National Strategy Creation Manual

NATIONAL STRATEGY CREATION MANUAL

IFMSA Imprint Americas´ Regional Team 2019-2020 José Pablo Santamaría Internal Development Assistant for the Americas 2019-2020

Layout Design Satria Angga Widitama

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students worldwide. IFMSA was founded in 1951 and currently maintains more than 140 National Member Organizations from more than 129 countries across six continents, representing a network of 1.3 million medical students.

IFMSA envisions a world in which medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally, so to shape a sustainable and healthy future.

IFMSA is recognized as a nongovernmental organization within the United Nations’ system and the World Health Organization; and works in collaboration with the World Medical Association.

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Contents

Introduction

www.ifmsa.org

Basic Concept

Strategy Creation Process

Final Remarks

Introduction Creating, implementing, and controlling a National Strategy has been one of the main goals our region has had in order to help the NMOs in their internal development and continuity of the organizations. The National Strategy has become a basic component of their national work plans, a crucial set of steps to create a long run plan, from 3 to 5 years, to each organization that allows to have a more structured and organized set of objectives to work in a continuous way through the different administrations of each term, always with the best interest of each NMO in mind.

Therefore, this document is intended to provide a basic guide and steps to follow in order to create a National Strategy and a proper follow up process of the strategy.

The objective of this manual is not to mandate how to create and keep a strategy but to provide a planned, organized, realistic and able to control way to create a proper plan that brings out the best of each organization.

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Basic Concept Strategy:

Pillars:

a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or actions group of overarching concepts that will help the for obtaining a specific goal or result. A strategy NMO, in an organized way to fulfill the mission is a way of describing how to get things done. and vision in the long term.

Strategic planning:

Goals:

organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that people are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.

the objects of an organization’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

Indicators:

statistical information, quality and quantity characteristics and facts that taken together are used to measure the the development and results in any plan and the advancement of Strategic planning is a way to create a specific achievement of goals, projects or strategies. plan of action based on objectives and pillars where the NMOs have a clear path on how to reach the needed outcomes by using the Common abbreviations used in this document.

• NMO : National Member Organization resources in the best possible way with a • WHO : World Health Organization committed team that understands, shares and • IFMSA : International Federation of strongly believes in the goals pursued.

Medical Students´ Associations.

Follow up:

is the process of reviewing, in a periodic way the implementation of a process, its results, weaknesses, improving areas, challenges, and actions required.

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Strategy Creation Process There are multiple ways to create a strategy and different techniques and points of view. The recommendation in this document is to follow a six-step process, used and proved by different NMOs already assessed. There are many other techniques based on 5, 7 and even 9 steps. Feel free to add any other step to meet the needs or to use any other technique, making sure it covers the basic steps appointed here.

values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally.

To write the vision, you will have to ask yourself how you picture your NMO with all the possible problems it may face, solved.

Mission statement: the mission statement

describes how the vision will be achieved in a general perspective. When writing the mission From this moment on, the six steps will be statement always make sure that it is concise, outcome-oriented and not limiting to some described in a concise and simple way. possible actions to achieve a goal. It should Step 1: Create a mission, vision statement and have the capacity to survive during many years and changing conditions so the ways to get to values of the organization. the vision may change.

Mission and vision are the most basic part of an NMO. They highlight what the aspirations are, Some people tend to say that the mission how the organization is pictured in the future, statement is like taking a current picture of your and how to get there. Values will establish the organization, thus demonstrating what you do at the moment in order to achieve the vision. organizational culture shared by its members.

Vision statement:

The vision is the dream. Examples: It is what the members of the organization • WHO: To advocate and catalyze global believes are the ideal conditions for the NMO; it and country actions to resolve the human is how things would look if the issues important resources for health crisis, to support to the NMO were completely and perfectly the achievement of the health-related addressed. millennium development goals and health for all.

