The retreat was itself, not surprisingly, an excellent team building exercise. For each of the four themes on which issue papers were developed, presented, and discussed, the resulting plan contained a summary of the consensus reached at the retreat, a statement of the general strategic direction the agency should take for that issue, followed by specific goals. The goals were further broken down into activities with outcome indicators and cost estimates. We also included with the plan a flow chart depicting the interrelationships of the strategic plan activities, showing how the output from one activity might be needed as a resource for another activity. For example, it was recognized that many of the activities needed detailed information about the clientele served by the agency.
Plans are underway to develop a database to collect and provide such information.
For more detail on timelines and who will be responsible for particular activities to support the strategic plan, we produced a separate operating plan. The immediate result of the exercise has been a greater awareness of, and understanding of the challenges facing the organization, and the possible responses that it can make. The plan helps to put the organization firmly behind the steering wheel, and allows it a mechanism for orderly change that will allow the agency to be responsive to its clientele, and responsive to changes in the environment in which it operates. We are currently working on the implementation of next steps for these plans. The authors wish to thank the many people who participated in these project.