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Parks	Ten Reasons for Strategic Planning
Miami-Dade county recently rolled out an extrodinarily ambitious parks and open-space master plan. Over the next half century, the Plan aims to re-green and reconnect a community that has spent much of the last 50 years carving up and paving the natural landscape. The plan is based on principles which encourage more people to walk and use bicycles through interconnected greenways. The plan is based upon the idea that people like to live in a park-like setting and that an improved quality of life creates a catalyst for community redevelopment thus improving the local economy. Dallas , Atlanta and Chicago have been pouring billions into improving open space to attract and keep major employers and development. There plans often mimic the famed Emerald Necklace of Boston, interconnected parks and green spaces that defiine the community. Canals, paths and roadway coridors have been delineated to form an interconnected network of greenways and blueways. Many counties and communities are now developing Master Plans for Parks Recreation and Tourism, in order to make optimum use of limited resources. Florida ”s Department of Community Affairs may soon act upon strict enforcement of the parks and Open Space Element of the State's Concurrency Management Mandate. This could require Parks and Open Space to be in place before any development can occur. Similarly, recent Florida (DEC 2008) legislation required that Public School seats (FISH workstations) must now be available before new development can occur. If a similar tactic is adopted for Parks and Open Space concurrency, many small communities will have to shut down development untill concurrency occurs. MJA Consulting's Tracy Mullins is an internationally recognised expert in Parks and Tourism Planning. Tracy was appointed to the International Geographical Union Commission on the Geograpgy of Tourism, Leisure and Global change and is an advisory panelist for National Geographic's ongoing research into the quality of world heritage sites, national parks and island ecosystems. His Florida projects involve the master planning of sports facilities, scenic highways initiatives, and heritage park development.	As an executive, whether you are a Planning Director, City Manager, Developer or Builder, you face a number of obstacles which can make your job difficult. Strategic planning for your organization can make your life simpler and your job more satisfying by reducing aggravation. 1. Are you tired of acting as a referee caused by turf battles between departments or job functional areas? Developing a strategic plan allows employees to come together to develop a shared base of knowledge and act as a team, to come to consensus on key company priorities and allocates resources based on these priorities. After engaging in the strategic planning process you can often retire your referee's striped jersey and whistles. 2. Do you find your employees do not get key projects accomplished throughout the year? Do you constantly have to re-assign projects? Strategic planning forces employees to act as a team selecting 8-10 key objectives to accomplish during the next 12 months. Once selected new opportunities or projects must be brought to the team for evaluation. If one project needs to be pushed ahead, then one of the other projects must be dropped. Adding projects without evaluating what is already on the plate causes the team to suffer under the weight of too many initiatives. 3. If your team is not executing your vision. The strategic planning process allows the team to analyze market trends and competitor's reactions to those trends with your company's strengths and weaknesses. In this way the team develops a shared vision of the future and buys into executing plans to achieve the vision. 4. Your team requires professional development in order for the company to move to the next level. Strategic planning allows employees to see the big picture and enables them to lead given company priorities rather than specific functional requirements. It is a great way to develop your team and their management capabilities. 5. Your organization is stagnant and you need to find new avenues for growth. Strategic planning facilitates growth by looking at new markets, new products and services for existing markets and new ways to leverage existing strategic competencies. As a team you develop a large number of possibilities and cull the list down to the few that are do-able with low risk and high return and focused on your skill set. 6. Your team is repeatedly blocked by unexpected events. Strategic planning evaluates risk in two areas internal risk and external threats. Internal risks examine the many and varied ways we shoot ourselves in the foot. External threats are outside forces over which you have no control. Solutions are often based around changing the set of your sails (organizational change) because you cannot change the direction of the wind (external threats). 7. Your team is striving for perfection and not focusing on the key areas of the business like time and the bottom line. Strategic planning ranks strengths and weaknesses, focusing on reinforcing your strengths and only focusing on eliminating the weaknesses that are critical to your future success. 8. Competitors are outwitting you in the marketplace. Key to strategic planning is business intelligence, understanding your competitors: where they are today and what they are planning to do in the future. This information allows the team to make informed decisions faster than competitors giving your organization a competitive advantage. 9. Your team does not see a significant shift in economy or political climate. Strategic planning provides the discipline for your team to look at all external forces--markets, competition, technology, suppliers, economic and regulatory--which allow them to evaluate, internalize and plan strategies and tactics to deal with a rapidly changing environment. 10. Technology shifts and you are now behind the curve in the use of new software or hardware now critical to mission success. Strategic Planning provides the process by which team members can bring new technology to the attention of the team and to force the team to develop possible technological solutions so that your organization does not get caught flatfooted. MJA Consulting Acts as a facilitator of the Strategic Planning Process using retreats, charettes, and training forums for public sector, private sector and not-for-profit organizations

