visioning and strategic planning: fundamentals and foundations for court leaders

Visioning and Strategic PlanningVisioning and Strategic Planning

1National Association for Court Management

Visioning and Strategic Planning:Fundamentals and Foundations

for Court Leaders

National Association For Court Management



Three Day OverviewDay One• Vision and Strategic Planning Fundamentals• KSAs and Readiness• A Nine-Step Approach• Step 1 – Plan Initiation (Fundamentals, Examples, Exercises,

Lessons)Day Two• Step 2 – Mission• Step 3 – Vision• Step 4 – Trends and Scenarios• Step 5 – Capacity Assessment• Steps 6 and 7 – Strategic Issues and StrategiesDay Three• Step 8 – Implementation/Operationalize• Step 9 – Institutionalization and Monitoring



Session Learning Objectives: Overall

Participants will be able to:

• understand the key concepts of visioning and strategic planning;

• describe the motivations for visioning and strategic planning in

the Courts;

• determine if their court is ready to undertake a visioning and strategic planning process;



Session Learning Objectives: Overall


• understand the scope of the KSAs needed for effective visioning and strategic planning; and

• have experience working with a nine-step visioning and strategic planning process.



Day One Agenda

8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Introductions and Session Overview

-- agenda-- outcomes

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Vision and Strategic Planning Fundamentals

-- definitions-- motivations-- KSAs

10:00 – 10:15 a.m. Break



Day One Agenda

10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. KSAs and Readiness: Is Now The Right Time For Visioning and

Strategic Planning In Your Court

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Approach and Nine-Step Process Overview

3:00 – 3:15 p.m. Break



Day One Agenda3:15 – 4:15 p.m. Step 1 – Plan Initiation

-- fundamentals-- examples-- exercise

4:15 – 4:30 p.m. Wrap-Up

4:30 p.m. Adjourn



Session Learning Objectives:Day One


• understand the key concepts of visioning and strategic planning;

• describe the motivations for visioning and strategic planning in the Courts;+

• determine if their court is ready to undertake a visioning and strategic planning process;



Session Learning Objectives:Day One


• understand the scope of the KSAs needed for effective visioning and strategic planning; and

• have experience working with Step 1, initiating a strategic plan, in nine-step visioning and strategic planning process.



Definitions

• Visioning is a process for defining a preferred future for a court -- what a court desires to become or what it should be at its best.

• Strategic planning is an ongoing, disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what a court is, what it does, and why it does it.



Motivations

• Visioning and strategic planning supports local trial court autonomy by placing the onus for change and the responsibility for creating it squarely on the trial court’s judges and staff.

• The processes help build consensus within the court and between the court and its justice partners and community leaders about what the court will become, and when and how it will do it.



Motivations

• A strategic plan develops priorities and goals that are clear and accepted throughout the court and justice system.

• A vision of the future, the long-range strategic plan and its implementation help ensure continuity when the leadership of the court changes



Motivations

• Strategic planning is an acceptable change and alignment mechanism modeled by courts across the

nation.

• Strategic planning supports a positive response to public demand for increased court accountability.



General NACM Model



Core Competencies: Know and Be Able To Do

• Court Purposes, Environment, and Processes

• Fundamentals

• Organizational Foundation

• Change and Alignment

• Strategic Thinking



Know and Be Able To Do

Court Purposes, Environment, and Processes• Visioning and Strategic Planning require understanding of the

purposes of courts and how court management delivers on the American promise of equal justice under law, due process and judicial independence and impartiality. Visioning and Strategic Planning help court leaders, their justice and community partners ensure that the future of the courts and the justice system matches their enduring purposes and responsibilities. Their plans take into account alternative and current court jurisdiction, structure, and performance; case processing; and, the types and numbers of cases being processed.




Fundamentals• When implementing visioning and strategic planning, court

planning teams draw upon proven principles, methods, and techniques. They use the most appropriate visioning and

strategic planning tools.




Organizational Foundation• The court must have the capacity to produce a long-term

strategic direction built through an inclusive and collaborative visioning and planning process. Adequate organizational foundation produces understanding and commitment about what the court, their justice partners, and the community wish to achieve, how they will do it, and when.




Change and Alignment• Visioning and Strategic Planning facilitate change; link

visioning, planning and action; and move the court, its judges, staff, and their justice partners in a common direction toward shared commitments.

Strategic Thinking• When carrying out Visioning and Strategic Planning court

leaders think and act futuristically and strategically, by anticipating and promoting change.



