage conversations about challenges and needed adjustments
Alignment doesn’t stop after setting goals. To maximize success, your team needs a structured approach to keep strategy front and center.
How to Keep Your Strategic Plan Alive
We recommend two simple but powerful OKR check-in cadences to drive results, check out the following link for our downloadable playbooks:
🔹 Monthly OKR Check-In (15-20 min) – Keep your strategy on track with a quick review of progress against quarterly goals. (Often built into existing leadership meetings.)
🔹 Quarterly OKR Refresh (1 hr) – Reflect, adjust, and set new quarterly OKRs based on what’s working. (Objective owners come prepared with draft OKRs for team input.)
The faster things change, the more essential alignment becomes. In times of uncertainty it’s important to stay focused, stay flexible, and keep your team moving forward together.