Examples: • IFMSA: IFMSA unites medical students • WHO: All people everywhere will have worldwide to lead initiatives that impact access to a skilled, motivated and positively the communities we serve. supported health worker, within a robust IFMSA represents the opinions and ideas health system. of future health professionals in the field of • IFMSA: A world in which all medical global health, and works, in collaboration students unite for global health and are with external partners. equipped with the knowledge, skills, and

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• IFMSA builds capacity through training, project and exchanges opportunities, while embracing cultural diversity so as to shape a sustainable and healthy future.

There are many ways, techniques and tools; to assess and analyze the internal and external environment of an organization.

For example, for internal analysis you can use: To write the mission you should describe in a tools like Porter´s 5 forces, Value Chain, MOST, concise, outcome-oriented and inclusive way, De Bono´s. and for external, you can use: PEST, how your NMO plans to achieve the vision VPEC-T, Catwoe.

during its years of existence.

For this purpose, the recommendation in this Values: the values of the NMO will shape document is to use a SWOT for internal analysis the organizational culture, the way things are and a PESTLE for external. done, and the behavior expected of the team.

Values establish the core of what the team SWOT Analysis: this analysis is one of must show and share as representatives of the the most wide known and basic analysis for organization, and what the general members internal knowledge of the NMO. SWOT stands should understand as the tacit requirements to for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. be part of the NMO. Example of values: stewardship, integrity, passion, diversity, innovation, teamwork, respect, quality, empathy, responsibility, reachness, learning oriented, collaboration, social, people oriented, honesty, outperform, and a million more.

For example IFMSA values are: Vision statements inspire to dream, mission statements inspire to work and values shape the environment where both are executed.

Step 2: Internal and External Analysis Making informed decisions, and evidence based decisions are familiar concepts to any organization run by medical students. When creating a strategy we should start from the same concept, that is: the NMO must have the most information available to establish the proper needs of the whole organization. In order to do so, NMOs must assess the situation internally but also externally.

• Strengths: things the NMO does well, qualities that set it apart from other organizations, internal resources (people, economic), internal capacities, among others • Weaknesses: things the NMO lacks, aspects other organizations do better than the NMO, resource limitations, situations that unstabilize the NMO, among others.

• Opportunities: abilities within the NMO that have not been used, organizations around that the NMO can benefit from, unused resources or new ways to get more resources for the organization.

• Threats: situations within the NMO that can get unstable or can happen in the years the strategy is being implemented, lack of resources in the future, changes in internal operations, etc.

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PESTEL analysis:

the PESTEL analysis is used to assess the external environment of an organization. It is based on the current evaluation of the different actors around an NMO. The main actors that must be addressed according to this tool are the Political environment, Economic situation, Social status of the community, Technological capacity and Access, Environmental status, and Legal capacities.

Step 3: Pillars Definition

• Always remember that the main goal is to achieve the mission and vision.

• If there is no certainty of an aspect of the internal or external assessment, review the situation as much as needed. Remember that the more information NMO has, the best informed decisions will make.

• Take into account the real capacities of the NMO. • Remember that the pillars are the base of the objectives.

Step 4: Establishing Objectives

The pillars in the strategy are a group of overarching concepts that will help the NMO, When establishing objectives, the best way to in an organized way to fulfill the mission and do it is by using the wide known system, SMART. SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, vision in the long term.

Achievable, Relevant, Time bound. So this means The pillars are a group of topics chosen as the that each one of the objectives as organization priorities of the NMO, based on the analysis should comply with this characteristics as done previously combined with where the team much as possible.

• Specific: each one of the goals must in charge establishes as the path the NMO be clear and specific. This will allow the needs to take in the short and long term. organization to focus all the efforts and Pillars are crucial since they hold the structure feel truly motivated to achieve the goal. of the strategy.

