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Lessons Learned

In 1993, when ICMA’s first book on strategic planning was published, the practice of local government strategic planning was in its infancy. Some communities had been engaged in such efforts for many years, but most were just beginning. Many lessons cited by local government managers in 1993 were basic lessons. Although basic they remain sound advice 10 years later, but now as reminders.

The lessons from 1993 are presented in detail in the Preface to this edition. In summary,

1. There are no significant variations in the process for different local governments.
2. Promote the process locally.
3. Strategic planning begins with strategic thinking.
4. The planning group should be more, rather than less, inclusive.
5. It is important to assess and announce the core values, or inherent beliefs, of the local leadership.
6. The most critical element of the strategic planning process is the environmental scan.
7. The strategic plan must outline measurable outcomes that will result from its implementation.
8. Those who implement plans need to understand and embrace them.
9. Feedback loops and scheduled replanning sessions are important means of ensuring that plans do not become the end but, rather, the means to an end.

Lessons in 2004

Since 1993, these practices have evolved and become more sophisticated, and local government planners have learned a few new lessons:

1.Tie the strategic plan directly to business plans, operational plans, and budgeting.

Local government managers struggle to contain costs and demonstrate to citizens that their tax dollars are well spent. The strategic plan can help show how the local government is planning to provide a return on the investments it makes. As new strategies are developed and current programs are slated for extension, expansion, reduction, or elimination, citizens need clear signals that their relatively scarce resources are being used in the most effective and efficient manner in order to return the greatest quality of life for the community. Including performance measures in the strategic plan and tying performance expectations to the budget demonstrate the connection between resources and outcomes.

In addition to demonstrating efficiency, specifying performance measures and resource requirements ensures that newly developed or expanded strategies do not overextend the available human and capital resources. This can best be accomplished by overlaying the performance measures and resource requirements with existing plans, programs, and budgets. If the local government wants to pursue new objectives, it may have to make reductions in other areas or reconfigure its operations.

A locality’s operating and capital budgets include financial and other operating plans as well as financial projections and other relevant forecasts. They show how demands for resources will be met over the budgetary period. It is essential that these business plans and the strategic plan be synchronized.

2.Tie strategic goals and objectives directly to employees’ performance reviews and compensation.

In the private sector, particularly at the higher levels of organizations, strategic goals and objectives are often tied to performance review and compensation. More and more public bodies are likewise clarifying the connection between compensation and performance for the most critical factors in the future well-being of the community. Financial rewards are incentives that contribute to more effective implementation of a local government’s strategic plan.

3.Ensure at the beginning of the process that citizens, the press, and other local stakeholders are aware of the strategic planning.

Selling the plan after the fact is considerably more difficult than encouraging participation and awareness of both the process and the content of the plan as it is being developed. Greater awareness and acceptance contribute to a more effective and efficient implementation of objectives and tactics. Including the press can help gain support as well as disseminate to community stakeholders the content of the plan and the reasons the plan is important. Inclusion of media representatives also helps to dispel stakeholders’ concerns that the process is not sufficiently inclusive and open.

4.Ensure that the plan has the clear support of the most senior elected and appointed officials in the community.

This lesson, stated in 1993 and reemphasized in 2004, is especially important for local government managers. Unless the most senior representatives of local government champion the process, those outside government will question the managers’ support for the plan. From the beginning, managers must be seen as the source of the concept of a plan and as supporters and engaged at every step of the way. The more evident throughout the process the managers are, the more likely the plan will be implemented effectively. Managers must be aggressive about this; a mere stamp of approval might not be enough.

5.Strategic plans must incorporate ongoing programs and levels of effort. The strategic plan of a local government should include existing objectives as well as new goals and objectives.

Too many strategic plans describe new goals and objectives but fail to incorporate ongoing program goals and objectives. New directions fail to relay the entire picture of what the local government is doing.

