Rock Hill and the importance of the strategic plan.

• Author: Vehaun, David

A comprehensive strategic plan is one of the most important tools an organization can have in defining its mission and vision. A well-developed plan incorporates performance measures that permeate the goals of each department and division, laying a blueprint for success. Very few jurisdictions are able to develop an outstanding strategic plan on their first attempt; more often, a plan will evolve as components are refined and improved. The process requires a balance of planning and hard work. By aligning resources with initiatives that are well thought out and tasks that are tied to a broader vision, an organization's strategic plan can deliberately and purposefully prioritize its use of limited resources to help it accomplish meaningful goals that contribute to the overall quality of life in the community.

The City of Rock Hill, South Carolina, has a rich history of successful strategic planning, and each iteration of the plan has resulted in valuable lessons learned, greater experiences, and opportunities for continuous improvement.

FIRST STEPS

Rock Hill's strategic planning efforts did not technically begin with a strategic plan. Initially, the city simply featured performance measures in its annual budget document in 1995. These measures helped in defining departmental goals and objectives, but without a formal strategic plan in place, they were created in a vacuum, with no buy-in from the city's elected officials and the public. Communication between elected officials and staff wasn't always clear, in part because initiatives weren't mutually agreed to and priorities competed. Further, initiatives were focused on city departments and lacked community input.

As a result, the city started enhancing collaboration and communication between city council and the staff in 2001. From the outset of this process, clear-cut goals were designed for both the council and staff:

* Align limited resources with predetermined initiatives that are tied to a broader vision.

* Develop a roadmap that guides the city from vision to reality.

* Explain why resources are used in certain ways.

* Measure and communicate progress to elected officials, the community, and other stakeholders.

With these goals in mind, staff started working on the city's first real strategic plan in April 2002. Because they had no real exposure to strategic planning, the result was a narrowly focused document that attempted simply to validate initiatives that were currently underway. The plan provided high-level summaries of budget information, schedule updates, and contact information for lead staff. Each department developed summary data for their respective projects (see Exhibit 1). But while documenting all of the city's major projects for the first time was certainly a valuable undertaking, it did not fulfill the primary goal of improving collaboration and communication. For one thing, there was very little input from the city council. This plan also focused exclusively on current projects, with no regard for future planning. And since departments developed the project lists independently, all project planning described in the document tended to be organized in silos.

In summary, the first effort missed most of the important qualities that make a good strategic plan. It had no public input, only cursory council collaboration, and no consideration for developing goals focused on the community. Rather, it relected the initiatives of individual departments. Council and staff realized this almost immediately, and within nine months, the city council decided to set aside the project list and turn their attention to developing a more comprehensive document.

FIRST ATTEMPT AT A REAL STRATEGIC PLAN

In January 2003, the city council held its first strategic planning retreat and enlisted the services of a consultant who had extensive experience in assisting local governments with developing strategic plans. The consultant worked with city staff to establish the primary emphasis of the new plan, focusing on: 1) developing a collaborative process that would include both city council and cross-departmental engagement; and 2) incorporating initiatives that would help identify priorities and strategies for addressing future endeavors.

Another important addition to the process was including the National Citizen Survey, a comprehensive community survey offered by the National Research Center and the...