Step-By-Step
Strategic Planning Guide

There are many variations on the theme of strategic planning. Each jurisdiction’s process will vary because of the characteristics of the community, the personalities and relationships of its leadership and participants, and the nature of the issues under review. Therefore, there is no single or best way to approach the process.

Chapter 4 describes a general approach to strategic planning; it includes the critical steps that will be common to all effective planning processes. This step-by-step guide provides a more practical outline that can be applied in communities to conduct an actual strategic planning exercise.

The following step-by-step outline is intended only as a guide. Your community may need more or fewer steps, and each community may want to add to or delete from this outline to create the most effective local process.

  1. Announce and promote a strategic planning process with community leaders
    1. Promote the process
      1. Senior local official announces to leaders and stakeholder groups inside and outside of local government the need for and the initiation of a strategic planning process
      2. Involve key elected and appointed officials; discuss the nature of the process and the expected outcomes
      3. Inform local government managers and staff; ensure that senior local government administrator provides information on the process and expected outcomes to the staff
      4. Inform the press to foster community-wide understanding of, and support for, the process
    2. Identify active participant groups
      1. Choose an in-house manager
      2. Identify stakeholder groups
        1. Identify potential participants for the process from each major stakeholder area
        2. Select individuals to represent each identified stakeholder group and announce the selections
      3. Identify individuals and types of groups to be represented on the planning committee
        1. Choose chair of the planning committee
        2. Announce participants on the planning committee; include subcommittees and chairs of subcommittees if possible
      4. Identify a facilitator
    3. Rally community support and engage all stakeholders
      1. Provide information about the process and the expected outcomes in community forums with the goal of fostering community-wide understanding and support
      2. Arrange opportunities for champions of the strategic planning process to rally community support
    4. Prepare committee members for the strategic planning process
      1. Determine time frame for each phase of the process and a deadline for final report
      2. Decide how review and approval processes will be conducted
      3. Determine whether a subcommittee structure will be used and assign chairs
      4. Decide whether committee and/or subcommittee meetings will be open to the public
      5. Determine at which points in the process interim reports will be made to stakeholders
      6. Provide background materials and data to begin thinking about the environmental scan exercise
  2. Hold an initial strategic planning committee meeting
    1. Support for process declared by senior elected official, who attends meeting
    2. Describe purpose, process, and expectations
    3. Review committee structure, assignments, reporting requirements, and expected schedule
    4. Break into subcommittees to review roles and process
    5. Gain explicit commitment to the program and process
    6. Review initial background material (provided earlier) and data needs
  3. Lay the groundwork for committee work
    1. Forward to committee members necessary formal documents, including
      1. Charters or other documents that identify mission statements or roles and responsibilities of the local government
      2. Previous strategic plans prepared by the locality along with success reports
      3. Strategic plans of any units of government within the locality
      4. Forecasts and strategic plans of school districts, universities, utilities, military bases, and other relevant organizations
      5. Land use or other relevant plans
    2. Forward to committee members necessary data, including
      1. Demographic trends and forecasts
      2. Social factors
      3. Economic forecasts
      4. Financial indicators
    3. Forward other relevant information, including
      1. News articles
      2. Available statements of local core values
      3. Biographies of committee members
      4. Survey results
    4. Visit by senior official to each committee member to discuss process, roles, responsibilities, subcommittee structures, and time frames
  4. Prepare to plan: agenda for early meetings
    1. Review handouts
      1. Define issues and concerns
      2. Discover need for additional information
    2. Review and revise as needed any existing community or local government vision statements
    3. Construct the environmental scanning matrix
      1. Determine whether and what additional information is needed for each cell in order to evaluate future scenarios or groups of cells
      2. Determine whether additional citizen or other surveys would be instructive
      3. Assign lead roles as appropriate for further research and discussion for each cell
    4. Acquire additional data
      1. Acquire additional information for each cell where needed
      2. Construct additional surveys if necessary
  5. The planning process itself
    1. Conduct the environmental scanning exercise to construct a comprehensive view of the future in which the locality must operate
      1. Assess the impact of each cell in the environmental scan
      2. Complete the overall analysis of the scan
    2. Use environmental scan to complete a SWOT analysis
    3. Extract areas for potential goals from the SWOT analysis and the environmental scan
    4. Draft goal statements
      1. Develop measurable objectives for each goal
      2. Develop tactics for each objective
    5. Evaluate resources required to accomplish goals, objectives, and tactics
    6. Make decisions and set priorities
      1. Decide which items can be accomplished and which must be delayed or not done
      2. Decide which existing programs must be reduced in order to identify resources for new tactics
    7. Develop implementation plans for the tactics
      1. Make tactical assignments of implementation plans
      2. Set schedules for completion
    8. Contingency situations
      1. Identify potential contingency situations
      2. Develop plans to address contingency situations
  6. Finalize the planning document
    1. Draft stage
      1. Prepare initial draft of strategic plan
      2. Seek input from stakeholder groups
      3. Amend drafts
      4. Discuss and approve in final form (at committee level)
      5. Develop an executive summary of the plan for wider dissemination
    2. Final version
      1. Submit plan to elected officials for formal approval
      2. Adopt or amend plan
      3. Adopt amended plan (if necessary)
  7. After adoption
    1. Implementation
      1. Announce and publicize the plan and assignments for implementation
      2. Disseminate executive summary of strategic plan to stakeholders as appropriate
      3. Implement the plan
      4. Report periodically to elected officials and community stakeholders
      5. Adjust plan as needed
    2. Assessment
      1. Develop control and performance mechanisms to collect data necessary to evaluate each tactic
      2. Collect data and measure performance
      3. Use assessment data as a basis for the periodic reports about the plan to officials and stakeholders
      4. Establish schedule for next planning cycle.