Society is asking nonprofits to do more than ever before – and with fewer resources. In order to make a more significant impact on the problems in society that nonprofits address, innovative breakthroughs at the strategic level are needed to make quantum leap progress toward accomplishing their missions. How can social sector organizations create Breakthrough Strategies?

The method I propose begins with achieving clarity on mission and intended mission impact. One of Peter Drucker’s five most important questions is “What are our results?” Once this is clear then a nonprofit can articulate its Mission Gap – an identification of unmet mission needs. Often, Mission Gaps are more like Mission Chasms and this is a daunting challenge for nonprofit professionals, but also a part of the responsibility of working in the social sector.

By identifying the Mission Gap, focus is given to the strategy development process and a nonprofit can then use an Aspirational Mindset to create a Vision of the organization in an ideal state – what the organization would be like if they could have it any way they wanted it. This is consistent with the concept of Strategic Intent, which Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad have shown can lead to breakthrough performance.

Next, connected to the Vision, the organization sets five Strategic Stretch Goals five years into the future – again using the Aspirational Mindset – to stretch the imagination and harness creativity. The goals are designed to catapult the organization toward its Vision and set the context for new strategic actions.

With the future it wants to create clearly in mind, the organization then discerns the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats it faces – within the context of the Vision and Goals. Note that this is quite the opposite of most strategic planning exercises in which SWOTs are first established as constraints on what is possible in the future. The method I propose starts with creating an ideal future, and then looks at the current reality to figure out how to leverage it to pursue the vision.

With clarity on Vision, Strategic Stretch Goals, and SWOTs, the organization then begins the process of strategy development. It uses the aspirational energy from the Vision and Strategic Stretch Goals to generate strategic creativity. This is what Peter Senge refers to as Creative Tension.

The result should be an integrated and coherent “strategy narrative” which provides a “cause & effect story” of how the organization is going to take itself from its current reality toward its Vision and close the Mission Gap as effectively as possible. It is important that the strategy be coherent and includes positive, reinforcing strategic actions that will move the organization forward in new and powerful ways. The importance of these reinforcing actions among essential operations is a key concept from Systems Thinking that we have all learned so much about from Russ Ackoff.

The final result is a new and creative strategy which is designed to produce a breakthrough in the mission impact that the organization seeks to achieve. And it is these kinds of breakthroughs we must commit ourselves to in order to meet the significant needs that now exist in our society.

Robert M. Sheehan, Jr. is the Academic Director of the Executive MBA Program and the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland – College Park. He is also Principal of Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting. His newly released book is Mission Impact: Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits.