For many local government leaders, developing a strategic plan is a marathon. Months—sometimes even more than a year—are spent getting to the finish line. Multiple meetings are held collaborating with staff, governing body members, and other stakeholders. Workshops are conducted. Data is gathered and analyzed. And finally, a vision and goals are created. 

When the final document is adopted by the department head for a departmental strategic plan, or by the board or council for an agency-wide plan, there is a natural inclination to exhale, put the document on the shelf, and return to the “real work” of the day-to-day.

But as any experienced manager knows, adoption is not the end point. It is the starting gun. The success of a strategic plan does not live in the magnitude of its goals; it lives in the hearts and minds of the staff who must execute it. To move a strategic plan from a static document to an operational roadmap, you need more than a vision; you need a relentless, intentional communication rollout.

This article provides some tips to ensure the strategic plan is not one that gathers dust and, rather, is one that can drive transformation. The difference: How the “why” is communicated to the “who” and “when” it is done.

The “Simple and Smart” Philosophy

A common pitfall in strategic planning is complexity. If a strategic plan is so dense that an employee cannot explain it in an elevator, it will never be operationalized. We advocate for a “keep it simple and smart” approach.

A strategic plan should be a way to simplify, not a way to complicate. People need to grasp what it is and, more importantly, “How does it relate to me?” Whether someone is a department head or a front-line technician, they need to understand how their daily tasks contribute to the broader goals. When the plan is simple, it becomes a tool for empowerment rather than a burden of bureaucracy.

Lessons from the Field: The Placer County Experience

The rollout implementation for the Placer County human resources department provides some helpful lessons. Starting with a communications rollout framework that had a step-by-step approach, the department’s process provided a masterclass in both momentum and some pitfalls of timing.

What worked well was that once the HR department strategic plan was finalized, department leadership immediately emailed it to all department staff. The email included clear, concise talking points that described the “why” of the strategic plan. The result? Immediate excitement. By making the information accessible and transparent from day one, the leadership signaled that this plan was different: it was active.

The next step was to present the strategic plan at an upcoming quarterly staff meeting. The intention was to do so shortly after the email went out. However, because the leadership team was still working on some details of implementation (assignments and timelines), the presentation was delayed. Staff were disappointed at the delay. In hindsight, department leaders could see that they did not actually need to have all details set before making the presentation.

The lesson? Do not let the pursuit of a perfect presentation slow momentum. Your staff does not need a complete or detailed implementation plan, but they do need an early touchpoint to understand what the strategic plan is all about. They need to see that you are committed to the path, even if every milestone is not yet fully mapped out.

The Power of the One-on-One

While mass emails and all-staff meetings are essential for reach, the real work of alignment happens in smaller rooms.

In developing the Placer County HR department Strategic Plan, initial input was gathered by the director by holding one-on-one meetings with department heads and elected officials across the county. This served a dual purpose:

Listening: Hearing firsthand what they needed from HR for their departments to succeed.

Translation: Explaining the purpose and intent of the HR strategic plan in a way that resonated with specific departmental challenges.

Making It Stick: The Cadence of Accountability

Operationalizing a strategic plan requires a shift in how the plan’s “owners” spend their time. If the strategic plan only comes up once a year during budget season, it becomes a memory.

To keep the momentum going, a tiered communication cadence can help:

Weekly: The executive team should devote a portion of their standing meeting solely to the strategic plan. This keeps the “big picture” goals at the forefront of operational decisions.

Bimonthly: Meet with mid-level managers. These are the individuals responsible for translating the plan into daily tasks. They need regular check-ins to ensure they have the resources required to meet the plan’s objectives.

Quarterly: Hold all-staff town halls or updates. Use this time to celebrate wins, acknowledge where progress is delayed, and reiterate the roadmap.

Semiannually: Provide updates to the broader organization or stakeholder community about progress.

Accountability Starts at the Top

An effective way of supporting the implementation of a strategic plan is to tie it to performance. This can be through including meaningful metrics in managers’ performance evaluations. How are the managers contributing to the success of the strategic plan? What level of progress is being made toward the strategic plan? What impediments are being encountered that will need course corrections?

When managers’ success is linked to the strategic plan’s success, staff within the organization take notice. It ceases to be a “special project” and becomes fundamental to the job. For HR, involving staff in the rollout is not just a “nice to do”; it is essential. When employees see their own feedback reflected in the plan and see their leaders being held accountable to it, buy-in is supported so much more.

Conclusion: The Strategic Plan as a Hook

Communication and public engagement efforts are not separate from the strategic plan. They are the engine that drives it.

Whether you are a new city/county manager looking to establish transparency or a seasoned director looking to unify a department around a singular focus (as seen in the framework used in Placer County), the rollout is a great tool.

Start with the end in mind. Keep it simple. And remember: a strategic plan does not fail because the goals were wrong; it fails because the people were forgotten. Make them part of the process, establish an implementation plan with timeframes and assignments, and the strategic plan will take care of itself.

JAN PERKINS, ICMA-CM, is a vice president at Raftelis and a former city manager with more than 30 years of experience in local government leadership.

NICK ZOLLER, APR, is a strategic communications counselor at Raftelis, specializing in organization-wide communication strategy, crisis communications, and change management.

JOE AMBROSINI is director of human resources for Placer County, California.