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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-02-12-REC-minu5 MOP 1775 h o K p Town of Lexington Recreation Committee APRIL 19^ � Frederick DeAngelis, Chairman Tel: (781) 862 -0500 x262 Wendy Rudner Fax: (781) 861 -2747 Sandra Shaw Howard Vogel, Vice Chairman Lisah Rhodes Recreation Committee Minutes of Meeting of February 12, 2013 A meeting of the Recreation Committee was held on Wednesday, February 12, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. in the Selectman's Meeting Room at the Town Office Building. Members Present: Sandra Shaw, Wendy Rudner, Lisah Rhodes, Rick DeAngelis and Howard Vogel Others Present: Jamie Sabbach, 110 Percent, LLC, Recreation Department Strategic Plan Consultant The Recreation Committee gathered for a Recreation Committee Workshop, from 8:00 11:30 a.m., as part of the Recreation Department Strategic Plan development. Jamie Sabbach, 110 Percent, LLC. facilitated the workshop and discussion. The next meeting of the Recreation Committee will take place on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at the Town Office Building in the Recreation Office at 7:00 p.m. The following documents /exhibits distributed at the meeting are attached: • Strategy Development Information Sheet Respectfully Submitted, Sheila Butts Assistant Recreation Director 1625 MASSACI IUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACI IUSE"ITS 02420 STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT WHAT IS STRATEGY? Strategy generally refers to the choices an organization makes about how to accomplish its mission and achieve its vision. To be successful, an organization must have a clear vision (the future it seeks to create), a powerful mission (purpose), and sound values, based upon what is important to its customers. Based on this foundation, it can determine the goals it must achieve in order to advance its mission. It then must decide how — what actions it will use — to achieve these goals. To be sustainable, public and non - profit sector organizations must regularly examine and adjust their strategies as situations change and opportunities arise. Today, scarce resources and a constantly shifting environment are forcing many organizations to reconsider their current strategies or to explicitly undertake strategy development for the first time. All indications are that future success will require much more rapid strategic rethinking and repositioning than are now the norm in both the public and non - profit sectors. At present, most public and non - profit organizations frequently look to traditional strategic planning as the primary tool for forming strategies. Strategic planning is generally described as an inclusive, collaborative process that involves the following activities: ➢ Developing an understanding of the organization's history, ➢ Rigorously assessing and developing consensus on organizational values, mission, and vision, ➢ Systematically examining internal and external environments, ➢ Identifying the goals that will mark alignment with values, satisfaction of mission, and advancement of vision with consideration of the organization's resources, and ➢ Determining ways (actions) to achieve these goals. Ideally, strategic planning should make the organization more "strategic" —that is, better able to meet the challenges of a dynamic environment. Experts stress that the most important outcome of strategic planning is to instill strategic thinking in the organization; they generally agree that strategic planning is only useful if it built upon a strong foundation of values, mission and vision, supported and championed by critical staff and leadership, and supports strategic thinking which leads to action. OUR EXPERIENCE WITH STRATEGIC PLANNING 110 Percent LLC has facilitated strategic planning processes for many groups. We have seen the benefits of strategic planning, particularly as it solidifies and motivates staff and board around the organization's values, mission and vision, and creating or strengthening a culture of strategic thinking and management. A solid strategic planning process encourages communication and inclusiveness, which is especially important in organizations that have a formal, top -down culture; are not communicative; or are stuck in the past and reluctant to change. Despite these benefits, we are keenly aware of the limitations of strategic planning. Four critical limitations of poor strategic planning which can negate any opportunity for success are: 1) the life span of the plan is too long; 2) limited staff involvement in the plan's development; 3) rigidity and /or ambiguity in its development and assessment; and 4) the separation in time between development and implementation. Limitation One — The Life Span of the Plan is Too Long Given today's dynamic and ever changing environments, organizations cannot develop a strategic plan beyond a two year window with any reasonable expectation that the plan will be credible and valid. A long -term strategic plan (beyond two years) presupposes that the organization's world will remain relatively stable, or at least that the changes it will experience are foreseeable. This mentality suggests that the strategic plan is nothing more than a snapshot in time: "This is how the world looks to us today and how we will respond based upon today's issues." In dynamic and unpredictable environments, this becomes nothing more than a glance in the rearview mirror. In the worst case, goals beyond two years may be rendered irrelevant by shifts in the external environment and the subsequent responses that are required. Organizations may overlook or dismiss promising, but unanticipated opportunities since they are not "in the plan." Limitation Two — Limited Staff Involvement in the Plan's Development Despite many organization's interests and desire to be inclusive, planning is usually carried out by a select group of board and staff leaders. Yet the plan itself must be implemented throughout the organization. This typically includes many individuals who had little involvement in the creation of the plan, and thus may have little investment in its success. And increasingly, staff finds that their performance assessment is tied to achieving specific goals articulated in a strategic plan in which they were not a part of developing. Limitation Three — Rigidity in the Plan's Development and Assessment Organizations should develop a "living strategic plan" which is flexible and adaptable and has the capacity to guide them into the future. Although it should be based upon the "here and now" and "where we expect to go ", environments and people change, and there must be opportunity to revisit and assess the credibility of what was planned in the context of fluidity and inevitable change. Rigidity in the development and assessment of the plan will ensure its ineffectiveness and ultimately its demise. Limitation Four — The Separation in Time between Plan Development and Implementation A critical limitation of poor strategic planning is that it creates too great a separation in time between thinking and doing. Organizations typically require 9 -12 months to complete a strategic planning process (which should be shortened). During this time it is often difficult for the agency to respond to emerging opportunities or threats, because it has not yet agreed upon a "direction," and is thus worried that any new commitments it makes will be out of line with the official strategic direction, which is still forthcoming. The organization is essentially "on hold," unable to move until its strategic plan is completed. Acknowledging these common limitations and planning to mitigate them in the development of strategy can lead an organization to realize a disciplined, credible and effective strategic plan that will shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, all with a focus on the future. Simply put, strategy development done right can lead an organization on a path to excellence. 110 Percent LLC is a management consulting firm which primarily serves public parks and recreation agencies, and continually engages in research and development activities aimed at bringing new and promising practices to public parks and recreation professionals, policy makers, and systems. Some of these efforts — such as our contemporary Strategy Development processes, and our Service Analysis and Financial Strategies Planning Process are well -known and quickly gaining traction across the U.S. �&.,Keft It For more information about 110 Percent LLC please visit .vw 70 U0 or email info @110percent.net Iiifetem.Eetter.