Critically Review of Strategic Plan, Article Review Example

Strategic Review of Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County’s Strategic Plan

Abstract

Strategic planning is an outline on where an organization wants to go and ultimately how it will achieve getting there.  The planning and execution of that plan is complex and fluid.  It requires rigorous analysis, effort, accountability and creating the direct connection between building the strategic plan and executing upon that plan.  The strategic plan of the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County lays out a two year plan from 2013 to 2015 and covers their prioritization, implementation of those priorities and how the organization is in alignment with the local and state agencies.  The review will focus on effectiveness of the strategic plan to meet the goals and objectives therein.

Strategic Plan Critical Review

Strategic planning is the organization’s way of creating a foundation and roadmap for where the organization wants to be, as an entire entity, within a defined number of years.  This plan defines the primary objectives, prioritizes the main focuses and creates the consensus of the stakeholders in the organization.  The plan’s intention is not to define each goal and objective along the strategic path but to clearly define the future intent of the organization so that the operational and tactical can be successfully aligned to drive the organization forward.  With that being said, the strategic plan is fluid and dynamic which in turns means the organization will need to be adaptable and agile in turn.  The importance of the strategic plan besides the actual plan itself is the fact that the strategic plan is what brings the vision of the organization to a more tangible and actionable itinerary.  Understanding this purpose is important when reviewing the strategic plan and determining its significance.  When this type of plan is created, it is drawn up by the leaders of the organization.  This is done so by pulling in all the experiences regarding internal and external opportunities and threats, creates a plan that would be workable by the lower echelons of the organization and takes into consideration the current standing of the organization.  The strategic plan must show a value to the people of the organization and that is how it will be effective and drive the changes that are warranted by the leaders of the organization.  The strategic plan must follow a general set of principles that would create the framework for the document.  These basic rules include understanding the current health of the organization, the health of the external environment, a SWOT analysis, review of core competencies, measures of success, time phase and review process.  The strategic planning process has a framework including ten key areas.  John M. Bryson outlines these areas based on the foundation that all activities must lead to action, results and evaluation (Bryson, 1995).  While Bryson presents an approach to public and non-profit organizations for strategic planning his outline on the approach can help facilitate the understanding and review of an organization’s strategic plan.

The ten focal points outlined and reviewed within the strategic review follow Bryson’s framework.  These include a core strategic plan that is approved and agreed upon within the organization.  This includes policies and procedures that are mandated by leadership to help direct and guide the organization.  The mission and values are outlined within the plan to allow for a consistent message to the organization.  A risk assessment would be conducted of the internal and external environments through the use of a SWOT analysis to identify the strategic issues and ultimately provide guidance on how to mitigate those risks.  With all the areas reviewed and assessed the activities must then have an implementation plan to execute to the mission of the organization, provide an action to reach for the vision and ultimately align the executable actions to the strategic vision of the leadership.  During the implementation phase, Bryson focuses on measuring and remaining flexible within the implementation to ensure changes in actions could be completed to take advantage of the opportunities and threats within the internal and external environments (Bryson, 1995).

Critical Review Introduction

The Florida Department of Health (DOH) in Pinellas County’ Strategic plan was drafted and approved with a committee group.  The purpose of utilizing a committee to review and approve the strategic plan is to allow the multiple areas within the organization to have input into the planning process of the organization.  The complexity of the organization is built by six health departments with 600 employees (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).  In order to gather the appropriate amount of input and understanding the Executive Management Team (EMT) was developed and includes the CHD Director, Assistant Director, and Division Directors for Administrative Services, Clinical Services and Community Health Promotion, Disease Control and Health Protection, Human Resources and Training, Information Technology, Maternal and Child Health Home Visiting Services, and Planning and Performance Management (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).  The team ensured that they became accountable for creating the strategic plan by allotting time every week at specific times and junctions to focus solely on the creating and implementation of the strategic plan.  The expected outcome of their meetings was a strategic plan that encompassed priorities, goals, develop strategies and formulate objectives.