The questions that might be asked to write specific goals are: what do I want to At this point, the NMO already has its mission, accomplish? Why is this goal important? vision, values and internal and external Who is involved? Which resources or limits assessment ready; this gives the overall are involved? information to have the capacity to establish • Measurable: having measurable goals what are the needs of the NMO and what should is crucial for the organization to be able be placed as the core components to work on to track the progress and therefore know during the strategy period. the status at any given time. Assessing the status help the team stay focused, Take into account when establishing pillars: motivated and keeps the deadlines in • Although NMOs must have many needs, mind.The questions that might be asked prioritize them and try to group the needs to write measurable goals are: how much?, in no more than 5 to 6 pillars how many?, how will I know when it is • At all steps of the process keep in mind accomplished? For this the recommendation the results of the internal and external is to make it quantitative rather than analysis. qualitative

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• Achievable: the goal being written like an easy step but actually is as important as needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. Remember that every time a goal is established, it must be able to identify previously the opportunities or resources that can bring it closer to it.

The questions that might be asked to write achievable goals are: how can I accomplish this goal? How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial or human factors?

• Relevant: this characteristic makes sure that the goal matters, but not only that, it is also important when we talk about relevance, that the goal also aligns with other relevant goals. Also other authors use the R for the term “Realistic” and that´s a really important characteristic too, we should aim to goals we can actually achieve. Eventhough there is a discussion around these two terms, the best way to go is having a relevant and realistic goal.

To make sure you are writing a relevant goal, your answer to these next questions must be “yes”: Does this seem worthwhile? Is this the right time? Does this match our other efforts/needs? Is it applicable in the current socioeconomic environment.

• Time-bound: when writing objectives, those always must set a target date and something to work towards to. This is really important since it helps to analyze the rhythm of work of the organization but also prevents the team from taking priority on the day to day work over the long term.

Step 5: Analysis of The Strategy So Far This is the moment when the team in charge of creating the strategy, takes a break and analyzes the work done so far. This may seem

all the others.

By now the NMO already has a vision, mission, internal and external analysis, pillars and objectives created; this is the chance to make sure that the strategy is aligned with what the NMO needs.

This break can be of days, weeks or even a month. The important thing is that the team take the time to review and think of the best scenario for the future of the NMO. You can set discussions with your team, external actors that can give their input, open it to discussions with other members of the NMO, or even reading it yourself again after some break.

At this point you should ask yourself some questions: Does this strategy give overall direction? Does it fit the resources and opportunities of my NMO? Minimizes the resistance and barriers the organization may face? Reaches the proper population? Advances the NMO in the achieving of the mission?

Do not hesitate to review and change as much as needed.

Step 6: Action Plan An action plan is a way to make sure the organization’s strategy is made concrete. It describes the way the team will use their tactics to meet the objectives established previously.

An action plan consists of a number of action steps to be brought about in the NMO. The plan of action turns dreams into reality.

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The action plan must answer to the questions: • What actions will occur?

• Who will carry out these actions?

• By when they will take place and for how long?

• What resources are needed to carry out these activities?

The basic structure of an action plan has three components: goal, tactics/activities/programs and success indicators.

• Goal: the goal is the most basic unit of the action plan. Is the result that would like to get done at the termination of the strategy period. After analyzing the situation, establishing the pillars and setting the objectives, each goal is the steps that work as a complex system to get the results expected.

• Tactics/activities/programs: these are thoroughly detailed ways to get the goal done. It should be specific and include each step of the process. This is the way the team and future teams will know how to get things done.

• Success indicators: these are crucial, vital, necessary and any other related adjective.

These are the way to control and follow up on the work of the team. Remember to always place in a clear and (if possible) numerical way, how to know the development status of each goal and when the goal is achieved. It should be able to give a panorama at any time of the process of implementation.

Congratulations! If these six steps were carefully followed and developed, the organization now has a brand new strategy to work on the next years.

But, now what?

In the next part, there will be briefly explained one of the most important steps to execute the strategy and do not get lost in the process: Strategic Control and Follow Up. Strategic Control and Follow Up, for the purpose of this manual will be divided in two major sections: Strategic Control and Operational Control, each one with its own process.

