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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8A - Strategic Planning STAFF AGENDA REPORT AGENDA #: PREPARED BY: SUBJECT: DATE: BACKGROUND: DISCUSSION: FRANK BOYLES, CITY MANAGE AUTHORIZATION OF STRATEGIC PLANNING INVOLVING THE CITY STAFF AND COUNCIL APRIL 4, 1994 PROJECT Atthe January 21, 1994 and January 22, 1994 workshop the City Council established goals and objectives for 1994. The top priority goal of the City Council was to complete a strategic planning process through which the Council and staff could jointly identify the challenges that the city will face in the future and the position that the city should take with respect to these issues. I have received a proposal from Kent Ecklund, president of Cincinnatus, to conduct a strategic planning process. The Council should determine whether it wishes to proceed with the strategic planning process as contemplated in this proposal, direct further refinement to the proposal, or request solicitation of other proposals. Once the council finalized its 1994 goals I telephoned Jim Miller, executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities, for suggestions he might have regarding companies who conduct strategic planning. He identified Carl Neu, Jim Brimeyer, and Kent Ecklund. Carl Neu has an extensive reputation for conducting strategic planning for cities. However, Carl is located in Colorado and his fees reflect the cost of transportation, as well as his services. Jim Brimeyer indicated to the City Council at the January workshop that while he can conduct strategic planning sessions it is not the direction his company desires to pursue. The government training service also has some experience in conducting strategic planning programs. I did not solicit a proposal from them given the fact that strategic planning is not their specialty. I am seeking more of a specialist who can provide the Council and staff with high quality strategic planning services. -1- 4629 Dakota St. S.E., Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph. (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER T 'T ' - i ISSUES: Mr. Miller recommended Kent Ecklund highly, for strategic planning. On March 16, 1994 1 met with Mr. Ecklund and discussed the city's current and future challenges. Attached for council information is a proposal from Mr. Ecklund, a description of the typical strategic planning process, and a brief resume. Throughout the meeting I outlined the issues facing the community as I understood them. As a result of our conversation the attached six step process has been formulated. The first session of approximately four hours will include the City Council and staff. The overall strategic planning process and outputs would be outlined and brainstorming would take place with respect to the long range issues to be addressed. The second session involves the analysis of strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This eight hour session conducted with the city staff is intended to develop the data for planning. Strengths and weaknesses within the city organization will be identified. Opportunities and threats from the external environment will also be recorded. With the SWOT exercise completed an eight hour visioning exercise will be scheduled for council and staff probably on a Saturday. At this session participants will review the SWOT analysis results which focuses upon the question of, "by the target year, if we are wildly successful at meeting our mission what descriptive sentences will others write about us." Using the SWOT database responses can be provided. These responses begin to form the framework of the strategic plan document itself. The fourth session would involve eight hours of staff time would develop draft goals from the results of the previous three sessions. Session five would be an eight hour session involving both the Council and staff. Each of draft goals and decisions would be discussed, revised as appropriate, and agreed to. Finally a more detailed set of annual plan components would be developed to provide the day-by-day steps for implementing the strategic plan. The entire process amounts to about 36 hours of work distributed between the City Council and Department Heads. The consultant is responsible for preparing written reports for the various sessions and the final draft of the plan which is normally 10 pages or less. Detailed work plans or detailed research projects are the responsibility of the city. The fee for this service is $6,500. The fundamental focus of strategic planning is to assure that the parties involved in operating the city share an understanding of the ultimate objectives which we are trying to achieve. The strategic plan has numerous benefits, including: -2- ALTERNATIVES: RECOMMENDATION: ACTION REQUIRED: 1. It becomes a focal point for community identity. 