ECO-201 - Overcoming the tyranny of the urgent: How to make meaningful progress in a world of constant emergencies

The most successful departments can proficiently balance working towards their strategic goals, monitoring and improving their performance levels, and handling the daily problems generated by the “whirlwind.” They utilize systems built around the tenants of intentionality and accountability. This presentation walks the end-user through how to actualize their strategic plans and move their departments towards achieving their program’s most desired outcomes while still leaving room to address the “emergencies” that we all face day-to-day. When done correctly, these measures naturally produce valuable annual program assessments. Based on the real-life experiences of several departments and the teachings of authors such as Simon Sinek and Sean Covey, these are tried-and-true approaches that can be applied at departments of any size.

Key takeaways include:

1. Methods for assigning and tracking strategic goal activation efforts
2. Templates for tracking strategic goal progress (both inward and outward-facing)
3. Methods for choosing and tracking program outcomes that align with the department’s mission, vision, and values
4. Various templates and examples for how to display outcome and key performance indicator data
5. A system for improving daily communication that leads to reduced redundancy and increased efficiency of both human resources and funds
6. An easy system for combining these efforts into useful annual program assessments.