I have come across a few Strategic Plans in my humble career and today, I would like to discuss a particular strategic objective.

 “Enhancing organizational capacity” as a strategic objective has been seen to be a critical success factor for the strategic plan in some organizations. As we consider budget allocation and activities to actualise the objective, what weight do we attach to the capacity resident in the existing human capital of the organization?

 I am of the considered view that if more organizations that have expertise in their internal human capital, formalized in house training/capacity building, significant progress would be made in bridging capacity gaps, which would in turn have a positive impact on implementation of the strategic plan. After all, people are the ultimate drivers and beneficiaries of the operations of an organisation, isn’t it?

 It is important that an organization has the right people in the right places. Further to that, there must be a robust and effective education, coaching and mentoring program to ensure that that there is equitable opportunity for growth and succession.

 My proposal is that people all over the world have and continue to invest in their education and expertise and land themselves some very good jobs as leaders. However, in some cases, the aspect of mentoring coaching and using internal expertise to enhance organizational capacity is not integral to their key performance indicators. One may get away with not doing anything in that area and still score very high in their performance ratings.

 I think that organizations should conduct skills audits and have deliberate policies to encourage in – house staff development as a key compliment to the overall plan that may involve externally sourced interventions.

 Let’s share!