2. It is useful as an orientation tool, both to new residents, businesses, and city employees. It economizes on labor to the extent that the objectives are agreed upon and it is simply a matter determining what day-to-day actions will help to lead to those objectives. The plan provides a larger framework within which our comprehensive plan, capital improvement program, budget, and other fiscal documents interact. Once established, future councils can focus on the strategic plan during their workshops to create both yearly goals and objectives and even more important to reach some level of consensus with respect to long term objectives. The Council has the following alternatives: Authorize the initiation of a strategic planning process based upon the proposal provided by Mr. Kent Ecklund of Cincinnatus at a cost not to exceed $6,500 to be drawn from the contingency account. 2. Request modifications in the strategic planning proposal. 3. Take no action. 4. Request proposals from other firms. I recommend that the City Council pursue alternative one. From my conversation with Mr. Ecklund and from the references he has received from others I believe he appreciates the issues which we face as a developing community. He is also intimately familiar with the challenges faced by the pdvate businesses and non-profit firms as this is the central focus of the strategic efforts of his firm. Because of his previous experience as mayor of the city of Northfield, he is familiar with local government operations and the political environment in which we work. Adopt a motion directing the staff to approve the strategic planning proposal of Cincinnatus submitted by Kent E. Ecklund dated March 17, 1994 at a cost not to exceed $6,500, with funds drawn from the 1994 General Fund Budget Contingency Account. FAGNA.WRT Attachment FB:aw -3- Cincinnatus RIVERPLACE, SUITE 306 43 MAIN STREET S.E, MINNEAPOLIS. MINNESOTA 55414 PHONE (612) 331-9007 FAX (612) 331-9004 March 17, 1994 Mr. Frank Boyles City Manager, City of Prior Lake 4629 Dakota St. S.E. Prior Lake, MN 55372 Dear Frank: Thank-you for the informative session yesterday. I applaud your city's interest in taking a longer term view of the future of your city. Clearly cities in the path of an expanding metropolitan area can at times feel helpless when it comes to controlling their futures. Certainly the challenges are ~r_eater, but in the absence of a vision with a supporting plan, I can guarantee that the city's ~nfluence over its future will be minimal. My understanding of your interest in this project is to develop a process through which your.city council and the department heads of your community can develop greater consensus concemmg both the long range issues facing Prior Lake and the strategies the city will pursue to help guide the future. My understanding also is that there is a comprehensive planning process currently being pursued that will focus more on infra-structure. Our goal in this process is to develop a broader vision of the future of the city and develop strategies to get there. Finally by way of introduction, we all know that dectorates change over time and with the changing preferences of electorates coming changes in councils. Council.persons themselves move on in their lives, and others replace them. What we are developing ~s a tradition and a process which will serve Prior !ake well into the future; but only ff everyone knows that nothing we do is in concrete and everything we do will be continually reviewed. We all see the future as best we can at any one point m time, but our vision is never perfecC A plan must be a snapshot of our best bet at one point in time; the secret will be to set in place a continuous monitoring and verifying of our base work as the city goes forward. In short, some might argue that we cannot bind future city councils: that is tree. What we can do is present our best vision in 1994 and let future councils build on that vision. Enough philosophy -- on to the action! Based on our discussion and on the template we use at Cincinnatus, I would suggest a five session dialogue between your city council and your city's staff which is summarized in the following table. This process splits the work load between the policy setters on the council and strategic framing of issues and gathering of data to inform those policies by the city staff. In the end, both sets of derision-makers participate -- cities are wall served by consensus between staff and city councils on future direction. This process seeks to find that consensus. SUMMARY OF PLANNING PROCESS OBJECWIVES PARTICIPANTS SESSION I Overview of process Brainstorm of long range issues City Council SESSION II SWOT Analysis Initial response to council issue identification City Staff SESSION III Review of SWOT Visioning exercise City Council with City Staff SESSION IV Draft long range goals City Staff Initial annual work plan dements SESSION V Decisions on long range goals Decisions on annual plan components City Council with City Staff I will provide during this pvocx~s complete meeting facilitation and meeting preparation services. I will prepare written reports from each meeting and will also prepare the final draft of the resulting plan. The final plan rarely exceeds ten pages in length. Detailed work plans and any detailed research on issues will be the responsibility of the City. The fee for the above services is $6,500. Should additional work or expectations arise during the project, we will mutually agree to an addendum to this letter of agreement I hope this proposal meets with your expectations. I look very much forward to working with you, your staff and the city council on this exciting positioning project for Prior Lake. Sincerely, Kent E. Eklund President 4) MA~N STlU. ET LL ~INNF.,AJ:OLJS. MINNLSOTA $S4t4 PHONE (612) FAX (612) February 10, 1994 MAHA Participants From: Kent E. Eldund, President Cincinnatus Inc. Subject: Overview of the Cincinnatus Planning Process This is a brief overview of the planning process Cincinnatus utilizes with its clients. We have found mom often than not that planning is l~iven a bad name in many organizations by fixation on the process and not enough attention to the substance. We definitely like to customize the pmce.~ to the culture and previous experiences the organization has had with planning. What I am therefore describing is the initial template we use to design a process to meet our client' needs. ~Th~¢ final in ,trod. u.c~ry warbling.is cri.tica!.! we have never drafted a strategic plan over go pages, ano tn Iact, we ozten oo n~ w~..tc any document at all Our process is designed to provide the top level strategic direction for the organization. Work plans and further work tn implementation always follow this process. STEP1 SWOT Analysis (Strengths, W~ses, Opponuni~ 11ucats) There is no rocket science in this first step. What we find is that this first step opens a dialogue in which eventually everyone can attach to thc initial conversation and agree to the "data' for planning. All four categories in this analysis begin with a brainstorming session -- as long as one person on thc planning team has a perception, that Weakne.ss~ force the group to look ~rception is on the initial list. Strengths and tntemally m Opportunities and Threats force the group to focus more externally. Once thc initial list is created, thc group then determines thc validity of the statements. Sometimes this ta..k.. _es. debate; sometimes it lakes some time for research or data gathering. Once thc list ts agreed to, we merely ask the group to segment ~ list as to the importance of each issue for the organization. We also go fl~ough thc list to ascertain the deg ,o wh h your organization can :con?' ue: for e._x m. ects .of aging overall and equally importantly the etlects oz me aging o~ me oany ooomers ts a trend you cannot control, but the wise organization considers these trends in its planning. A negative employee morale issue you can control, more or less, as you may determine its importance to your future. At this stage, we like to leave a whole set of these unresolved. We are not yet ready to make decisions, but we have everyone thinking. STU'2 Mission Statement This is typically when the Type A's begin to glaze over if you are not careful. Our lob is not necessa~ly to writ~ a statement as a g .mup.. The job is simply to ask the ~uestion, "What is thc core .re.~. n fo.r th:s organization to e.xist~" M?ion statements arc ~aeant to survive over time w:th relatively few changes..'~,~s discusston gets to the core values and the core statements of ex'?ten, ce. Usually, this discussion gets somewhat heated. The character of this discussion ~s often determined by the CEO and by whether we are working with an existing mission statement or doing one for the first time. STEP 3 Vision Components This is, believe it or not, often when the Type A's reattach to the process. We ask ourselves thc simple question, "By year X (predetermined at the beginn'.mg of the process), if we are w. ildly successful at meeting our mission, .what descnptive sente.m, ces will we or others write about us on January I of year X7" Th~s ~s when people bcgm to draw on the SWOT data base. Again, we ha,v.