"Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan" is the companion workbook to Bryson's landmark book, "Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, " a step-by-step guide to putting strategic planning into effect. Using revised, easy-to-understand worksheets, the authors provide clear instructions for creating a strategic plan tailored to the needs of the individual organization. With more material on stakeholder analysis, visioning, strategic issue identification, and implementation, this new edition is the best resource for taking leaders, managers, and students through every step of the strategic planning process.

What does strategic planning for public and non-profit purposes look like? How does strategic planning differ from other kinds of planning, and how can these different approaches be reconciled? How can strategic planning and implementation be linked effectively to create strategic management? How can strategic management for public and non-profit purposes be tailored to fit differing circumstances, including those facing governments, public agencies, state enterprises, privatized enterprises, and non-profit organizations? What is the proper role for elected or appointed policy boards when it comes to strategic management? How can participation by key stakeholders be managed? How should various planning tools be used in strategic planning?

This selection of papers from Long Range Planning-The International Journal of Strategic Management provides answers to these questions by presenting a variety of approaches to the improvement of strategic thinking and acting for all those who wish to sharpen their skills and improve their strategic planning and management efforts for public and non-profit purposes. It also describes some of the problems which can occur in the application of what is fast becoming a standard part of the management repertoire of public and non-profit organizations.

We live in a complex world. We are constantly challenged by issues that seem at first to be simple, but on reflection turn out to have complicated causes and consequences that can dramatically affect our lives. Often, getting a handle on what the issues are is half the battle. Imagine a tool that can help you unravel the complexity of the decision-making labyrinth, a process that would allow you to:

• Make sense of challenging situations
• Tackle a large number of ideas and their interconnections
• Evaluate and explore values, goals, strategies and actions
• Link strategic thinking to action
• Develop effective action plans in response to the issues
• Create shared meaning and agreement
• Communicate strategies in ways that can be easily understood and acted upon
• Make people understand why an action is important and how they can help
• Help you move from 'winging it' to creating integrated strategies that are robust, both today and in the future, for your firm

The causal mapping process is illustrated through a series of real cases - from tackling personal problems to strategy-change efforts in business, public and not-for-profit organizations. The cases are usedto present a comprehensive set of process guidelines designed to help you create your own action-oriented causal maps.

'Mapping has worked very well in enabling us get to grips with major decisions. The process brings issues and underlying assumptions to the surface, using the diverse perspectives of all members of the group. Then, most helpfully, it structures contributions so that the group reaches a shared understanding and can see the whole, rich picture.' Ros Micklem, Principal, Cardonald College, Glasgow, Scotland

'Bryson, Ackermann, Eden and Finn beautifully convert the bland noun "map" into the vivid managerial verb, "to map," and in doing so define a unique managerial capability that can provide new sources of order and meaning in chaotic times.' Karl E. Weick, Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Based on Bryson's comprehensive approach to strategic planning, this workbook provides tools, techniques, worksheets, and step-by-step processes to help successfully implement, manage, and troubleshoot an organization's strategy over the long haul. This updated workbook helps organizations work through the typical challenges of leading implementation for sustained change, picking up where the current workbook leaves the reader to focus on effective long-term implementation and leadership of a strategic plan. Implementation tools are provided for goal and objective-setting, budgeting, stakeholder analysis, priority reconciliation, strategies in practice, special leadership roles, cultural changes, and more.