Parks

Ten Reasons for Strategic Planning

Miami-Dade county recently rolled out an extrodinarily ambitious parks and open-space master plan. Over the next half century, the Plan aims to re-green and reconnect a community that has spent much of the last 50 years carving up and paving the natural landscape. The plan is based on principles which encourage more people to walk and use bicycles through interconnected greenways. The plan is based upon the idea that people like to live in a park-like setting and that an improved quality of life creates a catalyst for community redevelopment thus improving the local economy. Dallas , Atlanta and Chicago have been pouring billions into improving open space to attract and keep major employers and development. There plans often mimic the famed Emerald Necklace of Boston, interconnected parks and green spaces that defiine the community. Canals, paths and roadway coridors have been delineated to form an interconnected network of greenways and blueways.

Many counties and communities are now developing Master Plans for Parks Recreation and Tourism, in order to make optimum use of limited resources. Florida ”s Department of Community Affairs may soon act upon strict enforcement of the parks and Open Space Element of the State's Concurrency Management Mandate. This could require Parks and Open Space to be in place before any development can occur. Similarly, recent Florida (DEC 2008) legislation required that Public School seats (FISH workstations) must now be available before new development can occur. If a similar tactic is adopted for Parks and Open Space concurrency, many small communities will have to shut down development untill concurrency occurs.

MJA Consulting's Tracy Mullins is an internationally recognised expert in Parks and Tourism Planning. Tracy was appointed to the International Geographical Union Commission on the Geograpgy of Tourism, Leisure and Global change and is an advisory panelist for National Geographic's ongoing research into the quality of world heritage sites, national parks and island ecosystems. His Florida projects involve the master planning of sports facilities, scenic highways initiatives, and heritage park development.

As an executive, whether you are a Planning Director, City Manager, Developer or Builder, you face a number of obstacles which can make your job difficult. Strategic planning for your organization can make your life simpler and your job more satisfying by reducing aggravation.

    1.    Are you tired of acting as a referee caused by turf battles between departments or job functional areas? Developing a strategic plan allows employees to come together to develop a shared base of knowledge and act as a team, to come to consensus on key company priorities and allocates resources based on these priorities. After engaging in the strategic planning process you can often retire your referee's striped jersey and whistles.

    2.    Do you find your employees do not get key projects accomplished throughout the year? Do you constantly have to re-assign projects? Strategic planning forces employees to act as a team selecting 8-10 key objectives to accomplish during the next 12 months. Once selected new opportunities or projects must be brought to the team for evaluation. If one project needs to be pushed ahead, then one of the other projects must be dropped. Adding projects without evaluating what is already on the plate causes the team to suffer under the weight of too many initiatives.

    3.    If your team is not executing your vision. The strategic planning process allows the team to analyze market trends and competitor's reactions to those trends with your company's strengths and weaknesses. In this way the team develops a shared vision of the future and buys into executing plans to achieve the vision.

    4.    Your team requires professional development in order for the company to move to the next level. Strategic planning allows employees to see the big picture and enables them to lead given company priorities rather than specific functional requirements. It is a great way to develop your team and their management capabilities.

    5.    Your organization is stagnant and you need to find new avenues for growth. Strategic planning facilitates growth by looking at new markets, new products and services for existing markets and new ways to leverage existing strategic competencies. As a team you develop a large number of possibilities and cull the list down to the few that are do-able with low risk and high return and focused on your skill set.

    6.    Your team is repeatedly blocked by unexpected events. Strategic planning evaluates risk in two areas internal risk and external threats. Internal risks examine the many and varied ways we shoot ourselves in the foot. External threats are outside forces over which you have no control. Solutions are often based around changing the set of your sails (organizational change) because you cannot change the direction of the wind (external threats).

    7.    Your team is striving for perfection and not focusing on the key areas of the business like time and the bottom line. Strategic planning ranks strengths and weaknesses, focusing on reinforcing your strengths and only focusing on eliminating the weaknesses that are critical to your future success.

    8.    Competitors are outwitting you in the marketplace. Key to strategic planning is business intelligence, understanding your competitors: where they are today and what they are planning to do in the future. This information allows the team to make informed decisions faster than competitors giving your organization a competitive advantage.

    9.    Your team does not see a significant shift in economy or political climate. Strategic planning provides the discipline for your team to look at all external forces--markets, competition, technology, suppliers, economic and regulatory--which allow them to evaluate, internalize and plan strategies and tactics to deal with a rapidly changing environment.

    10.    Technology shifts and you are now behind the curve in the use of new software or hardware now critical to mission success. Strategic Planning provides the process by which team members can bring new technology to the attention of the team and to force the team to develop possible technological solutions so that your organization does not get caught flatfooted.

MJA Consulting Acts as a facilitator of the Strategic Planning Process using retreats, charettes, and training forums for public sector, private sector and not-for-profit organizations

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