Forward Planning
What is it?
Forward planning is the means by which museums decide what they want to do and work out how they will do it.
Usually this involves knowing the overall mission or vision, taking stock of the current situation, understanding your visitors, identifying key aims for future direction, and producing specific objectives to describe how the aims will be met. The results are set down in a Forward Plan.
The Forward Plan is an essential management tool but it only needs to be as simple or as complex as the activities your museum undertakes. What is important is that it is relevant, realistic and reviewed on a regular timescale – usually 3 to 5 years.
A great way to ensure the success of your plan is to get other people in your organisation involved. Through discussion you will secure their ideas, enthusiasm and commitment to the work of the museum, with the result that everyone pulls together in the same direction.
Why do it?
Good planning can really make a difference to your organisation. It can provide new focus and energy and attract new interest to the museum, as the example from Ullapool Museum shows. Importantly, it provides the year on year framework for a continuous cycle of development and improvement.
How to do it
For guidelines on how to write an effective forward plan, please see the ‘How to write a forward plan’ resource to the right of this page.
An excellent introduction for independent museums can also be found on the Association of Independent Museums website.
Forward planning is also a requirement of Accreditation. To find out more about the scheme, visit the Accreditation section of this site.