Having a dream gives us something to work for. Without a clear vision of what we want to create, it’s hard to stay focused on priorities. When nothing is a priority, then everything is.

What are your dreams for your community? How do these dreams match the priorities for your local government? Do others share your dreams? How do you know if you and others are working toward the same goals?

If you aren’t sure your dreams are the same, or if you find people are focusing on too many little details consider taking time out to create a strategic plan. There are many ways to design strategic plans and it is beneficial to select a process designed for your situation. At a minimum, a good plan will set forth a long-term vision of what people want to their community to look like and identify a handful of broad goals (3 to 5) that will move the community toward this vision.

Strategic planning can help turn your dreams into reality. Developing a long-term plan and getting buy-in may seem like a waste of time, but the failure to plan usually results in wasted effort and resources. Here are some benefits of strategic planning from my experience.

Plans save time. It takes less effort to align people and resources around clear and common goals than it does to reorganize every year in response to changing priorities. Without shared goals, management is less efficient because attention and resources are divided and the public is unsure if leaders care about the community’s “real” priorities.

Plans provide a path to success. Building on what was done before and setting forth goals that keep major project moving forward is how organizations produce results. When we lack a plan to achieve desired outcomes we are more likely to pursue small goals that satisfy individual interests rather than tackling big issues that extend beyond any individual’s term in office.

Plans anchor priorities. Candidate’s short-term promises often conflict with a governing board’s long-term goals. When elected and appointed officials agree on strategic priorities for a community it is easier for everyone to succeed. Few public issues are resolved in a single term of office. All elected officials benefit when they can point to how they are making progress on strategic issues for the community.

Plans reduce conflict. If people agree on big goals, it reduces bickering and conflict over smaller decisions about what to do. Well-crafted, big picture goals provide community and local government leaders a framework for gaining buy in and agreements about how to allocate resources and take action.

Plans increase efficiency. Clear goals help focus limited resources on agreed upon priorities. Without clear goals, resources may be insufficient to meet critical needs or worse, used in ways that undermine important objectives.

Plans offer stability. Elected and appointed leaders move, retire, and shift roles in local governments. Changes in leadership can result in a revolving door of priorities. Well-developed long-term goals provide a foundation around which new leaders can be oriented, budgets can be organized and outcomes can be measured.

The post Dreaming Works appeared first on The Public Leadership Blog.

I have been serving for several years now on the board of directors of a local charter school, the last year and a half as chair. The school has gone through a lot of change in the past several years, and one thing that became painfully clear as a board was that we had no clear vision for the future. We had a mission statement, and beyond that, a strong culture at the school around that mission. But with growth and change came inevitable pain and discomfort, and a sense that we (as a school community) could possibly lose what made the school special if we were not strategic in how we navigated that change.

A lot of folks talked about aspects of the school they did not want to lose, but what was lacking was a vision, a shared image of the school in the future—a destination we wanted to navigate the school toward.

Faced with divergent paths, Alice in Wonderland asked the Cheshire Cat which path she should take. Do you remember how the cat responds? The cat asks, “where you do you want to go?” Alice responds: “I don’t know.” “Then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” That question, where do you want to go, is critical! And yet, many organizations and communities don’t have a shared sense of where they want to go.

A community with no vision is like a sailing ship with no destination. That ship may have fine sails and a strong rudder. It might have an able crew and favorable conditions. But if the captain and crew don’t know where they are going—i.e., they have no vision—then the ship can maneuver to stay afloat, but it really isn’t going anywhere; it is just going with the flow, or where the wind decides to take it.

At the school we embarked on a yearlong process of gathering community input and having community conversations around the vision question. Where do we want to go? What do we want the school to look like five years from now? While much of that vision entailed articulating aspects of the school we didn’t want to lose (i.e., part of the desired image of the future was having certain aspects of the school remain in place), we were also able to think about our strengths and the desires of the community to craft an image of the school in the future that could serve as a guide for decision making.

The National Defense University’s extensive resource on strategic leadership includes and excellent discussion of strategic vision. Quoting management expert Burt Nanus, the article notes that a vision is “a realistic, credible, attractive future” for an organization or community.

Again, from Nanus, a strategic vision can:
• Attract commitment and energize people.
• Create meaning in workers’ [or community members’] lives.
• Establish a standard of excellence.
• Bridge the present and the future.

The article also points out that vision precedes strategic planning. Once a vision is created and shared, that is where strategic planning comes in. The authors state “visioning can be considered as establishing where you want the organization to be in the future; strategic planning determines how to get there from where you are now.”

There was a great sense of accomplishment at our school when the strategic vision and goals document was completed. We feel like we’ve been able to articulate school values and craft a picture (in words) of the kind of school we want to be. It is a shared destination we can work toward. We still have some strategic planning to do now. And there will certainly be unanticipated opportunities and challenges. But with a shared vision, the board, and the broader community, are better equipped to navigate those uncertainties.

So when you think about your community, your organization, or even your team, ask yourself: do we have a strategic vision? A shared vision that gives us all a sense of not only being in the same boat, but a sense that we are all working together toward the same destination? That is a key question to ask. And if the answer is no, then it is time to start having conversations about vision.

This post also appears on the Community and Economic Development blog at http://ced.sog.unc.edu/what-is-your-strategic-vision/

The post What is Your Strategic Vision? appeared first on The Public Leadership Blog.