1. Strategic Control: involves the monitoring and evaluation of the strategy document itself, it focuses on the plan strategy in general, and in the tactics rather than implementation results. It also provides warning signals through diagnosis of data, and triggering appropriate interventions, tactical adjustments or strategic reorientation if needed. The four components of Strategic Control are as follows: a. Premise Control: the goal is to continuously test the most basic premises where the strategy is based on, to determine whether they are still valid or not.

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b. Implementation Control: It evaluates as to whether the strategic plans, programs and projects planned previously, are actually guiding the organization towards its predetermined goals or not. c. Strategic Surveillance: is a more generalized and overriding control which is designed to monitor a broad range of events both inside and outside the organization which are likely to threaten the very course of a strategy. It can be viewed as a periodic SWOT and PESTEL (See STEP number 2 for reference). d. Special Alert Control: This special alert control is based on a trigger mechanism for a rapid response and immediate reassessment of a given strategy in the light of a sudden and unexpected event. It is based on contingency strategies and assigning the responsibility of handling unforeseen events to crisis management teams.

2. Operational control:

involves specifically the results and the measurement to verify against the success indicators established in the strategy document if the results are coming as expected. The four components of Operational Control are as follows: a. Performance Standards: it is important to identify clearly and precisely the results that are desired. This is basically provided by the Strategy document and needs to be exactly the same to assure the expected results. Precision in the statement of these standards is important. b. Measuring actual performance: the measurement of performance against standards should be on a continuous basis, so that deviations may be detected in advance of their actual occurrence and avoided by appropriate actions. Appraisal of actual or expected performance becomes an easy task, if standards are properly determined and methods of measuring performance can be expressed explicitly. c. Analyzing variance: Comparison of actual and standard performance. It involves two steps: finding out the extent of variations and identifying the -causes of such variations. When the variation between standard and actual performance is beyond the prescribed limit, an analysis is made of the causes of such a variation. d. Taking corrective solutions: always take into account that the implementation of a Strategy can face different results and some apart from the ones expected, so be prepared to take actions to improve the performance if it is not up to the mark. It can be necessary to reset the performance standards if those are too high and unrealistic, or even change the objectives, strategies, and plans if these are not workable.

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Final Remarks Now that the way to control your strategy is established, it is time to put the strategy to work. Always remember that making a National Strategy is not an easy task and even less to implement it, but be sure you took the right decision when you went for it.

Remember that the strategy depends on a variety of factors, such the external situation, widely discussed in this document, but also internal aspects within the NMO as its sustainability, motivation of the team and communication around the Strategy implementation.

Keep in mind that it takes a leader to guide a team through a desired path but it is not just guiding them there, also inspiring them to believe and to feel that the selected path is the best one to go.

We know you can do it‌

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This manual was created with the best in mind for our dearest Americas Region‌ From the Americas Regional Team 2019-2020 and specially from Pablo y Majo.

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Afghanistan (RMSA

Dominica)

Kuwait (KuMSA)

Republic of Tatarstan

Afghanistan)

Dominican Republic (ODEM)

Kyrgyz Republic (AMSA-KG)

(TaMSA)

Albania (ACMS Albania)

Ecuador (AEMPPI)

Latvia (LaMSA)

Rwanda (MEDSAR)

Algerwia (Le Souk)

Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)

Lebanon (LeMSIC)

Senegal (FNESS)

Argentina (IFMSA-Argentina)

El Salvador (IFMSA-El

Lithuania (LiMSA)

Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia)

Armenia (AMSP)

Salvador)

Luxembourg (ALEM)

Sierra Leone (SLEMSA)

Aruba (IFMSA-Aruba)

Estonia (EstMSA)

Malawi (MSA)

Singapore (SiMSA)

Australia (AMSA)

Ethiopia (EMSA)

Malaysia (SMMAMS)

