Andrew Graham
School of Policy Studies
Queens University

 Old arguments – we’ll always be around
 New realities – competition for resources
 Planning is more than just filling in a form – it is leadership and direction
 You do it or have it done for you
 Democratic values:


Authority is from outside the service
Multiple stakeholders

 Set direction
 Articulate values
 Define yourself for others and your staff
 Set priorities
 Make your case for change and growth
 Analyze pressures, uncertainties and opportunities
 Communicate, communicate, communicate

...an integrated set of goals, objectives and actions designed to bring about a particular result (usually termed a ‘mission’ or ‘vision’) at some future point

Core Elements – the more stable parts

 How can that be? Annual and strategic?
 Setting medium range goals key to winning budget support.
 Being merely reactive will not win the day.
 Process of building a plan is also the process of getting singon and support
 It is also the process of learning and adaptation for the
Service

Review and
Feedback
Annual
Goal
Setting
Budgets
Operationalizing
Strategies
Internal
Asssessments
Setting
Priorities and Goals
S.W.O.T.
External
Reviews

Does this organization know its
Mission?
What to look for in a strategic budget linkage
Does this organization have an end state or vision?
What are the ground rules or basic operating assumptions and principles?
Strategic Plan
Is it sustainable?
Does it have a grip on reality – what is its situation analysis including risks.
Does it have goals and objectives that make sense?
Are there targets with measures that we can understand.
What’s it going to cost?
Does what it is going to do this year mesh
9 with its goals and mission?

Strategy Formulation Framework
Stage 1:
The Input Stage
Stage 2:
The Matching Stage
Stage 3:
The Decision Stage
Ch 6 -
10

Making it all real: Assessing your environment
 Purpose: to establish a realistic and credible understanding of the risks, opportunities and challenges for the police service
 To gather enough information so that the Board or senior management making decisions about your service or unit can make informed and balanced decisions
 To understand the world around you not just as you see it but as other do and factor that perception into your final work plans

What goes into an environmental scan?
 key demographic indicators, including recent municipal population forecasts;
 community issues, perceptions and concerns ( Public Survey);
 crime trends;
 emergent police technology
 legislative and policing trends

 Need external input
 Role of the Board/Commission
 External partners, critiques, observers
 Listening to the silence

 Different names: environmental scan, risk analysis, etc
 Strengths: attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective.
 Weaknesses: attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective.
 Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.
 Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the
business's performance..

Strengths – S
List Strengths
Weaknesses – W
List Weaknesses
Opportunities – O
List Opportunities
Threats – T
List Threats
SO Strategies WO Strategies
Use strengths to take advantage of opportunities
ST Strategies
Overcoming weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities
WT Strategies
Use strengths to avoid threats
Minimize weaknesses and avoid threats

 The vital few
 Cannot be all things to all people
 Avoid congestion
 Clarity and decisiveness
It all has to work together

 High level goals need to be translated into reality
 These become the next year targets and sources of money needs (not all the time)
 This also becomes the basis for budget requests and assignment of internal funds