Joey is a newly-appointed nurse manager of The Holy Spirit Medical Center, a tertiary hospital located within the heart of the metropolis. He thinks of scheduling a planning workshop with his staff in order to ensure effective and efficient management of the department. Should he decide to conduct a strategic planning workshop, which of the following is not a characteristic of this activity?
A. Long-term goal-setting.
B. Extends to 3-5 years in the future.
C. Focuses on routine tasks.
D. Determines directions of the organization.
Correct Answer: C. Focuses on routine tasks
Focusing on routine tasks is a characteristic of operational planning. Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.
Option A: Long-term planning is about setting a process by which a particular strategic plan will be achieved. This process focuses on activities that start now and continue well into the future.
Option B: Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful. A strategic plan is a document used to communicate with the organization the organization’s goals, the actions needed to achieve those goals, and all of the other critical elements developed during the planning exercise.
Option D: Strategic planning is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.