Clarify Your North Star: A Practice for Strategic Direction
October 20, 2025
This is the first in our follow-up series to Strategic Planning in 2025: Five Ways to Navigate Chaos with Clarity.
In our July blog, we introduced five practices for organizations and networks seeking clarity in uncertain times. Over the next few months, we’ll explore each of those practices more deeply.
First up: Clarify Your North Star
The North Star has long served as a symbol of direction and survival. Enslaved people followed it as a guide toward freedom. The North Star imagery is both historical and gripping. In the late 1840s, Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany named their abolitionist newspaper The North Star with the slogan: “Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren.”[3][4]
This history reminds us that clarifying a North Star is not just about strategy; it is also about values. It is about orienting ourselves toward survival, justice, and our shared humanity. In today’s turbulent times, organizations are facing funding cuts, political attacks, burnout, and an increase in community needs. A North Star helps organizations maintain their purpose while navigating change. The image of the North Star is about setting direction and grounding us in a clear purpose, something we can’t do without.
With that historical weight and justice orientation, we want to write about this step in strategic direction setting with clarity and heft. It asks us to plan with the right balance of focus and creativity, and at the right altitude. Strategic direction requires us to stay focused like a laser to move our missions forward, while also building in the flexibility and shock absorbers needed to navigate bumpy terrain.
Why Clarifying Your North Star Matters
So what is the “right altitude” for our planning in turbulent times? We believe it begins by clarifying your North Star.
Ask: What is the core purpose that must remain constant, even as the world shifts? How can you stay emergent and responsive to crises while still focusing on building long-term power and transformation?
While clarifying your North Star might seem lofty in tough times, if we don’t know where we are heading, we are sure to get lost. The North Star is a belief and is directional; it serves several functions:
- Reminds all staff, board members, partners, and network of what we are striving for.
- Provides a compelling vision that keeps us going beyond the day-to-day of our work.
- Establishes criteria that can help us determine what to pursue and what not to pursue, grounding us in a strong identity.
- Anchor decisions, strategies, and culture in tough times
- Helps folks decide whether this is the right organization or network for them
Without a North Star, organizations risk drifting with funder demands, political winds, or the crisis of the moment. With one, you can adapt without losing identity.
Making It Real
A North Star is only useful if it lives beyond a vision statement.
To bring it to life:
- Bring the right people around the table: Those most impacted by your work must be part of naming and having a voice in the core vision and destination
- Embed it in decisions: Practice using your North Star in daily decisions, big and small. This will help make informed decisions when conditions or funding change, allowing for a focus on key elements of a program.
- Use Your North Star as Anchor/Compass: During times of stress or transition, let your North Star be a touchstone, helping you stay grounded in what is most important and purposeful even as conditions shift or a crisis emerges.
To begin, ask yourselves:
What do we want to keep aiming for, especially in the toughest of times?
How do we ensure that our purpose is reflected in our decisions, not just in words? Whose voices are missing in naming or refining our North Star?
Clarifying your North Star is the first step in setting strategic direction with clarity and purpose. It provides focus and steadiness while leaving room for flexibility and emergence. External forces will always shape our path, but a strong North Star ensures they don’t paralyze us. Instead, it grounds us in clarity and steadiness, positioning us for thoughtful, flexible, and equitable direction.
In our next blog series, we will explore how we can plan for multiple futures as a means to stay purposeful without being too rigid, keeping your North Star in view while preparing for the unknown.
Ready to Move from Chaos to Clarity?
If your team or organization is navigating complexity, burnout, or uncertainty and still dreaming of impact, justice, and transformation, we’d love to connect!
Reach out to explore how we can support your team through Strategic Direction Setting. We’ll help you align around what matters most, build courageous collaboration, and chart a course grounded in shared power, visionary leadership, and real-time responsiveness.