Strategic Plans are not set in stone—planning cycles end, community needs shift, organizational funding and resources change. Strategic plans are living documents to be revisited often, updated as needed, and used to guide day-to-day and long-term programming in an organization. A collaborative update process can keep a strategic plan vital, continuing to reflect the resources and needs of an organization and the community it serves.
In Fall 2022, Suzanna worked in collaboration with Ellis Planning Associates, Inc., to facilitate a strategic plan update for Plumas County Public Health Agency (an accredited public health department in a rural county in California’s Sierra Nevada). The agency’s five-year planning cycle was ending, and the local community had undergone significant changes due the COVID pandemic, wildfires, and shifting demographics. Agency leadership wanted to make sure that their public health programming continued to respond to new community realities.
Throughout the update process, the leadership and the consultant team were committed to a participatory and collaborative approach that would incorporate the experiences and perspectives of staff across all levels of the organization. Facilitating a cooperative planning process contributed to a host of positive outcomes:
- More comprehensive and responsive strategic plan
- Better buy-in from staff and leadership
- Relationship building within the organization
- Stronger organizational culture
The Process
Review Current Plan: After a kick-off meeting with key stakeholders from the agency, the consultant team worked with agency leadership to review the current strategic plan and evaluate progress on each objective and strategy.
Environmental Scan: To make the update responsive to new community realities, the consultant team reviewed data on changing county health trends and developed data packets for staff review. We then facilitated a SWOT (organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis that included input from staff in all health department divisions.
Planning Workshop: The consultant team facilitated a daylong workshop in which 30 members of the health department staff and leadership explored the Environmental Scan data; reviewed the status of current planning activities; identified the key driving and restraining forces acting on their organization; and provided feedback on needed revisions to their goals, objectives, and strategies. This was also the first time that staff had met in-person since the pandemic—so there was a lot of catching up and reconnecting!
Finalizing Updates: The leadership team reviewed and revised programming activities and goals, and we worked together to create a final updated strategic plan.
The Outcomes
Check out the updated Plumas County Public Health Agency’s Strategic Plan (2022-2027)!
