Strategic Planning - Background and Week Two Ends

 

How Did I Get Involved in Strategic Planning

I spent six months in Musoma in 2022 (less a short sojourn to Europe of six weeks) and four months straight in 2023. When I arrived I didn't really have a job description but was given a title - "Business Manager." It was soon apparent that I was seen by the Bishop as a change agent with no real restrictions and it took months to get to understand how things worked while at the same time undertaking tasks that were helpful to individuals, groups or agencies.

A month after my arrival in 2022, the Bishop asked me if I could prepare a strategic plan for this diocese which was established in 1985 and had never had a documented strategic plan. It seemed a vision and mission had been developedbut no one had memory of this having progressed beyond that. Having just finished paid employment and despite experience in this area it was the last thing I had thought I would be doing post worklife.

Anyway I saw the importance of it. Many plans are developed or written from the top down and this is possibly what may have been expected but as I discussed this with BIshop George, I stressed everyone needed to own the plan so it required lots of consutations, data analysis and feedback once draft ideas were developed to ensure any plan developed had broad support.

Bunda workshop June 2022

2022 saw a lot of meetings, some needing translators for Swahili speaking groups. Doing the normal SWAT analyses as the basic agenda of these meetings engaged many who had never been asked their opinion about the governance of the church here.

Rural pastors and leaders Musoma May 2022

In the end I completed four meetings in Musoma and Bunda totalling over 50 people, the largest being the Swahili speaking pastors and leaders who were from the rural and village areas in the diocese.

I had to have these sheets translated

The interest was far greater than anything I have seen at any strategic planning meetings I have participated in ether as a particiapnt or leader in Australia. This was something new and all fifty plus particiapnts were interested and keen. In the end I had heaps of data and working it all out was a big job. I took time off to have the European holiday and on return spent the remaining time sorting the data and drafting key objectives.

Surprise Surprise

Once I had crunched the data which was 169 pieces of information and broadly categorised them, the surprise was that Governance had been identified as a strength, weakness or opportunity overwhelmingly more than all the other suggestions. So not surprisingly of four major objectives in the plan, governance was the first objective and once the goals for it were identified, the eventual plan had 18 goals, the same as the second objective about the church and its role. 

It said a lot that people identified the lack of formal planning, policies and accountabilities in the feedback. Returning in 2023 to continue, having left a draft with Bishop George I had further meetings to ensure the information andthe objectives were valid. One of the risks is people being reluctant here to offend by raising issues that could be seen as negative of the person, particulalrly a visitor, so it took time to ensure people were feeding back honest opinions.

Finalising the Mission, Vision and Values and by the time my time was completed a draft was left with the diocese ready for the Diocesan Council in December 2024 while I left in late July for a three month holiday to the USA. On returning to Australia, it was like working from home in finalising feedback, entering demographic data I had requested and getting it in a format ready for presentation to the DC as well as translation into Swahili (with Google's help of course).

So I have now finished two weeks here. This has involved meeting with the five senior leaders, developing a plan for their areas and given a major task for the Diocesesan Secretary is preparing Job Descriptions I am trying to do this as I go. While the Strategic Plan is a bottom up approach, the divisional plans based on the SP are top down. It is in this context the only way to do it in a timely manner.

The coming week has me meeting each of the five leaders with their management staff (school principals, agency heads, etc) and then developing a plan for each school, vocational and training college and church leader (Christian Education Director, Theological College Principal, Financial staff, Youth Director, Mothers' Union Secretary etc). It will be the a big ambitious week.

Max is the Diocesan Secretary and has now had Godfrey in
 the light shirt appointed as an Assistant Secretary for the diocese

Yona as the Diocesan Accountant has the transition of accounts to an accounting package as his major goal

Stephen Bwire is the Vicar General and has an equally large task in his area of responsibility

And today I slept till 6am and my alarm went off two minutes later so hopefully my sleep is more normal.