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This paper presents a case study of multiple strategic planning interventions carried out for Healthy Body Healthy Nation (HBHN) in Ghana. In 2021, an international organization commissioned the development of five-year strategic plans for 21 health training institutions (HTI) of HBHN under one roof. The contract was awarded to the author, an experienced consultant from the Organisation Development (OD) Institute, Ghana, who successfully designed and facilitated this complex assignment. The paper delves into the objectives of the intervention, the OD Institute's strategic planning model, and the structured process used to develop these strategic plans. The methodology involved two onsite workshops and a back-home consultation phase, enabling each HTI to draft, validate, and refine their strategic plans. The paper highlights key insights gained, including the challenges of working with multiple institutions simultaneously and the benefits of a cost-effective, centralized approach. The lessons learned emphasize the importance of flexibility, stakeholder engagement, and the effective use of a strategic planning model. This experience underscores the potential for strategic planning interventions to drive improved management and performance in health training institutions across Ghana, offering valuable insights for practitioners in similar contexts.
Keywords: strategic planning, multiple stakeholders, multiple strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, OD interventions, facilitation, workshop
In the summer of 2021, an international organisation (10), through its Ghana country office, invited interested and experienced consultants to submit a proposal to develop a five-year strategic plan (SP) for 21 health training institutions (HTI). The contract was awarded to the author, an experienced consultant with the Organisation Development (OD) Institute, Ghana, who assisted the client in developing the strategic plans.
While there is nothing unique about an OD consultant assisting a client in developing a five-year strategic plan, working with 21 institutions to develop as many as 21 five-year strategic plans under one roof is something that most consultants don't do during their entire careers, not to mention annually.
Having successfully designed and facilitated this assignment, the author considers the experience rich, exciting, challenging, and educational and wishes to share it with other practitioners and the world. In this paper, I describe the objectives of the assignment, define an SP, present the OD Institute's model for developing an SP, discuss the process used for the development of the 21 five-year...