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Strategic Planning and Leadership Services
Without an effective strategic planning process, volunteer leaders and staff are often unfocused and the association wastes time and resources.
A data-driven, consensus-based strategic planning process helps your staff and volunteer leadership work together more effectively to fulfill the Mission and achieve the business goals of the association.
Association Laboratory is a national leader in association strategic planning, having supported more than 100 trade and professional associations with the development of strategic plans and strategic leadership support. In addition, we’ve conducted extensive industry research on the development of strategic boards and leading strategic change in associations.
We use state of the art qualitative and quantitative research to give your leaders the insights needed to make critical decisions, while our experienced facilitators provide guidance to build consensus around shared priorities and goals.
Key features of our proprietary strategic planning process include the following:

- Collaborative process design – we establish leadership consensus on the strategic planning process so that you and your leaders not only adopt the final strategic plan – you actually implement it.
- Objective, independent research – our state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative research helps you understand your market and gives you the insights necessary to make critical decisions about their needs and how to be fulfill your Mission.
- Professional facilitation – our experienced facilitators design the agenda, the instructional design and produce strategic planning meetings that are engaging and productive.
- Real Time Strategic Plan review – we produce the draft strategic plan onsite so that you and your leaders can discuss critical components while ideas and context are still fresh.
- Implementation support – we provide a wide range of post-planning implementation support including identifying measures of success, barriers and solutions to implementation.
At the completion of your customized strategic planning process, your association will have an actionable strategic plan that identifies key audiences, articulates your Vision and Mission-based goals, and pinpoints the organizational, marketing, and delivery strategies necessary to be successful.
For more information and examples of Association Laboratory’s work in strategic planning research, please visit Strategic Leadership and Governance in our Knowledge Center.