Assignment 1: Develop a Framework for Strategic Planning 

Instructions

Strategic planning provides guidance to organizations in fulfilling their mission and goals with maximum efficiency and impact. To begin such a planning process leadership must know the organization’s current situation. Generally, the planning process begins by assessing the organization’s internal and external situations using a specific tool. The most used organizational assessment tool is the S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis.

Imagine that you’re a consultant to the global company you selected in your earlier assignment. The company has requested that you create a strategic plan for them. A strategic plan is a document that organizations develop to communicate goals and the actions needed to achieve those goals with a timeline and all of the critical elements in the planning exercise. Complete a SWOT analysis on your company using the template included in this week’s resources. Then, prepare at least three recommendations for improvement based on the results of the SWOT. Your recommendations will also be used as you develop your organization’s strategic plan in the next part of this assignment. Using the SWOT analysis template available in the Week resources, complete the analysis on your company.

Week 3 – Assignment 2: Implement Strategic Planning

Instructions

An organization’s strategic plan is a comprehensive document representing the “big picture” and helping to give clarity determining where the organization is going over the next year or beyond. Every organization maps a strategy, incorporating goals and action steps that are tailored to meet their needs. 

For the second part of this assignment, imagine that you are a consultant hired to create a strategic plan for your selected global organization and present it using a PowerPoint presentation. You must include information from the outcome of the SWOT. The slides should include the following:

Organizational summary

Vision & Mission statement(s)

SWOT Analysis Results (1 page) – You may include the actual template

At least three goals with objectives, a timeline and resources required.

Possible barriers

Your recommendations 

Length: 10 slides (with a separate reference slide)

Notes Length: 100 words for each slide

References: Include a minimum of five scholarly resources.

Your presentation should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy. Review NCU’s Academic Integrity Tutorial to refresh your knowledge of how to achieve academic integrity. 

Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style where appropriate. Save the file as PPT with the correct course code information.

Utilizing the information you compiled for your literature review paper, and the feedback you received from your instructor about the literature review, prepare a 10-15 minute Power Point presentation on your topic, summarizing the key points and conclusions. Be sure to direct this presentation to an audience in the community. For example, if your paper pertained to a topic in developmental psychology, direct your presentation toward parents, or a parenting center. If your topic pertained to substance abuse, direct it toward a community service agency which may use this information for educating teens or parents about preventing drug use, or current clients about treatments and facilities available. Please state in your presentation the specific audience toward whom your presentation is aimed. Include a reference page in APA format, as well as speaker notes and an audio file with your presentation.

Your slides should provide answers to the following questions: 

• What was your topic?
• What question did you hope to answer by completing this literature review paper? Explain the practical implications of the conclusions of the literature review and the audience to which they are directed.
• Given the results of your literature review, what is/are the prevailing argument(s)? In other words, which of those is supported by the existing evidence? Be sure to include full coverage of the arguments, including strengths and weaknesses of each of them, supported by your findings from reviewing the relevant articles.
• Did the researchers consider multicultural factors in their studies? If not, what factors may be involved? What multicultural factors should future studies include?
• What ethical issues are related to your topic and/or discussed in the studies you reviewed?
• How do the conclusions of your literature review relate to the various specialization areas in psychology? Tie them to as many as apply from the following areas: biological, cognitive, developmental, social, personality theory, psychopathology, and applied psychology.
• How can the conclusions of your literature review inform the population towards whom your presentation is directed? How can they apply this information to their daily lives? What advice or ‘take home message’ can you provide to your audience based on the research you reviewed?
• What research question could you ask in order to further develop this area of study?
• Why is your research question important and relevant to the current work being done on your topic?

Your presentation should also follow these guidelines:

• It should be approximately 10-15 minutes in length.
• It should be clear, concise, and professional.  Writing should be free of spelling and grammatical errors; it should conform to current APA style (including any in-text citations).
• It should include graphs, tables, figures, or images illustrating your ideas.
• There should be a final slide listing references in current APA style.
• The bulk of the text should be placed in the Notes pages of each slide. Keep the amount of text on the slide, itself, to a minimum.
• You should record an audio file of your oral presentation. You should also type the text of the speech you would give while showing these slides to an audience should be typed into the Notes area.  If you are unable to use the audio feature, the Notes text will suffice.
• You can refer to the Power Point tips document provided in the Doc Sharing section of the course.