New BPS strategic plan

[The British Psychological Society (BPS) has a new strategic plan]¹, I have to say, when I first  saw it I thought “oh, disappointingly flimsy”, happily though it was just that the full plan is in fact another click away (not ideal if you think ‘hit counters’ matter!) with the [full plan here]².  This is just some notes (mostly to myself) about the strategy, and some thoughts in relation to [Wikimedia UK strategy]³. The new BPS strategy includes ‘operating principles’, commitments to being a particular type of organisation or engaging in particular behaviours – these go beyond ‘values’ (which are a bit broader), and aren’t strategic (an organisation could deliver on the goals with or without the operating principles), but they say – we will act in this kind of manner.  I like this inclusion, (although ‘being proactive in order to achieve impact’…well I should hope so!), and wonder whether something like this would be useful for Wikimedia UK (e.g. something around volunteers sitting at the core of our activities). I also like the goal>objectives>strategies (broad programme directions)>outcomes>measures model.  This is a model we broadly followed in [the WMUK strategy]³, although we did not map core activities (or ‘strategies’) against outcomes, and this is something we’re working on developing now. One thing I found interesting was looking at the kinds of targets set (measures for progress) and their apparent links to outcomes. It’s interesting how tough it clearly is to think about measures in the context of such a broad organisation – hit counters and downloads are not (I assume everyone would agree!) ideal measures, and they’re particularly challenging when one wishes materials to be used offline, or/and to be reused and repurposed. Coming up with alternative measures in those contexts is important ([paradata?]⁴).  This is also interesting in the context of many of the goals/outcomes (many  focussed around ‘increases’ in membership, etc.) and the role of (and metrics for) community and community building. May add further thoughts in comments as I return to this 🙂

Footnotes

1. http://www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/bps/governance/strategic-plan/strategic-plan ↩

2. http://www.bps.org.uk/system/files/Public%20files/Comms-media/2014_strategic_plan_web.pdf ↩

3. https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Overview_of_strategy ↩ ↩²

4. http://sjgknight.com/finding-knowledge/2013/06/wmuk-conference-mediawiki-for-oer-and-learning-analytics/ “WMUK Conference – Mediawiki for OER and Learning Analytics” ↩