Program Highlight - Choosing Our Direction

That’s because for the past couple years he’s been involved in Choosing Our Direction, Penn State Cooperative Extension’s own version of long-term goal setting.

“Effective groups and organizations have clear goals and objectives and are focused on working toward accomplishing these,” Ladlee points out in program materials that he’s grown to know very well. “Choosing Our Direction is a strategic planning tool that helps groups identify who they are, what they currently do, what they want to do in the future, and develop a usable plan for getting there.”

He’s made believers of the folks at Ferguson Township, the largest geographic and second most populated municipality in Centre County. A year after township officials completed the process at a two-day out-of-the-office retreat, Public Works Director Dave Modricker says, “We used the process that Jim Ladlee laid out and we came up with a vision and mission statement with goals and time frames.” The Ferguson Township mission statement is an internal document that promises cost effective, professional services to the public, he says. Neither the statement nor the process that helped develop it has been flaunted to the public because, he says, “We hope it is reflected in our actions.”

When the new ideals were handed out to township employees, one long-timer gave it a big thumbs-up. Modricker says change isn’t always easy to accept but he recalls the fellow saying, “We should have done this a long time ago.” Ladlee says the greatest rewards for those who present the Choosing Our Direction program come from knowing that a group is making positive organizational change.

The program is available all over the state and for all kinds of groups, including municipal and civic, both large and small. Ladlee has facilitated the program for conservation districts, a county extension group and the American Public Works Association Central Pennsylvania Chapter. Brian Van Norman, director of chapter relations, thanked him in a letter of appreciation, saying, “I've attended and facilitated strategic planning sessions in the past. Often times these sessions have lost their focus or the exercises the planning members participate in don't connect in being able to create a substantial plan, resulting in "tweaking" the current plan for another few years. (Y)our session was fantastic and resulted in a productive planning session for the chapter leadership,” he wrote.

Neal Fogle of Montour County has facilitated the Choosing Our Direction program for conservation districts, a county historical society and a county planning office. “It’s for any type of organization that needs to look at where it wants to head,” he says. The length of time involved depends on how quickly a group can get together, how dedicated they are and how the resulting committees handle the follow-through. Throughout the process, the group will evaluate the organization both from the inside and as it’s viewed from the outside. Stakeholders, people from the community who have a stake in the organization, will be asked for input. Evaluations will be made of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Once all the pertinent information is gathered, it will be condensed, categorized and prioritized, Fogle says. Some seemingly small things—like reality checks and assigning someone to take the lead in making sure goals aren’t forgotten—help keep the process moving. Program facilitators can be involved as much or as little as the organization feels necessary, Fogle says.

Bill Shuffstall facilitates Choosing Our Direction across the Keystone state. For more than a decade, he’s done it for Chambers, Ys, United Ways, recreation authorities, cities and their councils and professional staffs. The program, he says, was developed using traditional strategic planning methodology. “Most strategic planning is done by businesses, but the concepts transfer very well to the public sector.”

The process begins with identifying an organization’s purpose, Shuffstall says. Is it a formal organization with by-laws or the offspring of another group? “In many cases, individuals get involved with these groups and they don’t understand what their responsibilities are and what powers and authority they have.” Members of organizations need to ask themselves a few basic questions from time to time, Shuffstall says. What do we do? What issues are we working on? How effective is it internally? How are we organized? A second tier of awareness should include a listing of external forces and factors affecting the organization, he says.

A recreation board may want to focus on recreational needs and a planning board may need to open lines of communication with its municipality, Shuffstall says. “We need to focus on efforts where we have responsibility. “One of the big things (for a facilitator) is to help them focus as a group … (so) they can see the forest and get in and work in the trees,” he says. “Many organizations are being asked to do more with less,” Shuffstall says. Often, they realize that what they used to do isn’t going to work anymore. Modern times keep the program going strong, he says. “There is a growing demand for this kind of program across the state.”

Ladlee says one hundred percent of people who responded to a questionnaire about the program said it helped their organization use or develop a mission statement, vision statement and organizational objective action steps. Ninety-four percent said it helped them develop organizational goals and objectives. And more than 80 percent said the strategic planning retreats helped them with priority setting, establishing new programs/tasks, and establishing or utilizing new partnerships.

by Linda Hudkins

Originally published March 2007