To ensure that the picture painted by the strategic plan is complete, some local governments add descriptions of existing levels of effort to the new plan, often as an appendix. Others, however, choose not to incorporate existing goals and objectives on the grounds that including ongoing and required tasks will cloud the issue of strategic direction. If your community chooses not to include current efforts, it is essential to make clear in the introduction to the strategic plan that it includes only new strategic directions; this is then the place to direct stakeholders to a comprehensive compilation of current local government programs and responsibilities. Clark County, Nevada, included the following statement in its plan.

It is important to note that the strategic priorities identified are not intended to represent a comprehensive listing of all the challenges we face as a local government, or of the many important services provided through Clark County. Rather, these specific priorities have been identified as the most critical issues we will be facing over the next one to two years. They will be used to help provide a focus for future policy and funding decisions, and, where appropriate, provide guidance in the reallocation of existing resources. Additional information about Clark County and our wide variety of services and programs can be accessed through www.co.clark.nv.us/.

6.Communities need to develop contingency plans that can readily be set into motion if key elements of the strategic plan do not come to pass or in case the unexpected occurs.

Some communities have contingency plans that address catastrophic occurrences and establish mechanisms for immediate response to unexpected, unplanned situations. Planners need to make backup plans that can be initiated if the goals and objectives of the strategic plan are not being met.

Conclusions

The world has changed in many ways since 1993, and those changes have altered the type and scope of services expected of local governments as well as the manner in which they are delivered. These changes have created cost implications for municipalities.

If there is both good news and bad news to report, the bad news would have to include the growing and ever-changing pressures being placed on municipalities to provide services to their communities. The good news is local government managers’ apparent increased professionalism in strategic planning.

Among the new pressures local governments face are the remarkable demographic changes in the nation. Associated with such changes are both exciting opportunities and inevitable problems. For local governments, the challenges of providing new and expanded services in the environment of disparate cultures, languages, and expectations yield new tactics and additional costs.

The economic recession, the loss of selected industry sectors to overseas competitors, and the advance of new industry sectors in areas like biotechnology create pressures that threaten the fiscal structure of many local governments while they increase the need for economic development and social programs.

The Internet and associated technologies have grown, and growing with them is our capacity to access and exchange information. For localities, this has meant an ability to do more and do it faster, smarter, and cheaper. This fact alone dramatically alters the way in which governments can provide services to their constituents and prescribes changes in the strategies being devised for municipalities. The pace of this technological change seems to be increasing relentlessly.

In addition, the cost of new security measures to protect people and infrastructure has largely been passed on to states and localities. Communities that serve as entry points to the United States or that are near the country’s borders are particularly affected.

Local governments that plan strategically recognize these facts and are able to respond, thereby taking advantage of opportunities as they appear and outlining tactics to resolve problematic issues.

The new professionalism of local government is apparent in how strategic plans are developed and in how they are used. In 2004, compared with 1993, significantly greater emphasis is placed on ensuring at every step that the community and all stakeholders are fully apprised of what is being done and why. Substantially greater efforts are made today to obtain community input and sell the plans to stakeholders after the plans are formally approved.

Communities now place a far greater emphasis on connecting the strategic plan with the budgeting process, and vice versa. The budgeting process is conducted in light of the vision for the community’s future. Thus, budgets incorporate programs to address both immediate needs and their longer-term evolution, consistent with the vision defined in the strategic plan.

Finally, there is a growing effort to tie the goals and objectives of the strategic plan closely to the performance measurements for the local government and even to the staff who manage the resultant programs. Such linkages create a very real and strong connection between the plan and its implementation.

If the pace of change over the past decade has been dramatic, the pace of change over the next decade could very well seem alarming. Will America’s communities be able to change their service provision to accommodate that change? Will environmental forces be anticipated in time for local governments to adjust plans? Can individual communities continue to take effective advantage of opportunities and avoid problems that arise?

The answers will become clear over the next several years. In the meantime, the best way to anticipate and prepare for change, and successfully respond to it, lies in our ability to plan and act strategically. Local governments cannot control the future, but they can help shape it.