Core Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Court Purposes, Environment, and Processes Core Competency

• Fundamentals

• Organizational Foundation

• Change and Alignment

• Strategic Thinking

(See the Visioning and Strategic Curriculum Guidelines http://www.nacmnet.org/CCCG/cccg_10_corecompetency_visioning.html)



Court Readiness For Visioning and Strategic Planning

• People throughout the court have time to participate in developing and following through on the strategic plan.

• There is an urgent and compelling need – or pressing reason or opportunity – to do strategic planning.

• There are several champions or sponsors for the visioning and strategic planning process and the completed strategic plan.




• Court leaders, including judges, executives and managers, are genuinely interested in and willing to critically assess court performance.

• Judges, leaders, and managers are willing to change the priorities of the court and do work differently in the future.

• There is stability in the court’s leadership.




• Based on the strategic plan, the court is willing and likely to shift how its resources are distributed and utilized.

• Court leaders will collectively work together to follow-through on the strategic plan.

• The court’s organizational culture supports an open and inclusive planning process that will determine the court’s long term direction and priorities.




• The outcomes to be achieved and the benefits to be gained by developing and following through on a vision and strategic plan are clear.



Nine-Step Process

• Step 1– Initiate a Planning Process.

• Step 2 – Define Mission.

• Step 3 – Establish Vision.

• Step 4 – Conduct Trends Analysis and Construct Scenarios.

• Step 5 – Conduct Organizational Assessment.



Nine-Step Process

• Step 6 – Identify and Define Strategic Issues or Key Results Areas.

• Step 7 – Develop Comprehensive Strategies.

• Step 8 – Operationalize the Strategic Plan.

• Step 9 – Monitor and Evaluate Progress and Update Plan as Needed.



Step 1– Initiate Planning Process Fundamentals

• Carefully select the appropriate individuals to participate in the planning effort.

• Develop a common understanding of the process, purpose, scope, benefits, drawbacks, expectations, and desirable outcomes of long range strategic planning.



Step 1– Initiate Planning Process Examples

• In-court vs. a broader-based planning process?

• Who should be involved in the planning process?

• Type and length of the planning process?

• How to involve users & stakeholders of the court?



Step 1– Initiate Planning Process Examples

• Who will facilitate the strategic planning effort?

• Who will be primarily responsible for tracking progress and monitoring performance on the plan?



Step 1– Initiate Planning Process Lessons Learned

• Establish commitment of top leadership (e.g., executive team such as the chief judge, other judges, court administrator, senior managers).

• Select the appropriate planning committee.

• Conduct an introductory session on visioning and long range strategic planning.



Step 1– Initiate Planning Process Lessons Learned

• Set an appropriate meeting schedule.

• Appoint a strategic planning coordinator.

• Use experienced external facilitators.

• Find/use appropriate meeting facilities.



Day One Wrap-Up

• Were the learning objectives addressed?

• What was most useful?

• Process and style modifications for day two?



Day Two Agenda8:30 – 8:45 a.m. Introductions and Session Overview


8:45 – 10:15 a.m. Mission, Vision, Values-- fundamentals-- examples-- exercises

10:15 – 10:30 a.m. Break

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Trends and Scenarios-- fundamentals-- examples-- exercises



Day Two Agenda12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Capacity Assessment-- fundamentals

-- examples

-- exercises

2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Strategic Issues and Strategies

-- fundamentals

-- examples

-- exercises



Day Two Agenda3:00 – 3:15 p.m. Break

3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Strategic Issues and Strategies (cont.)

3:45 – 4:15 p.m. Lessons for Sustaining Planning Effort

4:15 – 4:30 p.m. Wrap Up



Day Two Learning Objectives

• Have experience working with:

-- mission, vision, values;

-- trends and scenarios;

-- capacity assessment; and

-- strategic issues and strategies.

• Understand lessons learned in other planning efforts about how to sustain process.



Mission, Vision, Values Alignment

• Key values need to be reflected in Court mission and vision statements.



Values Examples• Integrity – follow the law, be impartial, and act

respectfully towards court users and colleagues.

• Equal Access – effectively serve all community members regardless of where they live, their ethnicity, income, or education, and consistently work to identify and remove barriers to court access and service.

• Respect and Dignity – be respectful to all those who come before the courts and work for the courts.



Values Examples• Independent Judicial Decision Making – serve as a

check and balance on legislative and executive power, maintain independence in light of state and local political considerations and public opinion, and resolve cases on their merits.

• Fair and Efficient Administration of Justice – do individual justice in individual cases, and use all resources efficiently.



Values Examples• Awareness and Responsiveness to User Needs --

anticipate and develop services for meeting the changing needs of the community, court users, and court personnel.

• Professionalism -- employ skilled, well-trained, neutral, staff.

