Strategic planning is often viewed as a senior leadership exercise — an infrequent process confined to the boardroom. But in camps, where staff come from diverse backgrounds and career stages, the strategic planning process can and should be something more: a platform for identifying, engaging, and developing emerging leaders.

Camp as a First Career: A Strategic Opportunity

Camps employ a disproportionate number of early-career professionals, many of whom are navigating their first experiences in leadership and team dynamics. Although this makes camp a uniquely rich training ground, it is also a high-stakes one. If we’re not intentional about developing these professionals, we risk missing a generation of potential leaders.

Think back for a moment on what it takes to enter a first professional job. You came to the table with many things to give: the right attitude, energy, and a willingness to learn and work hard. Strategic thinking, however, is not typically on that list, nor did anyone explain to you what it meant or how to apply it. Over time, did you get more formal training on strategic thinking? Some of us were lucky to have a more seasoned camp professional take us under their wing and mentor us in strategic thought. For most of us, though, it was probably not that intentional.

At Frost Valley YMCA, this reality inspired a shift in our strategic thinking: instead of only training staff for immediate performance, we have begun investing in their long-term development and the specific set of skills that translates across positions, jobs, and time. Our goal has shifted toward developing leaders for the future — for our own organization and for the broader workforce. If we get that right, the short- and long-term benefits will follow.

This shift was embedded in our strategic plan. Rather than simply asking, “What do we need from staff right now?” we started asking, “What will these staff need to thrive in their next chapter, and how can we support that growth while they’re with us?” That perspective reframes training as part of a larger pipeline. Involving and educating our rising stars helps those staffers and Frost Valley, as well as the camping industry as a whole. It demands a long view, where building essential skills — like critical thinking, communication, leadership, and adaptability (Skills Builder Partnership, 2024) — is a priority. The people working for us today are the executive directors and CEOs of camps tomorrow. Solid strategic thinking and planning skills will be essential to their success. Identifying them now and involving them in a strategic planning process will help them build these critical skills in a meaningful way as it embeds those qualities into your organization’s core culture.

Professional Development as a Strategic Imperative

Too often, professional development is treated as optional or reactive — something to turn to when performance dips or problems arise. At camps, however, where the pace is fast and the stakes are high, we need to see it as foundational. Growth cannot be accidental.

At Frost Valley, we’ve embraced the 70/20/10 model for development (Profit Resources Inc., 2025): 70 percent learning through on-the-job doing, 20 percent through observing, coaching, and mentoring, and 10 percent through formal training. For our staff, this has helped reframe development as an active, ongoing responsibility — not something handed down from a supervisor, but something to pursue intentionally and personally.

An additional element we see as crucial in enabling staff to identify and plan for continued development is the establishment of a framework that helps them understand the specific behaviors that are exemplary in high-performing staff members specific to their stage of development and role. Such a competency framework assists in making growth pointed and actionable for staff.

We also emphasize that a growth mindset (Farnam Street Media Inc., 2025) is part of the culture we’re building. That means we celebrate staff who seek feedback, stretch themselves, and learn from failure. We work to cultivate leaders who see professional development as a shared responsibility, one that lives in every team meeting, new initiative, and coaching moment. We are actively building these concepts into feedback forms and staff meetings, as well as our evaluations and competence-measurement tools.

Strategic Planning as a Talent Discovery Tool

Here is where it comes full circle: in addition to being a tool for crafting organizational vision, strategic planning is also a powerful diagnostic for leadership potential.

At Frost Valley, we invited staff from across the organization to participate in our strategic planning task force. Some led sessions. Others joined focus groups. Still others helped draft recommendations or analyze data. This inclusivity served two purposes: It made our plan stronger, more grounded in real experiences, and more reflective of our culture. And just as importantly, it revealed talent we might not have otherwise seen.

We observed who asked great questions. Who connected department-level issues to mission-level goals. Who brought energy and excitement to visioning exercises. One standout was Katie, a relatively new executive director who had limited prior experience in strategic planning. She raised her hand early, asked to be involved, and then led multiple discussion groups and helped translate plan elements to her peers. Her impact was immediate and lasting, she elevated her role in the organization, and her growth was evident.

In Katie’s case, guided by our competency framework, she identified this as a growth opportunity herself in dialogue with her supervisor. These are the moments that matter. In the day-to-day schedule, staff may not have the time or space to show strategic aptitude. But when you allow space for these conversations, you open windows into leadership potential that would otherwise stay closed.

Teaching Staff to Think Operationally, Tactically, and Strategically

One of the many professional advantages of working at a nonprofit early in one’s career is the nature of the work, especially in two regards: the availability and limitation of resources and the resulting necessary doubling and tripling of roles. Add to this the heavily underappreciated complexity and detail required to run a summer camp, and you get some funny roles and titles, belying the need for people to wear many hats: chief people whisperer, chief fun coordinator, chief of minor issues, the list goes on. More often than not, however, these hats are mostly operational in nature. Organize the activity schedule for the day. Design a new menu for the kitchen. Drive a group to a hike drop. They require thoughtful planning and thinking but are rooted in the now, ensuring that camp operates well or that summer preparation is on track. Naturally, that is what is needed from those roles, executing in creative ways on whatever the next thing is, and in many cases, doing the task at hand and doing it well. Although there is much cultural value in instilling the professional mentality of doing the task at the best possible quality, it also misses an important opportunity, both for the development of a young professional and the organization, to activate the best thinking from all levels of the organization as it maps out its future.