One of the primary focus areas within the strategic review or long range planning review includes the stakeholder analysis.  This includes both the external and internal environmental assessment.  These strategic issues embody the definition of conflict management (Bryson, 1988).  By understanding the external and internal environment the planning committee could assess, mitigate and potentially exploit their environmental opportunities.  These areas of opportunity are not reviewed or implemented within the strategic plan.  Within the strategy sessions the factors were not considered during the planning nor documented in the strategic plan.  This could ultimately lead to factors hindering the plans of the organization.  The organization did start a foundation for risk management by initiating a SWOT analysis.  The strategic plan is only successful if there is an implementation proceeding.  The idea of a strategy must have the action of implementation following.

Mission and Vision

Mission: To protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).

Vision: To be the healthiest state in the nation (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).

Florida’s DOH in Pinellas County’s mission statement is well articulated in that it is taking on a very broad stance on the exact purpose of their county.  While Pinellas County is only one area within Florida, their mission statement is taking on the responsibilities of the entire state.  While it is understandable that the county would not turn away other Floridians, in the same stance, would it turn down those of a Kentuckian there on vacation?  The purpose of that last question is to set the tone that the mission statement is too broad and overreaches the intent of Pinellas County’s purpose.  The purpose of the strategy plan is to outline the strategy for the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County and not the entire state of Florida.  With this mission statement the tone for the 600 employees is already extended.  The statement should state “all people in Pinellas County” as opposed to “all people in Florida” (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).

The vision of the organization is directionally where the organization’s vision wants to go but it is holding the same faults as the mission statement.  The responsibility of the state does not fall solely on one county.  The vision statement should contain a focus on content in which the county is responsible while also being ambitious in their goals.  The vision needs to be descriptive, clear, concise and consistent with the mission statement.  The mission and vision set the tone for the organization and the strategic plan must coincide and align with those two areas that senior leadership developed.  The strategic plan does seem to have a high influence from senior leadership with very little input from the other echelons throughout the organization.  The vision must be effective and lead to the specific, measurable and achievable actions which would then be measured and reported to create visibility to the progress of achieving the vision.  This would be directly in-line with the eighth and ninth steps within the strategic planning framework of Bryson.  The input from other stakeholders would be represented by the leadership committees.

SWOT Analysis

The next area that the strategic plan addresses is the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) for the organization (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).  The SWOT analysis provides the strategic plan a great depth and insight into the organization from the eyes of the leadership.  The leadership is the primary provisionary of the ideas and inputs to the strategic plan.  The EMT is a composition based upon the needs of the stakeholders and inherently represents all opinions and matters of the organization.This type of delegation and representation can become a threat based on the ability for the group representation to appropriately convey the thoughts and ideas of the organization as a whole.  This type of vision is only present within the strategic plan and provides the organization a great deal of information into how leadership sees the inner workings of the DOH in Pinellas County.  The Executive Management Team (EMT) understands what it must undertake within each area in regard to creating a competitive advantage within the strengths, overcoming or mitigating the risks within the weaknesses, seizing the opportunities and eliminating the threats.  This is crucial to the business and is successfully created by the EMT because it provides a directive to the organization to focus on key points within the SWOT analysis and to divulge from making assumptions to the intentions of leadership.  The foresight of the leadership team to identify those aspects of the SWOT analysis that are strategic in nature allows for the flexibility required to conduct business in a fluid environment.

The SWOT analysis is completed in a significant vacuum that only includes those areas of responsibility directly related to those on the EMT.  If there are significant internal and external issues throughout the organization that the EMT does not know, the issues will not be addressed in the strategic planning session.  Key focal points or areas for opportunity could be unaccounted for or misaligned with the key performance objectives the organization needs.  The SWOT analysis does take into consideration areas that are key in progressing the organization toward the key objectives and vision they have but the view may be slightly skewed due to the myopic view the EMT represents.

Strategy Map

The strategy map builds the connection between the priorities, goals and strategies visually and thus giving the increased usability of this document a high rating.  This area is of great use due in part by the fact that each of the prioritized areas has specific goals and those goals are aligned with the strategic intent of the EMT.  Bryson focuses not only on the development of the framework of the strategic plan but also creating an environment for making the plan successful.  The organization should include within the strategic map engagement points and critical team members with definitive responsibilities.  These include a process sponsor, a strategic champion, planning team, risk/exception plans, flexibility within the strategic planning process, communication processes and performance indicators to track status (Bryson, 1988).

