Jeff Siegler guides the board and staff of Main Street Lancaster through the process of ranking activities & tasks to create a prioritized work plan.
I had the privilege of joining Jeff earlier this week in Lancaster to participate in a strategic planning session. Since I’m still getting my feet wet as a Heritage Ohio staffer working more with our Main Street programs, and since I’ve heard such great things about past planning sessions he’s done, I was looking forward to the learning opportunity.
Jeff began the morning planning session with an introduction to the Main Street Four-Point Approach for new board members. He also stressed the importance of the commitment of the board to undergo a regular routine of planning; not just talking about the great plans an organization wants to implement in the near-term, but also the importance of having the discipline to commit those plans to paper on an annual basis. Jeff said “If it’s not written, it’s not real.” Nothing spurs an organization on to achieving its goals as does that constant written reminder.
When it comes to strategic planning, there really aren’t any secrets, but it isn’t easy. From the perspective of Heritage Ohio staff, it’s important to know the right questions to ask to guide the discussion. In the planning session we strive to create an environment where stakeholders feel empowered to plan great things. But we also want participants to think critically about what can and should be accomplished in the coming year, given financial resources & human resources. And we want them to see their work from a holistic standpoint—to consider their partners, and to understand just how important the health of a downtown is to the health of a community. From the program’s perspective, it’s a matter of having a willingness to take on hard work (because no one ever said revitalizing a business district would be easy) and having the leadership in place to do the hard work.
During the course of the session, a board member asked, “Revitalizing downtown is such a big job — how do we keep from getting overwhelmed?” Another benefit of the written work plan is that the organization stakeholders can see the big picture — revitalizing a historic downtown — broken into manageable pieces. For example, while the overarching goal is downtown revitalization, the Design Committee has a goal to write a series of newspaper columns on historic downtown buildings, or the Promotion Committee has a goal to plan a chocolate walk downtown this year. As the organization fleshes out and implements its work plan items, it can consistently go back to its mission to make sure it’s on track, accomplishing small goals on its way to meeting and achieving that one big goal.
At the end of the planning session Jeff took a couple moments to relate the components of the morning’s session: how the creation of a prioritized work plan is guided by the organization’s mission and its roles; how organizational partners can lend their assistance to accomplishing work plan items; and how the tasks & roles of the organization can reinforce work plan items (or get an organization back on track if the current work plan items don’t match well with the organization’s tasks & roles).
Finally, Jeff went around the room and asked each board member to verbally commit to make the prioritized projects a reality in the coming year. Remember that saying “you’re only as good as your word”? It’s an unforgettable moment to watch and hear each board member sitting around the table, giving their word to their peers and the organization to make something special happen in the coming year.
I think Jeff was especially gratified to see the positive strides Main Street Lancaster has made, but he has good reason to — after all, he’s a Lancaster resident. But more importantly, it’s how he feels about seeing Main Street programs across the state succeed. It’s the pride we all take in working with programs, and the privilege of working in jobs where we can have a small role in helping people achieve something great for their hometowns. In a lot of ways, all of us here have 36 hometowns because of the close connections we have to each one. Each community important, each one deserving of great success, each one with special qualities to offer—this is how we view them. We have a vested interest in seeing each one succeed, and that’s what makes the work we do so gratifying.
