Year Two Update Strategic Plan SFY23

As presented by Deputy Executive Director Gina Perille at the May 2023 all-staff meeting

This is a summary of the plan's nine goals, along with examples of activities that are underway in SFY23. The agency's strategic plan may be new to some, and it may have been some time since others have read it.

As background:

  • The five-year strategic plan was developed in SFY20 and SFY21.
  • The planning process generated the agency's focus areas, goals, objectives, activities, and core values for the agency. The core values are embedded in the Vision for Workplace Culture document and originated in the strategic planning process.
  • The strategic plan covers SFY22 through SFY26.

The leadership team works collectively and individually to advance and implement the plan. For example, the team participated in idea sprints in the summer of 2021 and the summer of 2022 to generate action steps and implementation routes; there are regular check-ins on the plan's status. The team follows the schedule dashboard that grew out of the plan. For about the last year, leadership team members have increasingly relied on Asana to maintain momentum, accountability, and tracking of all of the moving parts. The agency's strategic plan is both a written document and an evolving set of activities.

The first goal is focused on expanding opportunities to demonstrate the agency's expertise. That ideally leads to increasing our visibility, enhancing our reputation, and broadening opportunities for collaboration. The shorthand for this goal is sector leadership. Under the sector leadership goal, we have four objectives helping us reach the goal: our model road map and suite of modeling tools, internal opportunities to exchange information, external opportunities to acquire and exchange information, and the ongoing work to present and promote what the agency is studying and funding.

Examples of what is active in this goal during SFY23 are:

  • The model platform is on track for completion in coordination with the release of the Long-range transportation plan. Model delivery is expected in SFY24
  • Embedding opportunities to highlight staff work into monthly all-staff meetings
  • A new framework is in development for identifying key conferences for the agency to attend as well as defining expectations on what staff can do in terms of reporting out, post-conference.

The second goal is focused on project management tools and processes as well as staff member skill sets. Our shorthand for this goal is programs and services. Under programs and services, there are four objectives: to develop project management practices and protocols, to develop monitoring and support systems for the work that we do, to offer project management training, and to build a system where we can regularly collect, distill, and ideally act upon project feedback. What's taking place during this fiscal year in support of this goal: there is a task force developing Asana guidelines to implement agency-wide as well as preparations to deliver training on how to use the Asana platform effectively.

The third goal focuses on increasing the technical assistance that the agency provides to cities, towns, and other stakeholders. The short name for this goal is also programs and services, and there are three objectives under this second part of programs and services: To understand the current technical needs of our stakeholders, to develop an expansion plan – meaning a plan to expand the technical services we provide, and third to develop and acquire that new business. Activities for this goal are scheduled to begin in earnest in SFY24.

The fourth goal is focused on clarifying and communicating the relationship between the MPO board and the Central Transportation Planning staff. The shorthand for this goal is governance. Under governance, there are four objectives: Defining the rules and the roles, having expanded and engaged committees, providing board orientation and board training, and creating an environment for healthy board participation and exchange of ideas. During SFY23, a review of existing board orientation documentation has started this fiscal year and will continue into SFY24.

The fifth goal is focused on implementing an organizational structure that supports and attracts an engaged workforce. This goal is Organizational Staffing & Structure, and it has supporting objectives: reviewing reporting relationships and office configuration, developing a strategy for human resources and employee engagement, a new look at staff orientation and onboarding, and a fully revised evaluation cycle.

Examples of what is active in this goal during SFY23 are:

  • The evaluation cycle, a portion of which  you heard about earlier in this meeting
  • Staff orientation has moved into Asana for easier tracking, and now time is being spent on evaluating the elements and the sequence of first experiences that new staff members have.
  • Also, what was the new hire cohort pilot is now a continuing program to build connections among our most recent hires. The new hire cohorts are also a good source of ideas on improving staff orientation overall.

Goal six is focused on identifying and adopting best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion with a particular view on broadening participation at the agency and ensuring that agency staff and agency work reflects the diversity of the communities being served. We refer to this as our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goal. Objectives supporting this goal include: establishing a staff DEI committee, engaging in training and support of an inclusive work environment, collaborating with the board to expand outreach to diverse populations, applying a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens to our human resource activities, including working toward the development of a diverse pipeline of job applicants. In SFY23, there was work completed by a small committee on a diversity, equity, and inclusion draft statement for the agency. Much of the rest of this goal has activities anchored in SFY24.

The seventh goal is to develop and implement communications and marketing strategies that clearly articulate our agency's identity to our current and prospective partners and to the public at large. The shorthand for this is marketing and Public Presentation. The objectives include expanding communications capacity, developing communication plans, and continuing internal and external promotion and celebration of staff work. Activity examples for this goal in the current fiscal year include plans to expand the communications and engagement team as well as continued work to audit our communications tools. Also implemented are staff spotlights on the intranet as well as opportunities to regularly highlight staff accomplishments in forums like all-staff meetings.

Goal 8 is dedicated to updating the fiduciary agent agreement that is in place between MAPC and CTPS to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each agency. These are primarily related to finance, HR, and legal support. The shorthand for this goal is funding and operations. It includes objectives focused on revising the fiduciary agent agreement, updating the staff handbook, policies and procedures, and communicating about the updated agreement once complete. The fiduciary agreement with MAPC has been reviewed, and now work is taking place on the appendix that outlines the business services exchanged between the two agencies. Staff handbook updates are a somewhat continuous activity expected to occur in most fiscal years.

The final goal, the 9th goal, is focused on working in partnership with MAPC to expand and diversify the revenue sources for our agency, including the possibility of foundation funding. This is our second Funding & Operations goal, and it includes objectives that focus on strategy development and best practice definition on what sorts of funding opportunities might be possible or feasible,  and also then the marketing of our technical assistance and the clear illustration and articulation of the services that our agency can provide. The activities for this goal are scheduled for SFY25 and 26.

What is next: During summer 2023, the leadership team will again come together to review the SFY23 strategic plan progress, will confirm the priorities for SFY24, which is plan year 3, and in doing so, will plan to share updated implementation tracking tools.

On the evolution of tracking:

  • The strategic plan came with a schedule
  • The executive leadership team created a one-page implementation grid for plan year 1. There were 17 distinct strategic plan activities in SFY22, which is also known as plan year 1.
  • Strategic plan details were moved into Asana for more dynamic tracking after a summertime sprint at the beginning of plan year 2. The discussion identified that some efforts needed more time, and others would continue across multiple fiscal years. In addition, some efforts were switched to/from/among leadership team members. There were 13 distinct strategic plan activities in SFY23, which is also known as plan year 2. The leadership team either extended or moved 9 of the 13 to SFY24, which is plan year 3.
  • The executive leadership team distilled the schedule down to focus on plan year 2; the schedule was last updated in January 2023.

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