Move from planning to progress

Download From Planning to Progress — a free, practical framework that helps you link organisational goals to directorate, team and individual plans, so every action ladders up to what really matters.

Too many plans end up as forgotten documents. This template guides you to turn strategy into a living, working plan – with clear goals, success measures, flexibility to adapt, and cross-organisational alignment.

This resource is designed for:

Directors and Heads of Department and other leaders responsible for strategy and planning.

Or anyone tasked with turning “big ambitions” into a realistic, measurable plan.

Whether you’re refreshing a three-year strategy or building your first cross-team plan, this framework gives you a clear starting point.

What’s inside your ‘From Planning to Progress’ template?

From Planning to Progress is a simple, structured framework you can use with your leadership team, directorate or function to create a genuinely strategic plan. You’ll cover:

Organisational goals – what and why
Clarify the outcomes you’re aiming for and why they matter (growth, risk management, diversification, etc.) so your plan is rooted in purpose.

Success measures – how you’ll know it’s working
Define meaningful metrics at directorate / team level, including both leading indicators (activity and progress) and lagging indicators (results).

Strategic flexibility – how you’ll adapt
Build in checkpoints and capacity so you can pivot when things change, without losing sight of long-term goals.

Cross-organisational alignment – working together
Map critical stakeholders, roles and responsibilities so everyone understands how their work ladders up to shared outcomes.

  • “We’ve done annual planning before, but it’s always been siloed and inconsistent. This time, AAW's process did the hard work for us and made it feel easy. It’s given us that shared sense of direction we’d been missing and for the first time, we’re all pulling in the same direction. No confusion, no competing priorities and a real sense of collective buy-in.”

    Laura Savory | Former Director of Fundraising at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation (now Director of Fundraising at East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices)