How your feedback can strengthen my upcoming book on Inclusive Strategic Planning
How are you?
2025 has been a year of heartbreak and rage. It has not let up. I hope you are out there protesting the hostile takeover of the Federal government and the attacks on so much - we are!
And this post is about creating and building.
I have been working on a book about Inclusive Strategic Planning.
Why? We have a process of listening to many perspectives and incorporating the team’s feedback into the direction forward that has worked for many organizations.
This process energizes people, creates clarity and focus, and opens opportunities for the leaders and organizations who use it. Many leaders ask us about the process. Even after almost 150 (!) blog posts, we continue to receive questions such as: How do you actually do this? A book seemed like a way to share the process in more depth.
I started working on a draft last year. But something didn’t feel right. It was much too broad, sharing my perspective on strategic planning. But it didn’t exactly talk about how to do the process.
Key idea: People’s voices matter
If there are already books on strategic planning – trust me, there are, several of which are on my bookshelf -- why write another book on this topic?
Some of these books explore the technical process of strategic planning, including worksheets and meeting agendas.
Most of these miss the simple concept that people’s voices matter. In order to honor people’s voices and perspectives, the planning process itself needs to talk about power – to be transparent about who will be making decisions and weighing in at different points. Our process is different because it does include and bring out many voices and share power and decision-making across the team.
The idea that people’s voices matter must be said loudly and often in these times.
Struggling to write a valuable book
I wondered – how can I write a book that will truly help leaders to do inclusive Strategic Planning?
I heard about a few colleagues who wrote books that launched with great excitement but then didn’t get much attention beyond the launch.
I didn’t want that to happen. Why write a book if no one is going to read it?
I felt stuck. I sat with that for a while.
I had the structure and wrote a draft, using the format of a strategic planning process. But how could I know whether what I have shared actually clarifies the process for many different nonprofit leaders?
Searching for a way to write a book as an inclusive process
Our work – whether training, teaching, facilitating, or co-designing -- has NEVER been about giving a lecture. It has ALWAYS been about bringing out the perspectives and wisdom in the room, listening to those perspectives, and supporting the group to find a way forward that includes those perspectives.
This is by design. We are experts in our process -- of guiding group members to share their perspectives and vision, narrow in on goals and build plans that energize group members – because their feedback and experiences are incorporated into the plan.
As we have written, “the Ross Collective designs and leads participatory processes that draw on the wisdom of the group. We are experts at planning and facilitation and we believe that YOU, in collaboration with others who support your organization’s work, are the experts in what your organization should do. This is a philosophy that works for many organizations, but not all. Some leaders are seeking a strategic planning consultant to give them the “answers” based on the consultant’s expertise. We use participatory processes because we have seen again and again that people are most invested in the solutions and goals that they have a role in creating. Full disclosure: It may take more time to run participatory processes and conversations! The results speak for themselves.”
In other words – we are experts in Inclusive Strategic Planning. And you are the expert in what you need to support your learning and growth, such as your questions about this topic and where you need greater clarity.
💡 Light Bulb Moment: Beta reading for an inclusive writing process!
My light bulb moment, not long ago, was learning about the Write Useful Books method.
In brief, Write Useful Books advocates incorporating multiple rounds of feedback into the process of writing a book. (Yes, this is the exact thing we do with strategic planning!!! Very meta.)
This might sound geeky, but I can feel my heart expand when I contemplate working in this way: I am writing the book through listening to the perspectives of nonprofit leaders who are interested in strategic planning -- the audience of the book. And this inclusive process will make the book better!
Announcing: Inclusive Strategic Planning for Nonprofits: A five-step process to expand energy, alignment, and opportunity
ID: Renee Rubin Ross with a stack of 3 books, titled, Inclusive Strategic Planning for Nonprofit: A five-step process to expand energy, alignment and opportunity
Here’s where things are: We have a beautiful book cover (thank you to our fabulous designer at Brand Your Light) and a first draft. Woo hoo!
How you can help.
I have tested this material multiple times through teaching the course on Strategic Planning.
We are now seeking beta readers to test the manuscript. Which parts are especially valuable and useful? Which parts inspire you? Which parts don’t make sense? Which parts especially clarify how to do Inclusive Strategic Planning? We are using the cool “Help This Book” software that allows beta readers to easily share comments and reactions.
You may be wondering: What’s the time investment to be a beta reader? The current manuscript probably takes ~60 to 90 minutes to read. You don’t have to read it all in one sitting! And if you have less time available, we’ll take that too.
If you want to be a beta reader, fill out this two-minute form and we’ll get you set up!
And what if you are ready for planning now – so don’t want to spend the time reading a book about it? Reach out, we do have a bit of capacity open this Fall or in early 2026.
Excited to build this book, inclusively! 🙂