A national nursing specialty society asked NorthStar to help its Board build the next chapter of its strategic plan. Members loved the organization, but the Board knew love alone would not keep it relevant.
The Challenge
Board members described the society as a professional home: a place for relationships, mentorship and belonging. They also worried that a model centered on one annual conference, softening membership, changing professional development habits and a thin leadership pipeline could make the society less sustainable over time. A possible deeper partnership with a larger, related society added another layer: it was attractive, and it was sensitive.
What We Did
- Gathered written pre-work from 13 Board members and synthesized it into nine themes, showing where the Board was aligned and where real differences remained
- Framed the hardest issues as tensions to manage, not problems to eliminate, such as specialized society vs. broader care community and conference-centered vs. year-round professional home
- Built a facilitator guide and a five-hour working session organized around seven decisions, each ending with an owner and a next action
- Introduced an audience framework (core community, growth audiences, adjacent professionals, outreach audiences and strategic partners) so not every audience had to be treated as a membership prospect
- Drafted four strategic pillars for the Board to test, plus a “partnership without disappearance” exercise to set guardrails before discussing any structure
- Added a stop, start, strengthen and defer exercise, with a simple rule: every new priority needs a capacity source
Why It Matters
The session was designed to end with decisions, not a list of ideas: agreed audiences, a clear statement of value beyond the conference, a short set of pillars with measurable outcomes and named owners. Follow-up includes a decision summary within five business days and a 12-month implementation roadmap, and because NorthStar also supports the society day to day, the team that facilitated the conversation is the team that helps carry it out.
Where This Fits on the NorthStar Project Path
Discover (Board pre-work and theme analysis) and Define (facilitated decisions, pillars and outcomes), with a direct path into Deliver and Sustain.
The leaders you meet are the leaders who stay. At NorthStar, strategy and execution go hand in hand. Our senior leaders work closely with you to understand your members, define your priorities, and shape a path forward. And they don’t disappear once the plan is approved. They stay engaged, working alongside a dedicated team to bring your vision to life. See how we take projects from discovery to execution, browse more of our work, or let’s talk about your project.