Increase engagement and enact change through strategic planning

Tribal members often don’t understand or engage in their leadership’s efforts to tackle economic, social, and cultural challenges.

A robust strategic planning process provides an opportunity for Tribal leaders to articulate their plans and Tribal members to help prioritize challenges and develop solutions. When done well, the planning process can be just as important as the resulting plan. It can help Tribes achieve greater understanding and support of their strategic plan, improving the likelihood of its success.

Planning process considerations

There are several key elements of an effective strategic planning process.

Comprehensive focus

Incorporating inputs and feedback will help structure a plan responsive to community needs.

• Inputs inform front-end plan considerations of mission, vision, and community needs.
• Feedback refines plan priorities, goals, and strategies once plan elements have been developed.

Diverse engagement

Another key to creating a successful strategic plan is incorporating input from the council, management, staff, and Tribal members. Council and management participation can be achieved through initial interviews and subsequent planning sessions. Secure online surveys and public workshops can help promote staff and Tribal member engagement. Gaining diverse perspectives can provide valuable insights while helping to increase plan buy-in, a critical component to implementation success.

Clear communication

If key elements of a strategic plan aren’t communicated to stakeholders clearly, the plan can’t serve as an effective management tool. Preparing a plan summary can help those involved better understand, track progress on, and manage the plan’s implementation.

Plan content

A comprehensive strategic plan encompasses the following components:

• Mission and core values
• Long-range vision
• Long- and short-term goals
• Historical review and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
• Community needs
• Annual action steps
• Key performance indicators

Strategic plans often fall short of expectations when they lack the detail needed to guide implementation. While most plans address mission, vision, goals, and objectives, many omit action steps and key performance indicators, including measures of:

• Outcomesimpact of services provided
• Outputquantity of services provided
• Efficiencycost or quantity of services per full time equivalent or capita

Effective strategic plans also include a discussion of factors and events that define the Tribe’s situation and clear steps to create the desired changes.

Pulling it all together

If your staff and members are involved in the strategic planning process, then they’ll be more likely to understand, endorse, and help implement the plan.