Strategic Planning -- "support fencers at all levels"

[wakeup]

This is one of a series of threads reacting to the USFA's strategic plan and asking F.net posters to flesh out these objectives. How would you like to see USFA pursue this objective over the next few years. What level/constituency do you see yourself as a part of and how do you think that fencers like you could be better-served by USFA?

[noodle]

http://usfencingstrategy.wikia.com

[Inquartata]

What exactly is the purpose of this "Strategic Plan"? What is it supposed to accomplish? It looks like nothing more than a vague bizspeak document to me.

Another "best practices" requirement from USOC? Otherwise I can't see why anyone put time and effort into it when we have so many practical problems they could be working on solving..

[wakeup]

I've got a practical problem I want to solve. Two years from now, I don't want Europe to be where the fencing action is for American kids who are 15-16 years old.

Increasingly, discussions here lead me to believe that this problem (no domestic cadet circuit) is an artifact of a couple bigger, more structural problems: an organization whose focus is on the Olympics rather than the sport more generally and an organization that is not responsive to its members. I'm under no illusion that the NO can (or should) stop caring about the Olympics. But I do think that it should be restructured and reoriented in ways that encourage it to pursue policies that don't pit the interests of the few against the many.

That's never going to happen without a revolt of the membership (and, of course, you could have a revolt of the membership and it still might not happen). And a revolt of the membership is unlikely to happen unless people with a series of different practical problems make common cause. An exercise like strategic planning, which focuses (or should) on the big picture and how we get there from here, is a potentially useful context for developing and articulating a broad-based critique of what's happening now and proposing an alternative.

So, yes, as-is, the Strategic Plan is a vague biz-speak document. But it's also an opportunity. Not because its Word will be made Flesh, but because it can be used as a rallying point.

[Inquartata]

I've got a practical problem I want to solve. Two years from now, I don't want Europe to be where the fencing action is for American kids who are 15-16 years old.

Good. That's a concrete and specific goal.

Increasingly, discussions here lead me to believe that this problem (no domestic cadet circuit) is an artifact of a couple bigger, more structural problems: an organization whose focus is on the Olympics rather than the sport more generally and an organization that is not responsive to its members. I'm under no illusion that the NO can (or should) stop caring about the Olympics. But I do think that it should be restructured and reoriented in ways that encourage it to pursue policies that don't pit the interests of the few against the many.

That's never going to happen without a revolt of the membership (and, of course, you could have a revolt of the membership and it still might not happen). And a revolt of the membership is unlikely to happen unless people with a series of different practical problems make common cause.

I agree with all of the preceding.

An exercise like strategic planning, which focuses (or should) on the big picture and how we get there from here, is a potentially useful context for developing and articulating a broad-based critique of what's happening now and proposing an alternative.

But the draft document does nothing to further that. As I said, it looks like an attempt to distract people from the real issues---to keep them busy trying to pin down something so vague and general that it's almost made of smoke.

And after everyone pours their attention into the effort to add specifics and flesh the thing out, what will we have? I'm betting it'll look a lot like the mission statements we already have in various existing documents, and what will have been accomplished? Nothing...for us.

[wakeup]

So what's a better alternative?

FWIW, I share your concern about the draft that's emerging. The open question for me is whether it has to be that way. Abstractly, I don't think so. In practice, though, it may just be the case that the people who participate in these kinds of exercises are, disproportionately, the folks who do this kind of thing for a living which means that, odds are, the end result is just a more competent and polished version of the same old same old.

[Inquartata]

IMO, what I am presently doing: Composing a letter critiquing the proposed changes to the national tournament structure and schedule. There's also a call for comments from the membership on that document---a much more specific and consequential one that the Strategic Plan...

Of course, it may have no more effect. But at least it's time spent on something that might actually matter.

[Allen Evans]

I think that this statement of the goal is a good example of why US Fencing has had such a hard time satisfying it: fencing in the US is not a series of "levels of skill" but made up of very different constituencies with different needs and goals, some of them directly opposing each other. I think that this has to be recognized and incorporated into long term planning.

Again. What does US Fencing want it's membership base to look like in 20 years? Knowing the answer to that question will be the first step to building towards that goal.

[oso97]

Inq - if you think the whole thing is a waste of time, why are you spending energy responding to commentary regarding strategic planning? Why don't you just ignore it?

[Allen Evans]

Because irrelevancies are his stock in trade?

[TBean]

What exactly is the purpose of this "Strategic Plan"? What is it supposed to accomplish? It looks like nothing more than a vague bizspeak document to me.

A strategic plan is a management tool - it is a set of agreed upon goals and strategies for the future so that, hopefully, everyone is running in the same direction. To never look at what you want to be in the future is not a way for an organization to grow and expand.

