Strategy development: Lessons from 2026

As you might expect from the name, our Strategy and Transformation Team are expert advisors on the creation of strategic plans. This means supporting clients in combing evidence and data, judgement and communication in the form of a public-facing statement of what an organisation plans to achieve in the coming years.

Strategic planning is subject to trends and is influenced by stakeholder expectations and context. At times we work on detailed and comprehensive plans setting out very granular objectives. Other times call for short, sharp priority frameworks for staff and customers to remember and use. The tone and approach depends on a lot of factors, and changing fashions in strategy presentation.

At a glance

In this article, we explore:

• Why effective strategies require organisations to make deliberate choices about what not to do.
• How to distinguish between an ambitious wish list and an actionable strategic plan.
• Why implementation and delivery matter more than vision statements alone.
• How challenging assumptions and existing ways of working can improve strategic outcomes.
• Why measuring impact and outcomes is more valuable than tracking activity and outputs.

Recently the focus for government, public sector and not-for-profit bodies is demonstrating impact – can you show that your work makes a difference, and that you enable economic and societal progress? In this context, these are some of the lessons we have learned from our strategy and planning work throughout 2026:

Decide what not to do.

Strategies are a means of accounting for the use of public resources. Showing value for money doesn’t always mean trying to achieve more with what you have. Often the most important strategic choice is deciding what not to do. If the evidence shows that your sixth most important project is your second biggest financial investment, then the strategy process should force a conversation about whether this is the best way to deliver impact.

Are you writing a wish list or a plan?

A useful strategy answers simple questions. Who will do the work? What will change? When will it happen? What staff time and budget will be used? If these questions cannot be answered, then it is extremely difficult to defend the plan and use it as a business case for operational or organisational changes.

Implementation is far more important than vision.

Frequently, clients spend substantial amounts of time debating wording within mission, vision and value statements. While these elements matter, delivery depends on resources, sequencing, ownership, monitoring and a clear operational workplan. A clear first-year delivery plan is far more important than a polished vision statement with no route to implementation. Your staff (and maybe your funders) need to know what will happen next, who owns it, and how progress will be judged.

No Sacred Cows.

This is a rare opportunity to step back from day-to-day pressure. Statutory obligations and clear mandates must be respected; everything else should be open to discussion. Are we doing the right things the right way? Are we allocating effort to the right places? Are we acting like the organisation we want to become? These kinds of questions posed in the right way can fundamentally shift your strategic focus and help you to zero in on high-impact high-value objectives.

Measure impact, not activity

There is an important distinction between tracking effort and tracking the effects of that effort. A strong set of objectives is focussed on the effects that activity has on customers and the delivery of the organisation’s mandate. Counting stats, like numbers of meetings, reports, projects, engagements and applications may encourage activity in business-as-usual work. They rarely show whether the organisation is actually making a difference. This means working hard to measure quality, sentiment, and impact (whether social, economic, educational, or technical), as well as resource utilisation.

How Crowe can help

Developing an effective strategy requires more than setting out ambitions for the future. It involves making evidence-based decisions, aligning stakeholders around common priorities, and creating practical plans that can be implemented and measured.

Crowe's Strategy and Transformation Team works with government, public sector and not-for-profit organisations to design strategies that are clear, achievable and focused on impact. From stakeholder engagement and evidence gathering through to strategic planning, implementation support and performance measurement, we help organisations turn ambition into action and demonstrate the value they create.

Whether you are developing a new strategy, refreshing an existing plan, or seeking to strengthen delivery and governance, our team can help you identify priorities, allocate resources effectively, and establish meaningful measures of success.

If your organisation is preparing its next strategic plan, Crowe's Strategy and Transformation Team can help you move from ambition to implementation with a clear focus on impact and results.