Developing the strategic plan
What's our passion?
There are many different ways to create a strategic plan. We've found the "hedgehog concept", developed by Jim Collins, works well for a range of trusts, whether they're big or small.
Our passion is what gets us out of bed every day. It's the reason we set up the trust, the stuff we really care about.
To work out the trust's reason for being, you need to get input from as many people as possible.
Talk about:
- what we do and why do we do it
- why we created the trust
- what the future looks like for our whenua and whānau
- who we're doing this for, and
- what ideas whānau came up with during previous discussions.
Considering the potential of the whenua
To really get to the heart of this, try using the Socratic method of asking "why?" until you feel like you've got it.
For example, a trust in Te Tai Hauāuru used this method to understand their passion. Here's how they used the Socratic method.
They started by asking, "What do we do?" Their answer was "We actively manage a dairy farm business."
- Why? Because we've seen an opportunity to create greater wealth and opportunity through excellence in governance and management by being actively involved in farming our whenua.
- Why? Because we aspire to create the skills to have our own running our farms successfully.
- Why? Because we believe by returning economic profitability to the land we will reunite whānau who have been distant for generations.
- Why? Because utilising the land fully can bring benefits to whānau, nurture and strengthen mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga and provide a model for future generations to continue.
Their trust's reason for being: "To create the skills to have our own running our farms successfully."
