Now that you have talked the talk, let’s walk the walk. Last blog we discussed the value of having a strong vision. Implementing your Vision is often referred to as your Strategy. But before you develop strategies you need a Mission Statement. Your Mission Statement is how you plan to achieve your vision. It’s wise to write out your Vision Statement and Mission Statement. Putting these on paper forces you to clearly describe your idea and how you plan to achieve it. In essence this makes your idea actionable. You will have a single Vision and Mission, but you could have several Strategic Plans to accomplish the Mission. By definition, strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. Or in layman terms, your mission is the overall aim, and your strategies are a high-level plan to achieve the mission to achieve your vision. So now, let’s achieve your vision.

What Makes a Good Strategy?

A good Strategic plan sets a common target so that everyone is pulling in the same direction, and decision-making is simplified. When reviewing your Mission Statement, you may find some strategies are mutually exclusive. That’s OK. It means that your Mission Statement and strategies are clear and you can easily recognize which strategies are, or are not supporting the mission. Building the right strategies is critical for success, so taking the time to develop each strategic action is pertinent. Keeping in mind from our prior blog that the vision for our township is to provide a peaceful community that encourages a spirit of cooperativeness among its residents and local businesses. One aspect of our mission might be to enhance outdoor recreation. With this in mind, one strategy might be,

Update the Recreation, Parks, and Open Space Plan with a specific emphasis on green infrastructure and sustainable parkland development.

Determining the best strategies is often a difficult. Momentum’s consultants can help with this process. Momentum’s Business Analysts provide expertise to assess situations and build strategies that achieve missions. Momentum’s consultants, bring years of applied business and technical knowledge, and draw on collective insight to build effective strategies for clients.

After we determine that developing more parkland is a strategy, the next step is to develop clear and achievable goals and objectives. Goals and objectives aren’t synonymous. The nuance between them is small, but it’s significant. And it’s important to understand how they work together.  Goals and objectives work hand in hand to create a plan for the future. Without objectives, you won’t have a path to reach your goals. Without goals, you won’t have a direction for your objectives.

Keep in mind that creating something substantial in life takes time and is the epitome of the saying — patience is a virtue. Your Vision is Point A, and each Strategy is Point B; but how do you get there? You should create a timeline with attainable goals and objectives to allow focus and maintain the Momentum of your project. When designing your goals, they should always be fueled by objectives that are specific, measurable, accountable (also attainable and authorized), realistic (also relevant), and time-limited (SMART).

How To Make Goals and Objectives SMART

According to Momentum Consultant David Fulton, being specific is extremely important, “I was hired to advance a critical, high-profile State project that was behind schedule and stalled due to contractual requirements that did not align with sponsor needs. The Request for Proposal (RFP) and contract lacked a clear scope of work (SOW).” While the Vision, Mission and Strategy can include ambiguous terms, Goals and Objectives must be clearly understood, or confusion and chaos can ensue.

For example our Strategy is to “update” the Recreation, Parks, and Open Space Plan. What does “update” mean? What information is being updated? What are the criteria? Who is accountable for updating this information and who has authority to approve and accept these updates as correct and complete. How much time will be spent preparing these updates and when must this be completed? Will internal staff perform the updates?  If so how many people, with what capabilities and how much time will be allocated?  Whose budget will fund this project? Will an external consultant be hired and what will funding and procurement require?  Is updating the plan attainable, realistic and relevant, or is the priority low due to other more critical concerns or lack of resources?  You can see that a simple word like “update” is OK for a strategic statement but to execute, as an objective requires far more complete instructions. An example of a SMART objective might look something like:

For six (6) months from Notice to Proceed (TIME-BOXED) the Parks and Recreation agency (ACCOUNTABLE) will develop a steering committee with oversight (AUTHORITY) to assign, monitor and assess the work of at least two (2) department resources with a minimum of two (2) years hands-on experience with park maintenance and operation, or if such resources are not available, procure with XYZ budget within 1 (one) year a vendor (REALISTIC) to collect and organize data on park usage, offerings (i.e. picnic, hiking trails, bike paths, soccer fields, festival and music venue, etc.), maintenance costs, surrounding businesses, delivery gaps and opportunities, geographic dispersal in relations to population concentration, demographics, crime and ER admission statistics (MEASUREABLE) to develop a road-map with priorities and milestones (WHAT) for a five (5) year outdoor recreation plan to benefit citizens and business owners with a focus on ROI (SPECIFIC).

5W1H

The 5W1H approach is a great way to develop specificity in your goals and objectives. The backbone of journalism and writing SMART objectives is using who, what, where, why, when and how as described in Rudyard Kipling’s poem:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

She sends’em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes-
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

—Rudyard Kipling

Consultations for Your Strategic Plan

At Momentum, our objective is to make your goals and strategies attainable while working diligently and efficiently. Contact us today for more details on our expert analysis and consulting services that have brought personalized — and measurable — results to government agencies, private businesses, nonprofits and more.