I've got a practical problem I want to solve. Two years from now, I don't want Europe to be where the fencing action is for American kids who are 15-16 years old.

This could be deemed a threat to the organization. What kind of strategic goal is needed to address this threat. The practical solution of developing a strong regional cadet circuit is viable, but that is part of a tactical plan - the strategic issue may lie somewhere in the continued growth of fencing.

There are also multiple variables that feed into this as well - even with a strong regional circuit 15-16 year-olds with Olympic-sized dreams are going to have to go to Europe or Asia - it simply isn't going to happen any other way. They simply must have that experience because, truthfully, while there are some very strong programs in the US we are still a ways off before we reach that critical mass of athletes and coaches, at a certain level, to not have that be part of the process. So also coaching development plays a role here. As does building partnerships for exchange programs for athletes, bringing more of these events to the US. Europeans have it lucky - it is a small-ass continent and feasibly athletes at all levels can travel easily to tournaments.

It is all interconnected, and how do you choose to address the issues strategically is important - and determining what ideas are really tactical in nature and belong in the tactical/implementation plan that goes hand-in-hand with a strategic plan. I try to create somewhat streamlined Strategic Plans that offer guidance with flexibility, but without the tactical plan with practical ideas to back-up an organization's strategic vision the process if pointless.

[wakeup]

The overall strategic re-orientation I'd like to see is a commitment to pursuing international excellence by developing more and better fencing infrastructure at home. And that would require stepping back from/out of the Olympic cycle long enough to undertake longer-term projects.

[Inquartata]

Inq - if you think the whole thing is a waste of time, why are you spending energy responding to commentary regarding strategic planning? Why don't you just ignore it?

Because I enjoy arguing, and because I happen to have the time to waste. I'm not working for the USFA; I'm not wasting time which could better be spent solving the many problems the USFA faces.

Perhaps you don't understand the difference?

A strategic plan is a management tool

And there it is: It's a thing beloved of the pointy-haired.

What is it you think this will do for us? I mean in actual measurable terms, as opposed to grand-sounding generalities? What can we expect to improve as a result of having a silly statement of intentions with no practical force?

...it is a set of agreed upon goals and strategies for the future so that, hopefully, everyone is running in the same direction.

The "goals" are so general and catholic that there are no others left for anyone mistakenly to run toward.

As for strategies...I seem to have missed those. Where are they?

[TBean]

My idea is below - and no this is not comprehensive - I made it up based on incomplete knowledge and data. However it is a viable structure, and attempted to incorporate some of the thinking from the Board. A Strategic Goal is a big idea, and many organizations will share that kind of goal - it is in the objectives, strategies and tactical ideas that things become specific to an organization.

Strategic Goal 3: Enhance and Expand USAFencing Programs continue the growth of fencing, at all levels, in the United States

Objectives
3.1 Support and grow fencing across the spectrum of athletes participating in the sport

Key Strategies
•Assure consistent, high quality, fair and well-organized competitions and other services for fencers of all interests, skill levels, ages and locations through ???.
•Support Coaching Development through coaches college and regional coaching development efforts

3.2 Continue the tradition of international competitive success though a systemized approach that results in athletic success at the highest level of international competition.

Key Strategies
•Coordinate efforts of high-level coaches to ensure athletes are properly supported at the highest levels of competition
•Strengthen relationships and partnerships in the USOC, FIE and Pan American Zonal Confederation.
•Develop ongoing relationships with European coaches and fencing federations to build networks for high-performing athletes and coaches to train with top level athletes from other countries

The second document to this is a tactical/implemenation plan that outlines the possible steps to achieve these things, a timeline, a responsible party, a cost, and possibly results or the impact of these ideas - if someone has the stomach for that. Without that second document the plan is useless. If you fill the Strategic Plan with that level of detail it becomes useless in its own right as it becomes cumbersome tool, and having lived with that kind of plan almost everyone comes to hate it because it feels like straight-jacket with no room for reaction to an opportunity. A shared vision is not a bad thing, a management tool is not a bad thing - especially when it has been created in concert and in step with the Board, staff, management and to a degree membership so that most believe in its vision and work towards making it a success. It is also a way to make NO and the Board accountable - where are we in relation to the plan, what objectives have or have not been met within tactical plans, if things are not met or abandoned - why? There is other piece to the puzzle - actually using and updating the document, so it is current with the realty of what is happening in NO and the sport.

Mind many steps have been ignored here - most critically a survey of membership to see what they think, what their needs and requirements are, and what is the current state of fencing. Without that, even this collective exercise will probably not produce something that people will buy into.