Strategic planning
While much criticism surrounds strategic planning, evidence suggests that it does work. In a recent meta-analysis including data from almost 9,000 public and private organizations, strategic planning is found to have a positive impact on organizational performance. Strategic planning is particularly potent in enhancing an organization's capacity to achieve its goals (i.e., effectiveness). However, the study argues that just having a plan is not enough. For strategic planning to work, it needs to include some formality (i.e., including an analysis of the internal and external environment and the stipulation of strategies, goals and plans based on these analyses), comprehensiveness (i.e., producing many strategic options before selecting the course to follow) and careful stakeholder management (i.e., thinking carefully about whom to involve during the different steps of the strategic planning process, how, when and why).