• Innovative -- incorporate new approaches and technologies into all aspects of branch operations.



Values Examples• Understandable -- provide information and conduct

business in a manner that can be understood by court users.

• Protect Rights and Confidentiality -- protect individual rights and liberties while protecting the confidentiality of court participants.

• Work With The Community -- develop and implement services in partnership with the community.



Values Examples• Thorough and Comprehensive -- provide a range of

forums and services to meet diverse community needs.

• Collaboration and Integration – work across agencies with the common focus of most effectively serving the community.

• Transparency – assure that decisions and work processes are transparent to the public and other agencies.



Values Examples• Rehabilitate – Work toward the betterment of

offenders.

• Safety and Well Being – Promote safety and well-

being throughout the community.



Step 2 – Mission Fundamentals • A mission statement defines an organization’s purpose -- why

it exists. It helps an organization focus on what is important and provides a reference point for developing and prioritizing goals and strategies.

• Developing a mission statement includes two very important steps: (1) identifying and assessing the court’s formal and informal mandates and (2) conducting a stakeholder/customer/user analysis which includes identifying the court’s stakeholders and primary customers/users, identifying and discussing their expectations, and assessing how well the court is doing in meeting the expectations of its customers/users and stakeholders.



Step 2 – Mission ExamplesThe Mission of the AAA Court is to:

• Provide effective and timely resolution of legal matters, assuring dignified and fair treatment to all participants while promoting respect for the justice system and maintaining the independence of the judiciary.



Step 2 – Mission ExamplesMission For Serving Children

The mission of the courts of the BBB Judicial District when protecting children and serving juveniles is to:

• promote the health and welfare of children and their families;

• provide effective and timely resolution of legal matters that meet the needs of children, families, and the community; and

• assure dignified and fair treatment of all court participants.



Step 2 – Mission Exercise

• Draft Mission Statement Using Template



Step 3 – Vision Fundamentals• Develop a vision statement. Use a visionary

process to define a preferred future. The vision should represent what an organization desires to become or what it should be at its best.

• A vision statement defines a future ideal state; it describes the direction the court intends to move towards.



Step 3 – Vision ExamplesTo provide the highest quality of Court services to the people of

AAA County, the AAA District and Superior Courts will:

• administer a comprehensive trial Court system which coordinates the services necessary for an effective and efficient judicial system;

• work as an independent branch of government alongside other branches of government to achieve common goals;

• educate the justice system community, legislative and executive agencies and the public about the Courts;

• build respect and confidence in the Courts;




AAA County, the AAA District and Superior Courts will:

• Provide a uniform and predictable level of service;

• Provide efficient, convenient, and safe facilities;

• Maintain a diverse and professional workforce, and reflect the diversity of the community in the workplace;

• Seek out and use modern technology and equipment;




AAA County, the AAA District and Superior Courts will: • respect the diversity of the community;

• promote the value of families and the needs of families in Court;

• maintain sentencing options so that offenders can be sentenced appropriately; and

• provide resources, such as Probation services, to hold convicted offenders accountable for their actions.



Step 3 – Vision ExamplesThe Courts of the BBB Judicial District will provide a court system

where informed litigants have an opportunity to succeed in meeting the expectations for good behavior that have been established by well-trained judicial officers and justice system personnel. The Court’s vision for protecting children and serving juveniles and families stresses that:

• court participants will understand the processes in which they are involved, will understand and accept their case’s outcomes, and will comply with court orders;

• litigants will be able to access treatment, training, and support resources within the community to help them comply with court orders;





• court case work processes will be convenient to use, timely, and accessible to litigants across the District;

• judicial officers and court personnel will be well-trained about how best to serve children, juveniles, and families in court;

• court participants will be treated with respect and dignity;





• juvenile offenders will be offered opportunities for rehabilitation;

• court services will be customer focused and culturally appropriate;

• the infrastructure supporting case processing – including technology, work processes, and facilities – will be effective and will assure that court and community resources are used efficiently; and





• the Court will know how well it is serving children, juveniles and their families and will be able to report, routinely, its performance to the public.



Step 3 – Vision Exercise

• Draft Vision Statement Using Template



Step 4 – Trends and Scenarios Fundamentals

• Understand the external court environment. This includes assessing the social, political, economic, and technological trends generating demands on the justice system and on courts.

• A trend is a series of related events or activities that appear to have a demonstrable direction over time.

• Construct future scenarios. A scenario is a history of the future. It is a fact-based speculation about what might happen in the future. The scenario should reflect the anticipated interactions of key trends and the resulting plausible future scenarios.



