Strategic PlanningOverview

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Strategic Planning Overview

• Sauk County Government Operations
• Prepared By Mark Hilliker Jenny Erickson
• Portage County Sauk County UW-Extension
• December 2004

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Strategic Planning is

• Getting People Together
• Talking About What is Important
• Doing Something About it

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Strategic Planning

• Uncovers and organizes common sense
• Allows us to work with what is to get to where
  we ought to be
• Planning is the organization of hope.
• Stephen Blum

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The Overriding Objectives ofStrategic Planning

• Development of ideas worth implementing
• Building a coalition of support that is large
  enough and strong enough to implement those ideas

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Why Strategic Planning?

• Changing demand for programs and services
• More active and vocal constituents
• Uncertainty about the future need vision
• Pressure to be more efficient
• Need to integrate many different types of plans
  business, budget, IT, human resources, finance,
  comprehensive, etc.
• Greater difficulty in generating resources
  necessary to provide quality services

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Benefits of Strategic Planning

• Increased effectiveness aware of priorities
• Increased efficiency -- focus
• Improved understanding of issues
• Better decision making
• Enhanced organizational capabilities
• Improved communications and public relations
  get feedback
• Increased political support
• Proactive vs. reactive approach

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The Sauk County Approach

• Develop a strategic plan that covers the next 2-4
  years (county board terms)
• Provide for a unified framework for decision
  making at the County Board level - criteria
• Focus discussion and action on key issues facing
  County government
• Plan to be completed in 6 months
• 1 hour designated prior to each County Board
  meeting

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Potential Pitfalls

• We dont involve people who should be involved in
  the process get feedback
• We identify and address
• the wrong issues
• We dont explore
• enough alternatives
• to addressing
• strategic issues

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 1 Plan for the Planning
• A profile of the planning effort
• Whos involved
• Purposes of the effort
• Desired outcomes of the effort
• Expectations of participants
• Resources needed to complete the effort
• A process timeline

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 2 Organizational Mandates
• Mandates describe what must or should be done
  under the organizations charter and policies, as
  well as under federal, state, and local laws,
  codes, and regulations.
• A mandate can be expressed formally or informally
  through elections, community expectations,
  legislation, policy, procedures, and budget
  policies.

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 3 Stakeholders and Mission
• A stakeholder is any person, group or
  organization that can place a claim on the
  organizations resources, attention, or output,
  or is affected by its output.
• A mission statement is a definition of the
  organizations reason for existence its true
  purpose.

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 4 Assessing the Environment
• Strengths internal capabilities that help an
  organization accomplish its mission
• Weaknesses internal deficiencies that hinder an
  organization in accomplishing its mission
• Opportunities external factors that affect an
  organization positively
• Threats external factors that affect an
  organization negatively

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 5 Identify Strategic Issues
• A strategic issue is a fundamental challenge
  affecting an organizations mandates, mission,
  product or service level mix, clients or users,
  costs, financing, organization, or management.
• Key challenges or questions facing an organization

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A Ten Step Process

• Step 6 Strategy Formulation
• The purpose of Step 6 is to create a set of
  strategies (actions) that the organization can
  take to address the strategic issues identified
  in Step 5.
• This is action planning it develops responsible
  parties and timelines for each action.

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A Ten Step Process

• Steps 7 10 Plan Management
• After the plan is developed, it needs to be
  adopted, implemented, monitored and reassessed.
  These steps ensure that the strategic plan
  remains vital and relevant.

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Getting Started

• The beginning is the most important part of the
  work.
• Plato