The framework that was chosen is often referred to a Balanced Scorecard approach where four perspectives are used to monitor what is being done.
Financial: encourages the identification of a few relevant high-level financial measures.
Customer: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question “How do customers see us?”
Internal Business Processes: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question “What must we excel at?”
Learning and Growth: encourages the identification of measures that answer the question “Can we continue to improve and create value?”.
Odd as it might sound, there had to be agreement on just what a Strategic Plan was so that they could stay on target when working with the wider and larger community. Black wanted to bring the rigor of the private sector to a municipal setting.
Another truism Ms Black dropped on them was the amount of time spent on reviewing and checking in on how the Strategic Plan you created was actually working. What surprised many people taking part in this intensive work shop was learning that organizations spend a lot of time creating a strategic plan and then spend less than an hour a month reviewing the plan and checking in to see if the Council was on target with the plans objectives.
Mayor Goldring has plans to make the reviewing of the strategic plan more intentional and focused.
The participants were urged to bring ideas forward before they are fully formed. Ms Black advised the groups not to “box anyone in”. Right now the procedure the city tends to follow is Council issues a Directive and Staff take it away and research and discuss internally and then bring back a completed recommendation.
Former May Cam Jackson had a habit of dropping in on staff meetings to listen to the thinking being done by Staff and he complained to almost anyone who would listen about Council not having access to the thinking and the process staff went through as they arrived at a conclusion. My guess is that Jackson wasn’t very good at listening to what staff was doing and tended to intrude into their process. His practice was not appreciated by staff but Ms Black was making an important point which hopefully sinks in. “Be open” she said “and let others influence your thinking.”
Whenever there are consultants in a room with bureaucrats you know there are going to be acronyms flying around the room. They brought forward the BHAG – wait for this one – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
Ms Black stressed again and again that ideas and thoughts had to be backed up by research and then she dropped another one of those BIG ones. “Data” she said “is not information”. Burlington compiles data like crazy; the city counts everything but there are far too many occasions when the raw numbers aren’t extrapolated into information that Council can use to make decisions.
The Strategic Planning training sessions have Ward 2 Councillor Meed Ward thinking hard and asking a lot of questions.
Councillor Meed Ward, a bit of a keener at times, had come across a book she thought was great and in a generous she bought a copy for each member of Council. Can you guess which Council members will not make the time to read the book?
Ms Black urged the group to work towards a document that was alive, living and breathing and something that the citizens would identify with and relate to almost immediately. She wanted the group to ask the questions: “Is this possible; What if; why not?” “Value diversity of opinion: you can re-assemble an even better idea when you open things up”, she said
That was the process they wanted to get in placed. Can the staff we have, working together with the Council you have elected do all this? Well they were given excellent advice.
After a break – and the consultants fully understood the use of breaks, the group would re-assemble – this time to get some definitions in place. A Mission statement is why you exist. A Vision is what is true about yourselves. The Values are the things you hold to be true and strive to bring to everything you do.
Strategic directions are the things you are going to do and Ms Black advised that the City wanted between three and five strategic directions in your plan. “You could convince me to go as high as seven she said – but you are going to have to convince me”. A direction she added has a measure attached to it and money.
Is the Burlington Council really going to be able to limit their strategic directions to five or will they end up with 20 in an effort to please everyone? That is a real challenge for both the civic administration and the Council where discipline is often not in the room.
Once these fundamental rules are in place they have to be communicated to the front line staff, the people who are behind the desks answering the phones or at the counter serving the public. “If employees are engaged they perform better” Ms Black advised, and she added “public servants value change.” How long does it to take for this engaging to cascade to the front lines” asked Meed Ward – three to six months – assuming the staff buy into the principle ideas and decisions. And that for Burlington is going to be a bit of a challenge based on the recent research in which staff assumptions were quite a bit different than those of the public.
Resources are needed to bring about this kind of change at the front line level. There has to be clear sponsorship from the most senior levels and then stakeholders have to buy into the approach and champions found to make the case. If a strategic plan is going to work is has to represent and reflect the wishes of the community – and that means selling it to them and educating the community.
So far however, the thoughts and ideas put forward at the stakeholder sessions held a few weeks ago here was a single Big Hairy Audacious and Good idea put forward by anyone – much of it was the same old and what you expected. In this town you sort of know hat you’re going to get from the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business Association.
Mayor Goldring has his Council and senior city staff taking part in a five session training exercise.
‘”It is important” explained Ms Black “that staff buy into the framework you are going to use.” Mayor Goldring made the point when he said “we are blazing a new trail here”; the trick now is to get people to walk down that blazed trail. The task amounts to changing a mind set at city hall, not easy in any organization and harder for an organization that doesn’t face the daily pressures of showing a profit or closing the doors
It was time to get some feed back from the participants and Ms Black asked for comment on what they had done so far. Councillor Lancaster thought it was going perfect. Sharman had some doubts about the values they were working from; Meed Ward likes the framework and wanted to spend more time on each one. Mayor Goldring saw it as aspirational and he was excited. Taylor saw the group leading to something that was more visionary and added that while the journey is important it is the destination that matters most.
Jack Dennison’s MBA, obtained years ago. shows in his level of participation at the strategic plan training sessions.
Councillor Dennison said he thought he was excited and was feeling very challenged by the process. Councillor Craven said for him “the jury was still out”. Some things take longer to change than others. This first session is one of five with the consultants – Council and Staff have a long way to go.
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