What Have We Learned So Far?
A Midyear Check-In for Your Organization
August is an interesting time of year for organizations. It’s also a natural time for a midyear organizational check-in.
The rush of the beginning of the year is behind us. There is still plenty of time left before year-end. And for many organizations, the pace slows just enough to look up from the day-to-day work and ask a few important questions.
- What have we learned so far?
- What is working? What isn’t?
- And what has changed since we made our plans?
Those questions can be surprisingly valuable.
Most organizations begin the year with some combination of goals, budgets, strategic priorities, programs, fundraising plans, or growth expectations. But even the best plans are based on what we knew at the time.
Eight months later, we know more.
Customers or clients may be responding differently than expected. A new funding opportunity may have emerged. A program may be performing better than anticipated, while another is struggling. Costs may have changed. Staff capacity may be tighter than expected. A promising new idea may be taking shape.
The question isn’t whether the plan has unfolded exactly as expected. It rarely does.
The more useful question is: What is the organization learning, and what should it do with that information?
Start With What Is Working
A midyear review doesn’t have to begin with problems. I like an approach of Appreciative Inquiry. You can often accelerate growth more by building on strengths than investing in shoring up weaknesses.
Look first at the things that are going well. Which programs, services, initiatives, or relationships are producing the results you hoped for? Where are you seeing momentum? What are customers, clients, funders, employees, or other stakeholders responding to particularly well?
Then ask why.
Sometimes an organization discovers that something is working for reasons it didn’t anticipate. A service may appeal to a different customer segment than expected. A partnership may be creating more value than originally envisioned. A small program may be producing unusually strong outcomes.
Those aren’t just successes to celebrate. They are information that can help guide future decisions.
Look at What Isn't Working
The harder part of reflection is examining the things that haven’t gone according to plan while holding onto a positive mindset.
Perhaps an initiative isn’t gaining traction. A goal is consistently behind schedule. A program requires more staff time than anticipated. Revenue isn’t materializing as quickly as expected. Or an organization keeps postponing the same strategic priority because something more urgent always takes precedence.
The instinct can be to work harder at the original plan.
Sometimes that’s exactly what is needed. But sometimes the better response is to ask whether the original assumptions were right in the first place.
- What did we expect to happen?
- What actually happened?
- What might explain the difference?
That simple comparison can turn a disappointing result into useful information.
Pay Attention to What Has Changed
Not every change in direction means something went wrong.
Organizations operate in changing environments. Customers change. Communities change. Competitors change. Funding priorities change. Technology changes. Regulations change. And opportunities appear that no one could have predicted when the annual plan was written.
That makes it important to periodically revisit the assumptions behind a strategy.
Is the need we identified still the right one?
Do we understand the people we are trying to serve?
Has the market changed?
Are our financial assumptions still reasonable?
Do we have the organizational capacity to do what we planned?
Sometimes the answers confirm that the organization is on the right path. Other times, they suggest that it is time to adjust.
Use Evidence, Not Just Impressions
A midyear review becomes much more useful when it goes beyond, “It feels like we’re doing pretty well.”
The evidence doesn’t have to be complicated.
Look at the measures you already track. Compare actual results with goals and budgets. Review customer or participant feedback. Talk with employees and board members. Look at market data. Interview a few customers or potential customers. Examine which programs are growing, which are shrinking, and where resources are actually being spent.
Different questions call for different kinds of evidence.
If you’re wondering whether a strategic plan is working, look at progress against the priorities you established.
If you’re considering a new service or market, do some research before investing heavily in it.
If you’re trying to understand why an initiative is struggling, talk with the people closest to it.
If you’re wondering whether the organization itself is ready for the next stage of growth, look at its people, processes, finances, systems, and leadership capacity.
The goal isn’t to collect more data for its own sake. It’s to gather enough information to make a better decision.
Decide What to Keep, Change, or Stop
Reflection is only useful if it leads somewhere.
By the end of a midyear review, leaders should have a clearer sense of three things:
What should we keep doing?
These are the strategies, programs, investments, and ways of working that are producing results and deserve continued attention.
What should we change?
These may be good ideas that need a different approach, more resources, a different timeline, or better information.
What should we stop doing?
This can be the hardest question of all. Organizations accumulate activities over time, and every activity usually has someone who values it. But continuing to invest time and money in something simply because “we’ve always done it” can make it harder to pursue opportunities that matter more.
Stopping something isn’t necessarily an admission of failure. Sometimes it is evidence that an organization has learned.
There Is Still Time to Act
One of the advantages of asking these questions in August is that the year isn’t over.
There is still time to make adjustments, test an idea, gather additional information, redirect resources, or strengthen an initiative that is beginning to work.
And the lessons learned now can make next year’s planning much more valuable.
Instead of beginning the next planning cycle by asking, “What do we want to accomplish next year?” start with a different question:
What did this year teach us?
That is often where the best strategy begins.
If your organization could use an outside perspective to understand what is working, what isn’t, or what the evidence is telling you, that’s the kind of work I help organizations do through North Star Strategies.