Slovakia (SloMSA)

Austria (AMSA)

Finland (FiMSIC)

Mali (APS)

Slovenia (SloMSIC)

Azerbaijan (AzerMDS)

France (ANEMF)

Malta (MMSA)

South Africa (IFMSA-SA)

Bangladesh (BMSS)

Gambia (GaMSA)

Mauritania (AFMM)

Spain (IFMSA-Spain)

Belgium (BeMSA)

Georgia (GMSA)

Mexico (AMMEF-Mexico)

Sudan (MedSIN)

Bolivia (IFMSA-Bolivia)

Germany (bvmd)

Montenegro (MoMSIC)

Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden)

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Ghana (FGMSA)

Morocco (IFMSA-Morocco)

Switzerland (swimsa)

(BoHeMSA)

Greece (HelMSIC)

Namibia (AMSNA)

Syrian Arab Republic (SMSA)

Bosnia & Herzegovina –

Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada)

Nepal (NMSS)

Taiwan - China (FMS)

Republic of Srpska (SaMSIC)

Guatemala (IFMSA-

The Netherlands

Tajikistan (TJMSA)

Brazil (DENEM)

Guatemala)

(IFMSA NL)

Thailand (IFMSA-Thailand)

Brazil (IFMSA-Brazil)

Guinea (AEM)

Niger (AESS)

Tanzania (TaMSA)

Bulgaria (AMSB)

Haiti (AHEM)

Nigeria (NiMSA)

Togo (AEMP)

Burkina Faso (AEM)

Honduras (IFMSA-Honduras)

Northern Cyprus, Cyprus

Trinidad and Tobago

Burundi (ABEM)

Hungary (HuMSIRC)

(MSANC)

(TTMSA)

Cameroon (CAMSA)

Iceland (IMSA)

Norway (NMSA)

Tunisia (Associa-Med)

Canada (CFMS)

India (MSAI)

Oman (MedSCo)

Turkey (TurkMSIC)

Canada – Québec

Indonesia

Palestine (PMSA)

Turkey – Northern Cyprus

(IFMSA-Québec)

(CIMSA Indonesia)

Pakistan (IFMSA-Pakistan)

(MSANC)

Catalonia - Spain (AECS)

Iran (IMSA)

Panama (IFMSA-Panama)

Uganda (FUMSA)

Chile (IFMSA-Chile)

Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq)

Paraguay (IFMSA-Paraguay)

Ukraine (UMSA)

China (IFMSA-China)

Iraq – Kurdistan (IFMSA-

Peru (IFMSA-Peru)

United Arab Emirates

China – Hong Kong

Kurdistan)

Peru (APEMH)

(EMSS)

(AMSAHK)

Ireland (AMSI)

Philippines (AMSA-

Colombia (ASCEMCOL)

Israel (FIMS)

Philippines)

Costa Rica (ACEM)

Italy (SISM)

Poland (IFMSA-Poland)

Croatia (CroMSIC)

Ivory Coast (NOHSS)

Portugal (ANEM)

Cyprus (CyMSA)

Jamaica (JAMSA)

Qatar (QMSA)

Czech Republic

Japan (IFMSA-Japan)

Republic of Moldova (ASRM)

(IFMSA-CZ)

Jordan (IFMSA-Jo)

Republic of North

Democratic Republic of the

Kazakhstan (KazMSA)

Macedonia (MMSA)

Congo (MSA-DRC)

Kenya (MSAKE)

Romania (FASMR)

Denmark (IMCC)

Korea (KMSA)

Russian Federation (HCCM)

Dominica (IFMSA

Kosovo - Serbia (KOMS)

Russian Federation –

Commonwealth of

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (SfGH) United States of America (AMSA-USA) Uruguay (IFMSA-Uruguay) Uzbekistan (Phenomenon) Venezuela (FEVESOCEM) Yemen (NAMS) Zambia (ZaMSA) Zimbabwe (ZIMSA)

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