## 2. General Themes

Several overarching themes arose over the course of the three-day workshop as important for facilitating effective planning processes and supporting communication across the organization.

### 2.1 Project Management and Capacity

Developing an adaptable project management plan (discussed more in section 4.1), complete with information about key steps in the process, including pre-assessment work, completion dates for essential tasks, and timelines for public engagement, is essential to success and can increase efficiency. The workshop also identified a series of challenges related to project management, including:

- • issues. The complexity of the process, high expectations, and personnel • issues. The complexity of the process, high expectations, and personnel turnover make it challenging to complete plans on original timelines.
- • turnover. Losing staff in the forest planning process presents a particular • turnover. Losing staff in the forest planning process presents a particular challenge for maintaining momentum and relationships both internally and externally. In addition, many planners are new to their forests or to forest planning and need time to develop local knowledge, relationships, and knowledge of the forest planning process.
- • uncertainty. Attendees said that it was challenging to develop a work plan for • uncertainty. Attendees said that it was challenging to develop a work plan for planning in light of uncertainties about the availability of adequate funding in the future.
- • policy requirements. When developing forest plans, national forests must • policy requirements. When developing forest plans, national forests must consider requirements dictated by policies other than the 2012 planning rule. For example, in addition to considering Species of Conservation Concern (SCCs) as required by the planning rule, forests also must consider threatened and endangered species in accordance with the Endangered Species Act. The existence of additional policy requirements can add to the time needed for forest planning.
- • between the pressure of an expedited timeframe and completing a high quality • between the pressure of an expedited timeframe and completing a high quality plan revision.

### 2.2 Transparency and External Involvement

Workshop attendees identified several innovations that relate to openness and transparency in forest planning. These included:

- • office hours to allow the public to “pick the brains” of the planning team in an • office hours to allow the public to “pick the brains” of the planning team in an informal context;
- • team meetings open to the public, such as those being conducted on the • team meetings open to the public, such as those being conducted on the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest, to promote trust and ensure transparency of the process;
- • versus technical public meetings to strategically tailor meetings to different • versus technical public meetings to strategically tailor meetings to different purposes; and,
- • “living” assessments and development of plan components to invite public input • “living” assessments and development of plan components to invite public input and review in real time as forest planning products are developed.

### 2.3 Learning, Innovation, and Diffusion

Important objectives of the 2016 planners meeting included investigation of current strategies for and barriers to organizational learning and exploration of ways to promote learning and diffusion of innovations across the agency. Details of these discussions are provided in section 5 of this report. Attendees said that maintaining and improving connections across networks of planning team members and across the hierarchical levels of the agency were integral to supporting