We first realized and experienced this when we engaged our teams in strategic planning exercises. When groups spent time in SWOT-style exercises (Kenton, 2025), opportunities identified were often adjacent to what was already being done, and often limited by the daily experience of getting the job done, or were so wildly fantastical that they lost their usefulness. Quite regularly we heard a familiar “Well, that wouldn’t work because . . . ,” short-circuiting creative ideas and thinking prematurely. We quickly learned that what was missing was an ability to set aside (even temporarily) the restrictions of daily realities and venture into a different mode of thinking (Polanky, 2025):

Operational thinking is rooted in the day-to-day. It’s about ensuring that schedules are followed, systems run smoothly, and logistics are handled with precision. This type of thinking is essential for consistent execution. It keeps the wheels turning and ensures that plans are carried out effectively. Operational thinkers are detail oriented, reliable, and focused on what needs to happen now to maintain momentum and meet immediate goals.

Tactical thinking takes a step back from the daily grind to assess what’s working and what needs adjustment. It involves problem-solving, managing people and processes, and making mid-course corrections to improve outcomes. Tactical thinkers navigate challenges, coordinate efforts across teams, and make short- to medium-term decisions that drive performance. They bridge the gap between strategy and operations, translating big-picture plans into actionable steps.

Strategic thinking operates at the highest altitude. It’s about defining a clear vision, setting long-term goals, and aligning resources and efforts to move toward a desired future. Strategic thinkers ask “Why” and “What if,” constantly evaluating the broader landscape and anticipating what’s coming next. They focus on positioning, innovation, and sustainability — imagining what could be and laying the groundwork for transformational growth.

You can explicitly teach the differences between these three modes of thinking. Should all team members engage in all three modes? Our answer to that question is an emphatic yes, with an important clarification: the balance between the three modes is highly determined by your role. A camp director running the daily camp operation will be mostly operational, but needs tactical and strategic thinking during planning phases to connect future plans to the strategic vision. On the other hand, a development executive will spend much time in a tactical and strategic stance, to ensure that fundraising initiatives are operationalized in line with the strategic direction.

One of the clearest ways to grow leadership is to help staff recognize and flex different modes of thinking and intentionally train on this skill. During leadership meetings we ask staff to examine their own behaviors and identify which mode they’re operating in. We share examples of each level applied to a single challenge and facilitate discussion. Staff often find these conversations enlightening. The most insightful takeaway? Great leaders don’t stick to one thinking style — they know how to toggle from one to another, and this makes them connect more intimately to the organization’s strategic direction, even if strategy does not show up significantly in their day-to-day role.

Encouraging that fluidity builds capacity across the team. It ensures we’re not just developing followers but thinkers. As a bonus, this gives staff language to describe how they want to grow. And this is where leadership development comes in. Deliberately spending time in each mode can help actively identify nascent leaders in your organization. Who is able to suspend triaging solutions during a brainstorm? Who is comfortable not solving problems immediately? Who can come up with big yet reasonable ideas?

Real Strategies That Build Leadership

As we continue to refine our leadership development approach, we’ve adopted several practices that can be replicated elsewhere. We:

• Developed a competency model that sets expectations while allowing departments to adapt and personalize.
• Use participation in taskforces that map part of the strategic plan as a coaching opportunity, especially for mid-level leaders.
• Provide staff with strategic scorecards, so they can see how their work connects to big-picture goals and strategic outcomes.
• Host organizational briefings where department heads present how their work aligns with strategy.
• Integrate exercises into meetings that help staff practice each thinking style — operational, tactical, and strategic.

These aren’t just HR tools. They’re culture builders.

Closing Thought: Planning for People, Not Just Programs

Ultimately, your strategic plan is more than just a blueprint for growth; it’s a test of your values and it is deeply human. And one of the clearest signals you can send is that you believe in your people, and you’re investing in their future.

So, the next time you gather to write a plan, don’t just ask what your organization needs to do. Ask who your organization needs to become — and who among your team is ready to help you get there.

Photo courtesy of Camp Moon River, Savannah, Georgia.

References

Farnam Street Media Inc. (2025). Carol Dweck: A summary of growth and fixed mindsets. fs.blog/carol-dweck-mindset/

Kenton, W. (2025, August 27). SWOT: What is it, how it works, and how to perform an analysis. Investopedia. investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp

Polanky, R. (2025, March 13). Best operational planning strategies for success. Future CIO Club. futurecioclub.com/post/organizational-planning-and-execution-in-three-levels---strategic-tactical-operational

Profit Resources Inc. (2025). Strategic planning: Why you should include future leaders at the table. profitresources.com/strategic-planning-why-you-should-include-future-leaders-at-the-table

Skills Builder Partnership. (2024, September 9). Essential skills for early career employees: Bridging the gap with the Skills Builder Universal Framework. skillsbuilder.org/blog/essential-skills-for-early-career-employees-bridging-the-gap-with-the-skills-builder-universal-framework

Riel Peerbooms, MSW, is the chief executive officer at Frost Valley YMCA. He joined Frost Valley YMCA in 2023 after 15 years at another camp, Trail Blazers. Built by camp, Riel’s 30-year career as teacher, social worker, mental health counselor and camp professional in educational and camp settings in the New York City and tri-state area, started as a counselor and lifeguard at a summer camp in Upstate New York. Riel can be reached at [email protected].

Vicky Eddings is the chief operating officer at Frost Valley YMCA. With a background in zoology and a long career with the Y, Vicky has extensive experience running successful day camps, resident camps, horse programs, environmental education, and conference programs and is responsible for executing the overall strategy and vision at Frost Valley YMCA. Vicky can be reached at [email protected].

Rob Totaro is the director of member advancement at the Alliance of New York State YMCAs, where he supports YMCAs across New York in strategic planning, board governance, and leadership development. With over a decade in the YMCA movement, he has guided countless organizations through long-term visioning processes, including facilitating Frost Valley YMCA’s strategic plan. Rob can be reached at [email protected].