Step 4 – Trends Examples

• Review Trends Summary Handout



Step 4 – Scenario Example

• Review Scenario Handout



Step 4 – Trend and Scenario Exercise

• Review Scenario Handout



Step 5 – Organizational Assessment Fundamentals

• Examine court structure, organization, procedures, and performance. This includes assessing the structure and organization of the court and other justice system agencies, case management and case processing procedures, the practices and work habits of court staff, court and justice systems resources, and jurisdictional characteristics.

• Detail organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This includes identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in light of the court’s capacity to achieve its mission and vision, and deal with likely future demands.



Step 5 – Organizational Assessment Fundamentals

• An organizational assessment helps to determine a court’s capacity to deal effectively with current and likely future demands.



Step 5 – Organizational Assessment Examples

• Review Assessment Handout



Step 5 – Organizational Assessment Exercise

• Prepare Assessment Using Template



Step 6 – Strategic Issue Identification Fundamentals

• Identify strategic issues. This includes describing the issues, distinguishing strategic issues from immediate problems and solutions, developing standards of issue severity, and prioritizing issues.

• Strategic issues are internal or external issues that are fundamentally important to the court. They are often the underlying or more encompassing issues of what superficially appear to be numerous unrelated or loosely related problems. Strategic issues typically are the convergence of trends, policy choices, and underlying conditions and tensions that can affect the ability of a court to move in a desired direction.



Step 6 – Strategic Issue Examples

• Review Strategic Issue and Strategy Handout



Step 7 – Strategy Development Fundamentals

• Identify goals and objectives for each of the strategic issues. This includes identifying several goals for each of the issues and several objectives for each of the goals. It also includes prioritizing the goals and objectives.

• Strategies are comprehensive, institutional responses to the strategic issues. This step is the heart of strategic planning.

• The strategies should include specific goals (i.e., broad statements that define the desired, end targets that the court will strive to achieve over the next three to five years) and objectives (i.e., concrete statements that describe what needs to be done to accomplish the goals or the means for achieving the goals).



Step 7 – Strategy Examples

• Review Strategic Issue and Strategy Handout



Lessons For Maintaining Momentum

• Sustain ongoing leadership involvement, encouragement, visibility, and feedback.

• Build continuity between the planning sessions and planning steps.

• Inform and involve staff and external stakeholders including users of the court system.

• Promote healthy group dynamics.



Day Two Wrap-Up



• Process and style modifications for day three?



Day Three Overview8:30 – 8:45 a.m. Introductions and Session Overview


8:45 – 10:15 a.m. Plan Implementation-- fundamentals-- examples-- exercises

10:15 – 10:30 a.m. Break

10:30 – 11:45 a.m. Monitoring and institutionalizing-- fundamentals-- examples-- exercises

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Wrap-up12:00 noon Adjourn



Day Three Learning Objectives

• Have experience working with:

-- plan implementation; and

-- institutionalizing strategic management.

• Understand lessons learned in other planning efforts about how to institutionalize strategic planning and management.



Step 8 – Plan Implementation Fundamentals

• Prepare a 2–5 year strategic and long-range plan that specifies structural, organizational, and procedural changes, operational goals, unit responsibilities, action steps, activities, and time frames for goal implementation.

• Prepare and promulgate annual operational plans that specify the year’s priority projects, operational goals, action steps, individual responsibilities, time frames, and performance indicators.



Step 8 – Plan Implementation Fundamentals

• Prepare and promulgate individual performance plans that specify individual goals, action steps, time frames, and performance standards.



Step 8 – Plan Implementation Examples

• Review Strategic Plan Contents Handout

• Review Priority Project Description Handout



Step 8 – Plan Implementation Exercise

• Prepare Implementation Strategy Using Template



Step 9 – Monitoring and Updating Fundamentals

• Establish a monitoring system that includes indicators of organizational performance and movement.

• Report and review performance indicators including organizational and individuals’ accomplishments.

• Revise strategies as needed.



Step 9 – Monitoring and Updating Fundamentals

• Successful implementation of the strategic plan requires moving from strategic planning to strategic management. When this occurs, courts routinely evaluate their general performance and the performance of each of its units in light of its long term goals and overall vision.



Institutionalization Lessons

• Maintain top leadership support and involvement.

• Involve staff.

• Designate a strategic planning coordinator whose responsibility it is to monitor progress and accomplishments.

• Conduct annual review meetings.



Institutionalization Lessons

• Assure ongoing development of staff.

• Assertively implement/bring about organizational change.



Day Three Wrap Up



• Process and style modifications for entire three days?

visioning and strategic planning: fundamentals and foundations for court leaders

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