The strategy map aligns the SWOT analysis with the goals and objectives outlined by the EMT.  These representatives of the organization planned a direct route with measurable and achievable milestones to drive the organization towards their vision.  The strategy map lays a basic foundation for the organization to operate.  Reviewing the map, it provides a generalized outline of what needs to be accomplished.  This general outline provides the appropriate amount of guidance while also allowing the organization to operate and make decisions to meet those objectives.  In this case, the EMT has planned the course of action but also allowed the key contributors throughout the organization to work and perform to achieve those milestones.

Strategic Implementation Planning

The strategic implementation planning session held by the EMT created a valuable, actionable and realistic vision to the strategic plan.  This outlined the prioritization within each functional area, Health Protection and Promotion, Financial and Business Excellence, Service to Customers and Community as well as Workforce Development (Armstrong and Scott, 2013).  Each one of these areas is strategic focal points within the organization. The overarching aspects of this section include very detailed agendas for the team members accountable for each area. These areas take the high level goals outlined in the strategy map.  These goals are specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and time-based implementation strategies for each goal and sub-strategic execution plan.  Each goal, such as protecting the population from health threats, has specific objectives assigned.  These objectives would then be aligned within the organization to appropriate area to accomplish these tasks. The point of having this definitive outline is that the leadership at each level of the organization now understands what they need to accomplish over the next three years. The downside is that these are very specific in nature and do not lend themselves to flexibility, budget constraints or other outside forces that may not be recognized within the timeframe the document was written. Other factors may include organizational realignment, healthcare rules or regulation updates, governmental policy changes or unforeseen acts of nature. The goals are high level statements that are fairly vague until the objectives are aligned. The difficult part of the strategic goals and aligned objectives includes the attainability and control the organization has over the objectives.  The parameters and metrics are pre-defined and could represent an unachievable measurable without the input of the multiple areas that will be executing the plan.  In this case, the strategic plan’s objectives should be redefined at specific times or during adoption so that those working the tactical operations have the opportunity to provide feedback to the goals and objectives that they are responsible.  This redefinition has not been put in place thus far within the strategic plan.

Conclusion

The strategic plan for the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County has significant intentions of taking their section of the Department of Health to a higher level of execution within the health and wellness for Florida.  The main areas of concern and areas which need to be addressed include over-scoping their mission and vision.  These areas need to focus solely on the Pinellas County.  The SWOT analysis as well as the strategic map were critical to the strategic plan and well executed.  Aligning the prioritized focal areas of the county and providing guidance on what needs to maintain focus during the strategic timeframe allows for the leadership below the EMT to conduct their operations accordingly.  The other high point is that there specificity to the action items.  The objective of the strategic plan is not to define the project timelines and milestones but to define what needed to be accomplished during the strategic timeline.  The dissemination and provisioning to the organization is not defined within the plan and there is an opportunity for improvement in that regard.  Within the implementation and monitoring there should be defined indicators to align the objectives of the plan with the key indicators measuring progress.  The operational and tactical activities should be left to those on those levels of the organization.  A milestone review plan with feedback on those plans should have been put in place by the EMT.

With an organization planning for a long term implementation of key metrics, objectives and framework, the definition of the scope of the work has a parameter that is vague and could potentially negate the efforts put forth in executing the plan.  The plan extends through six health departments and serves a wide range of public health needs.  The scope is not defined as to how many are available or need health services, which of the objectives are priority for the organization or how the metrics assigned within the strategic objectives are weighted in regard to the importance within the organization.  The high impact targets of the organization is not clearly defined within the strategic plan and the high value priorities need to be addressed and distributed through the organization through the strategic plan distribution process.

References

Armstrong, J., & Scott, R. (2013). Florida department of health in pinellas county: strategic plan.  Retrieved from: http://www.pinellashealth.com/pdf/DOH-Pinellas_Strategic_Plan_2013_2015.pdf

Bryson, J. (1988). Long range planning. Retrieved from: http://docushare.usc.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-8775/bryson+-+strategic+planning+for+non-profits.pdf

Bryson, J. (1995). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: a guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass. Print.