¢ found it helpful to begin with a brainstorming mode and ~ develop a validtty check later..We do not like .t? get p~. pie to try to deve!op a single v~sion statemen.t, although some clients want one. we tend to think about wsion statements as intermed:ate steps to the goal statements; how these visions arc presented in the plan is up to thc client. STEP 4 Value Statements Some clients want to develop a listing of value statements or phrases which describe the organization either currently or tn the future. We tend to be a little ambivalent about these, only because it is often difficult to keep ~ from becoming too general to be helpful. S~.P $ Strategic Goals We are now ready to bring the first four steps together into a series of very explicit strategic goal statements. In essence we arc asking ourselves what it will take to, fulfill our mission and arrive at the descriptive stateraents we want by year X? We clearly build into our analysis the Strengths we need to build on, the W~ we have to fix, the Opportunities we arc going to pursue, and the Threats we are attempting to mitigate. This is clearly the most critical stage of the process. pl~e 2 STEP 6 Objectives Sometimes Cindnnat.~... is finished after Step 5: the client udces tbe goal smmm~nm and develops the w.ork, tasks directly f?.m the goal statements. We. prefer to stay though STEP 6, be, cau~ th,s ss the s~l{e a.~ whi.c.h we .re-in .frei.. u~ ~vcra. I mmportan, t ~?..U'a, nts: time, money and staff. The ooj~l~ve.,$ OlSCUs$lon Splits II~ lime tram now to A mum plarming units--usually F~al years. ,Ob. je~_tives indic, a, !n what. yea_rs, sp~. itle. goa~.., wi. il be pursued and identifies f'mancial ano.stait resg. urce rexluirements. I hum stage m cnueaay imuortant, because management teams have to determine realistically.what available re4~urc, es can be diroctexi to tJ~4e goals, which goals ar~ currendy being fulfilled by vrrent activity, and what new resourc~ will have to be found to pursue t~ goals. ~gcmcnt ~nust also face tho hard decisions regardi.ng, a. cfivi.ties that will .no longer be ,f ?. add-o t.o c?..t .:.v,.? win .? (nanc,al rehef, the plan heaos to mc shelves ano p~annmg once again gem a oaa name. wc stron, gly that an outside, objective source n.c~ds to be !n thc room at this lime. Many the umes when this stage is almost explosive as CEO s do not.want to s~p ba. ck from any current commitments and staff argue for more rosouw, es or. mmmmally, direction for reassignment of current resources. We hope this ov .e~. 'ew helps. This template,does take so.me tim.e, bu~. fi.pursued . c,o. rrectly, it provides the focus so ~. ?r.org~zauo..ns.t_ .o?y..l ot.ten, s.umm, ar~ this model with a sports analogy, we eau mss me wayne ~retsl~-y. ~nooi oi pl_ann, m.g. p,ay me game, omuxy When asked wh.y. he may be the greatest h.ockey play.er ~ e..ver. . often answers, I skate to where .the. puck is going to ue. wimout a p~an, organizations have no idea where that spot on the ice is and without a plan, we can guarantee the team will be all over {he ice in year X. pag~ 3 rG~-t6-t~4 12:34 ClNCII, IqRTUS,'IqEIq t~331~ ~.~ KENT E. EKLUND, Mr. Eklund. President cd' Cincinnatus. offcrs a broad fanuc of senior n~na~¢mtnt sells and expcrlcnce. His back&round allows him to work comfortably with public, privatc and not-for-profit organizations. With Cincinnatus. Mr. Eldund provides leadership support scrdces includln~ mana~cmcnt mentorship, and strate~ic plannin& and impIcmcntation. Prkx to joinin& Cindnnatus. Mt. Eldund was President of CEO+. a Minneapolis-based consultln& firm asslsUn& in business transitions and executive searches, and providln~ interim management at the exccu~vc loyal. Bdore thb. he scrvtd as President and CEO of Padr~dc Senior Sedvices. as President and CEO of Ebcr~ze~ SocicLv. and as Vkc President of Market Development with Lutheran Brotherhood. Mr. £1dund's public scrdcc back&round includes a term as commissioner of two departments under Minnesota Governor Quit and as Mayor of thc Cit)' of Northflcid, MN. Whilc major, hc also was thc Chair of thc Political Sdcncc Dcpartmcnt at St. Olaf'Collc~c. Mr. Eldund holds a Ph.D. from the Univcrsit,j of Pcnns)'ivanla In Political Sck:ncc with spedalizations in planning and organizational theol. Hc currently serves as prcsidcnt cd' thc Citiztn's League. chairs thc Minncsota Business Nctwork and thc Board of thc Ebcnczo' Society. and sctvcs on thc Boards of Peoples Natural Gas and Corporate Bcncflts Administrators.