Vianova’s strategic planning facilitation helps companies, associations, nonprofits and schools set direction and build a plan their people are behind.
Most planning produces a long document and a short memory. Ours is built around a handful of strategic priorities, designed so your whole team can name them, with an owner for each and a way to tell when one no longer holds.
Every engagement is led personally by a senior strategic planning facilitator — not handed off to junior staff.
And the plan doesn’t go quiet. We stay connected for the life of it.
Let’s Talk (No pitch. Just a conversation to see if we’re a fit)
A few of the organizations we’ve worked with across facilitation, planning and training since 2005.
Sound Familiar?
If one of these lands, it’s worth a conversation.
We Agree in the Meeting and Doubt It Afterward
Everyone agrees in order to keep things moving. The plan rests on agreement that was never really there.
Nothing Ever Comes Off the List
Priorities get added every year. We’ve never decided what to stop to make room, so we took on more than we can do.
The Loudest Option Won
We picked a direction because it had the most support in the room — not because anyone asked what it would take to pay off.
Everyone Owns It, So No One Does
Priorities were agreed. Nobody was named. By midyear, no one’s sure whose it was.
New Leadership, Someone Else’s Plan
A new executive or board chair needs to set direction, and the current plan reflects someone else’s priorities.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO PLANNING
Planning differently. A plan built for impact.
Whether it’s your first plan or a fresh start, you’ll still do the work every good plan needs: mission and vision, goals, objectives and strategies. What’s different is how we get there, and the change your plan is built to make for the people you serve.
The views that don’t surface in the room
Confidential input that goes beyond satisfaction to surface what’s often missed and could change your decisions.
The right priorities, not the popular ones
Options that wouldn’t otherwise surface, weighed by their impact on the people you serve, not their popularity.
Less on your plate, more of what matters
For every new priority, something comes off your plate, so your team has the capacity to deliver what matters.
Trouble seen early, not at year-end
Each quarter, your team checks whether what each priority depends on still holds, while there’s time to act.
What it takes from you: leadership commitment, pre-work your team completes, and full participation in the workshop. We guide the process. The thinking and the decisions are yours.
Two Ways to Plan
Both run on the same method, shaped by more than a decade of facilitating strategic plans and by research into why plans fall short. What changes is how far ahead you’re looking and how far out we listen.
Every engagement is customized to your size, sector, timeline and capacity. Add-ons include a communication plan for rolling the plan out to your whole team.
Your plan doesn’t go quiet.
We stay connected for the life of your plan.
A tracker built for your plan
Your goals, objectives, owners and targets in one place, ready the day your plan is final.
A reminder every quarter
Time to review progress, update your tracker, and check that what each priority depends on still holds.
Plan Stewardship (optional)
An annual strategy reset timed to your budget cycle, resource alignment, and a one-year check-in with your plan owners.
Your team does the work. We keep the plan in front of them. The tracker comes with multi-year planning; annual plans include the quarterly reminder.
Why Choose Vianova
Certified B Corporation since 2008.
The person you meet leads every session
No handoff to junior staff.
Twenty years, every sector
Associations, companies, nonprofits, schools and government, since 2005.
Neutral by design
We guide the process. The strategy is yours, so your team owns it.
We’ll tell you if you’re not ready
We’d rather say so than run a plan you won’t use.
Every voice in the room counts
Our digital platform lets everyone weigh in anonymously, before and during the workshop.
AI, used responsibly
The time it saves goes back into your plan. Your data stays anonymous, and people make every call.
“Hands-down our experience with Frank’s leadership and strategic planning facilitation has been the most thorough, focused, and dare I say enjoyable. He has a way of keeping everyone on agenda while allowing time for relevant discussion. We all left with confidence that our senior team is aligned and our goals are completely achievable for the year to come.” – Jon Bailey, Founder/CRO, 62Above
Let’s Talk (No pitch. Just a conversation to see if we’re a fit)
Free Resource
Not quite ready for a conversation? Start here.
A step-by-step guide to defining your strategic planning facilitation needs and finding the right facilitation partner.
- Assess whether your situation calls for strategic planning facilitation help
- Define your goals, audience, and success criteria
- Know the right questions to ask prospective facilitators
- Spot the red flags and green flags when evaluating fit
Frequently Asked Questions About Strategic Planning Facilitation (FAQs)
Which of the two is right for us? Annual planning assumes you have a direction and decides what to do about it in the next twelve months. Multi-year planning sets the direction. If you’re not sure which you need, we’ll tell you on the call.
How long should our plan cover? Most clients set three years. Two or five works too. The right horizon depends on how far ahead your commitments actually run — an organization that can change direction in a year shouldn’t be locked into five. We’ll settle it in scoping.
Do you help with mission and vision? Yes. We confirm or refresh them from what your people and the people you serve tell us, then your team tests and chooses the direction in the workshop. The final wording is polished afterward, so the day stays on decisions.
How much does it cost? Fixed fee, scoped at the outset. No hourly billing. If the scope changes, the price is agreed before the work. What moves the number is the size of your organization, how many groups we gather input from, and how far we travel. We start with a 30-minute conversation to see if we’re a fit for each other. If we are, a scoping call follows, and you’ll have a written proposal with a firm figure within two business days — and if a smaller engagement would serve you better, we’ll say so.
Who gets asked? Your board or executive team, your senior staff and your managers. For multi-year planning, also the people you serve — customers, members, clients, students and families, or the communities you work with — including former ones. Funders and partners where they matter.
Will we see the individual responses? No. You’ll get a synthesis of the patterns and themes, never individual answers. That’s what makes the responses honest.
How do you use AI? To deliver more, not to decide for you. It helps us analyze input, design sessions and prepare materials, and the time it saves goes back into deeper analysis and more time in the room for real debate. Three rules apply: client data is anonymized, the tools we use don’t train on it, and a person reviews everything before you see it.
Can the workshop be virtual? Every engagement is already hybrid: the input, pre-work and follow-up happen remotely, and the planning workshop happens in person. A fully virtual engagement is possible, but it’s a different design, typically five shorter sessions over five weeks. It costs more to deliver, though you save on travel and venue. Something is also lost on screen: the side conversations, the read of the room, and the momentum of working through hard choices together. That’s why we recommend in person, and won’t split the workshop day.
Do you use SWOT? Not as a standard step. A SWOT is a snapshot that ages quickly and isn’t tied to any particular choice. Instead, we identify what each priority depends on, and that’s what you watch. If your board or a funder needs one, we’ll include it.
What if we can’t reach a decision on something? Then it goes in the plan as an open question with a named owner and a date. That’s an output, not a failure. What we won’t do is force a decision that gives half the room a plan they’re waiting to watch fail.
What happens after the plan? Your team works the plan, and we stay connected: a quarterly reminder to review progress, a plan tracker with multi-year plans, and the optional Plan Stewardship, including an annual strategy reset timed to your budget cycle.
Do you work with companies? Yes, and the method fits the way businesses run. The people you serve are your customers, priorities tie to your growth and profitability targets, and the quarterly check-in matches the rhythm you already manage to. Annual planning can run start to finish in four to six weeks.
Do you work outside Southern California? Yes, with travel billed in addition.