March 2014

NSPE TODAY: OUTLOOK
Staying Strategic

BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MARK GOLDEN

When I say “strategic plan,” I imagine a lot of you will roll your eyes and groan. “Been there. Done that. Heard it all before. Nothing ever comes from it.”

To be sure, in recent years strategic planning has fallen into a bit of disrepute, and not just at NSPE. As the speed of business has caught up to high-speed technology, many have declared the strategic planning process dead and ridiculed those who continued to do it. In too many cases, strategic planning was nothing more than a “structured process removed from the realities of markets, customers, and competitors,” as Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers wrote in The Road to Relevance. And I am sure we have all seen examples of plans well crafted, but then put on a shelf to die.

So you have good reason to be a little skeptical. But to paraphrase the Bard, “the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our strategic plans, but in ourselves, that we have failed to live by them.”

Today, modern strategic planning is an evergreen process, not an exhaustive documentation of specific tactics and objectives frozen in time. And while that age-old process of creating huge documents outlining detailed five-year plans has, deservedly, fallen by the wayside, it needs to be replaced by something even more strategic: an ongoing, organization-wide habit of strategic thinking.

Through its Race for Relevance activities, reported extensively on NSPE’s website, the Society has already committed itself to such a process of ongoing, strategic thinking, backed up by action. The leadership has already changed its culture and begun to develop the habit of constantly asking itself: “What is it that NSPE does (or has the potential to do) better than anyone else, that members can’t do for themselves, and would be viewed as essential by every licensed professional engineer?”

It is a persistent and perpetual process that is never satisfied and never rests with yesterday’s answer. NSPE’s governance and strategic history is one of endlessly challenging itself: “Are we doing the best we can today, for our members today, in the world they live in today?”

That is the essence of strategic thinking. And it is happening not only at the national level, but within many of our state societies.

It requires agreement on foundational principles: the part that doesn’t change but remains constant. Principles such as: NSPE is a single, integrated system of autonomous but closely coordinated parts—state, national, and local. And although membership is clearly and appropriately defined (the licensed engineer and those who aspire to be licensed), there is significant diversity within that constituency.

It includes the reality that in order to be a member-centric, nimble, future-focused, and responsive organization, NSPE must minimize process, politics, and bureaucracy and increase the focus, alignment, and action/outcome-orientation of every board, committee, task force, and other internal group.

But probably most importantly, it recognizes that the race for relevance is never finished—it is an open-ended commitment to the membership and to the public that relies upon their professionalism.

In order to support incorporation of these principles into NSPE’s operational DNA and the culture of the organization at all levels, the NSPE board is working on a succinct statement of strategic direction that will be common to every council, committee, and task force at work within NSPE. But each separate working group will have its own unique set of charges, accountabilities, and performance outcomes specifically tied to these shared, organization-wide objectives. And each working component will be committed to regular reports and updates to the membership that these groups exist to serve.

Looking at NSPE’s history of strategic planning, going back to the foundational years, I do not see a history of a society lurching from one new, bright and shiny object to another, trying the strategy du jour and quickly abandoning it.

No. I see an organization that has sometimes struggled to find the best answer for the current reality, but never rests on past achievements or tries to apply stale formulas after they have stopped producing results. In one sense, NSPE’s Race for Relevance initiatives are themselves a form of continuity, a constant of change.

Of course, change is never easy, and can be challenging ... even threatening. But rest assured that one thing  will never change and could never change at NSPE: remaining true to its unique role within the broader engineering profession, representing the interests and needs of the licensed professional engineer. That mission demanded different actions and activities in 1934, when the Society was formed, but remains as valid and relevant today as it was then. And it is a mission that is currently advanced through NSPE’s activities as the recognized and authoritative expert in licensure, ethics, and professional practice; in promoting licensure and assisting individuals in becoming licensed; and in protecting and enhancing the value of licensure and the opportunities for the licensed engineer.