Consulting Services

Strategic Planning

Organizations need plans that will be implemented, and people are more likely to implement plans they create for themselves.

ICAA’s Strategic Planning Methodology helps you avoid the issues and missed opportunities of conventional strategic planning. Let us help you address current and future challenges, develop creative solutions, and increase enthusiasm from all stakeholders to improve implementation and adoption.

ICAA’s Strategic Consulting Framework

Our Approach – ICAA Strategic Planning Methodology

Our five-step participatory planning process:

Learn from your experience
Use our tools and processes to help stakeholders consider their past experiences to interpret trends in the organization and take away valuable insights. It’s the first step to dismissing the “this is how we do things here” mindset
Define a practical vision
Build a consensus on a shared vision of your organization’s desired future with involved stakeholders. This process should both expose hidden agendas and create both realistic but inspirational vision for three to ten years down the line
Address contradictions
Identify systemic blocks and constraints that could create obstacles with plan implementation and success. Discuss current challenges and potential obstacles at risk for arising when a new strategic plan is implemented.
Develop transformation strategies
Go beyond setting goals and define strategic transformational approaches that will enable this shared vision to emerge. Develop sets of activities that align with short-term goals set by stakeholders across the organization.
Implementation
Teams take responsibility for their part in the strategic plan by setting and executing on short-term SMART goals for themselves, breaking down complex transformational journeys into detailed, realistic strategies with timelines of 90-100 days

Learn more about our Strategic Planning Methodology.

Implementing Co-Created Strategic Plans

Strategic Focus
Focus everyone on strategies that prioritize immediate implementation. Build commitment to move forward in the transformation with total engagement of all staff and stakeholders.
Develop clear plans and build authentic consensus
ICAA’s participatory strategic planning engages all stakeholders in developing a broad consensus on a vision for the future and creative strategies to move forward.
Launch a team into immediate implementation
A full cycle of participatory planning can take a few days to a week and results in teams ready to launch into action.
Deal with underlying issues preventing positive change
Uncovering systemic and root contradictions and impediments ensures that plans are based on reality rather than ungrounded dreams.
Invigorate the whole group
ToP™ (Technology of Participation) planning ensures that all stakeholders are motivated, committed and ready to engage.

Why ICAA?

ICAA has decades of combined experience across diverse industries. We’ve worked with organizations of all sizes, helping to create effective strategic plans, prioritizing immediate and enthusiastic implementation. Our consulting services will help your team create strategic plans that are actually carried out to drive meaningful and long-lasting impact.

See our case studies here.

Alzheimers Society Of Ontario

ASIO represents 30 local Alzheimer societies across Ontario. ASIO needed a new long range strategy plan but needed it to represent ...

James Bay Cree Governance

Nearly 1000 people from 10 Cree communities and 4 cities participated in creating a set of values and recommendations for governme ...

Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

MPAC transformed itself from a traditional hierarchy into a collaborative organization focusing on innovation. What began as an em ...

Toronto Drug Strategy Initiative

Drug use and abuse is viewed differently by advocates of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The City of Toront ...

What Our Clients Say

ICA Associates led us on a thoughtful and productive Leadership Retreat that helped us more deeply connect and get to know each another better after the complexities of remote work during the pandemic. The DiSC styles helped us grow in deeper appreciation of each other’s strengths and in how we come to reaching decisions and actioning next steps. We were able to weave our insights from the two days into a team agreement to help guide us, as we continue to move forward together in fulfillment of our organizational mission and align closely as one integrated team in support of the wider organization.

Management Team WILL Employment Solutions, Your Content Goes Here

ICA Associates Inc. lead our strategic planning. It was so effective that we had them look at and enhance all of our program planning and evaluation processes.

Dr. Robert Kyle Commissioner and Medical Officer of Health, The Regional Municipality of Durham

In a few short years MPAC has transformed from an “unchanging” institution with an assigned mandate and rote routines to an innovative, collaborative, and pro-active organization.

Anthoni Wisniowski President, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

Our project resulted in “uncontentious structural change” in a major institution, and a shift from top-down decision-making and silos toward a collaborative culture. Action plans are being carried out, with public progress reports at regular intervals.

Julia O'Sullivan Ontario Insitute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Chapter 2 of Transformational Strategy

Reasons why high levels of participation are important for strategic planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Strategic Planning Training focuses on giving you the tools to create strategies that can be immediately implemented, by ensuring group consensus and investment, as well as identifying and removing blockages.

ICAA's participatory process is designed to break down barriers in the planning and decision making process to consider all variables and perspectives. This enables a more data-driven, reliable plan to be created and executed.

ICAA offers a raneg of courses to improve strategic planning, ranging in expert level from basic to advanced. Training programs are available in person or online.

Ensuring your teams can make long-term, collaborative, and productive plans and decisions will see overall productivity rise, and the increased investment of project participants will raise office morale and camaraderie.

The major components of strategic planning training are:

Strategic Focus
Develop clear plans and build authentic consensus
Launch a team into immediate implementation
Deal with underlying issues preventing positive change
Invigorate the whole group