ICO/IFOS Strategic Planning:

Draft ICO/IFOS Strategic Plan, 2007 - 2012, Attachment B: Participants, the Process and Plans for Follow-up

Participants in the July 4 - 5, 2006 Planning Session

Council Members:

Facilitator:

Participants in November 11, 2006 Session in Las Vegas

(Joined at 3 p.m. by many other members of the Council and Advisory Committee)

The Process

This section describes the strategic planning process and defines its various components.

The facilitator, Mr. Felch, defined strategic planning as a process that answers the following questions:

He outlined the following steps in the strategic planning process:

The first planning session began with environmental analysis, which involves looking both outside the organization and within, to determine where it stands in relationship to its environment (see Attachment A). This answers the question "Where are we?" and provides perspective for deciding where the organization should go.

The participants first defined external trends that will affect international ophthalmology and the ICO/IFOS in the next five to 10 years. The group then listed and evaluated the needs of the public related to eye care, the needs of ophthalmologists and the needs of ophthalmologic societies.

The planning group also listed perceived strengths and weaknesses of international ophthalmology and the ICO/IFOS. Strengths suggest areas that the organization should build on in the future. Weaknesses indicate organizational needs, the most important of which should be addressed in the Strategic Plan.

The participants then turned to the question "Where do we want to go?" They defined a mission, vision for international ophthalmology, vision for ICO/IFOS, primary strategic directions, and six major goals for ICO/IFOS (Part 1).

The mission is a concise statement of why the organization exists. It defines the primary results it is working to achieve, against which all strategies and plans can be measured.

The vision for international ophthalmology is a description of international ophthalmology as it will be in 10 years if ICO/IFOS is successful. The vision for ICO/IFOS describes what the organization will be upon successful completion of its Strategic Plan.

The primary strategic directions are broad directions and approaches ICO/IFOS will pursue in the next five years to fulfil the vision and accomplish the mission.

The planning group next defined six major goals for ICO/IFOS. Goals are the major functions or activities it will be involved in (e.g., ophthalmic education, advocacy) and what they are intended to accomplish. The statement of goals provides a basis for organizing work on the Plan and for defining more specific strategies and long range objectives and plans that relate to each goal.

The rest of the planning session focussed on the question "How do we get there?" For each of the goals, the group listed the broad, continuing results that ICO/IFOS should work to obtain and possible strategies and other action for accomplishing those results. Participants assigned high priority to some of the strategies (see Part 3).

Follow-up On The Zurich Planning Session

At the end of the planning session, Mr. Felch described the following key ingredients for successful completion and implementation of a Strategic Plan:

Mr. Felch drafted a possible action plan for follow-up on the planning session, and the group agreed that this would be a reasonable approach to completion and implementation of the Plan.

A report on the planning session (also a partial draft Strategic Plan) was circulated to participants, the Council, its Advisory Committee and IFOS members for comment and modified as needed to reflect broad consensus.

Three major issues were identified that warranted further discussion:

For each of these issues, various options and their pros and cons were outlined in a mailing to the Council and Advisory Committee requesting comments. Based on the comments received, the draft Plan was revised again in November, prior to the planning session in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Planning Session

At the follow-up planning session on November 11, 2006, participants were asked if they agreed with the environmental analysis (Attachment A), and some changes were suggested.

The group also suggested modifications to the draft Mission, Visions, Primary Strategic Directions and Goals, all of which are reflected in Part 1 of this report.

Most of the Las Vegas meeting focused on the six goals. For each, the participants reviewed the broad desired results that had been defined and brainstormed other strategies for achieving those results. They then decided which of the strategies proposed at that meeting and the previous one should be assigned highest priority.

With that perspective, the group agreed on one to three areas under each goal for which more specific long range objectives should be defined. Long range objectives define specific, ideally measurable, results that must be achieved by a defined date in order to accomplish a goal. They provide a focus for action on each goal.

Follow-up on the Las Vegas Planning Session

Individual Council members will be asked to take ongoing responsibility for each of the six goals. Then individuals will be asked to take responsibility for each objective and for defining an action plan to achieve it. Action plans describe the steps that will be taken, who is responsible for each step and the schedule to be followed to achieve the objective and resources required (see the next page for an example of an action plan).

The future directions defined in Parts 1 and 3 will be combined with the action plans (which will be Part 4) in a Strategic Plan, a blueprint for the future of the ICO/IFOS. The goal chairs and individuals responsible for the objectives will coordinate implementation, with periodic reports on progress.

The organization will define a system (possibly a Strategic Plan Committee) for monitoring progress on the Plan and revising it as needed, with evaluation once a year to assure that the directions suggested are still appropriate and assess the results that have been achieved.

Following is the plan for follow-up, which is an example of an action plan:

Action Plan To Achieve the “Strategic Plan” Objective

Strategic Plan: to define and implement a Strategic Plan that will guide the achievement of the ICIO/IFOS long range goals and objectives.

Responsibility: Dr. Spivey

Deadline: July 2011

Steps:	Responsi- bility:	Schedule:
1. Prepare report on planning session/draft partial strategic plan	Mr. Felch	11/12 - 11/27/06
2. Send Plan for comment to Council and Advisory Committee and revise as needed	Dr. Spivey	11/28 - 12/11/06
3. Ask individuals to take responsibility for goals and for long range objectives	Dr. Spivey	11/28 - 12/11/06
4. Circulate the Plan for comment to IFOS members and revise as needed	Dr. Spivey	12/12 - 12/29/06
5. Define action plans for each long range objective and submit to goal chairs	Individuals responsible for each objective	12/8/06 – 1/5/07
6. Provide feedback on action plans	Goal Chairs/ Dr. Spivey	1/6 - 1/12/07
7. Revise action plans as needed and re-submit to Goal Chairs	Individuals responsible	1/13 – 1/19/07
8. Submit action plans and budgets	Goal Chairs	1/20/07
9. Draft full Strategic Plan for approval by Council and integrate into proposed budget for 2007 and beyond	Dr. Spivey/ Mr. Felch	1/21 - 2/1/07
10. Council approves Strategic Plan	Dr. Spivey	3/24/07
11. Implement action plans	Individuals Responsible	4/1/07 - ongoing
12. Report progress on action plans to Goal Chairs	Individuals Responsible	Twice a year
13. Provide feedback on action plans and submit revised plans and submit progress reports	Goal Chairs	Twice a year
14. Review progress and provides feedback and report to Council	Dr. Spivey	Twice a year
15. IFOS approves changes in Statutes and Council approves changes in regulations	Dr. Spivey	June 2008
16. Council reviews progress and provides feedback	Dr. Spivey	Twice a year
17. Evaluate Strategic Plan and the results that are being obtained	Dr. Spivey	At each Council meeting
18. Develop new Strategic Plan	Chair, Strategic Plan Committee	July 2009

Next: Forum on the Future