The Challenge: To create a high-quality, PHAB-compliant strategic plan for a large county health department facing unexpected deadline pressures.
The Background:
A county health department covering more than 1 million residents needed a strategic plan as part of its reaccreditation process with the Public Health Accreditation Board. Though the deadlines looked somewhat tight, Ascendient’s long experience in strategic planning gave us confidence in responding to the RFP.
The county’s procurement process dragged on longer than expected, which added to the deadline pressure. When the contract was finally awarded, we got one more surprise: The department was currently in the midst of a leadership transition, and the new director was still several weeks away from his start date. Because strategic planning offers unparalleled insights into the soul of any organization, we suggested delaying key meetings until the new director had a chance to settle in
With an unmovable deadline for the larger reaccreditation effort, these unexpected delays meant that we would need to produce a PHAB-compliant strategic plan in record time – without cutting any corners on quality.
Our Work:
Over many years in public health consulting, Ascendient has developed a well-honed strategic planning process based on a five-month calendar. But, given the extenuating circumstances with this particular health department, we needed to shorten the timeframe by approximately 25%.
First, we made sure that our team understood the time commitment required for a tight deadline. This is where a deep bench matters. With dozens of full-time consultants and analysts on staff, we can flex schedules for time-sensitive projects in a way that smaller shops are unable to do effectively.
Next, we looked for ways to adjust our processes to accommodate the client’s leadership vacuum. Even before the new health director came on board, we conducted a virtual kickoff meeting to better understand the project’s scope, local political realities, and any special stakeholder concerns. Then we immediately got to work on regional and national data analysis, plus qualitative surveys of staff and key partners. With a new director moving in from hundreds of miles away, we wanted to be ready with a deeply researched statistical snapshot of the county and the department.
That sort of research is the key to any good public health strategic plan, so we normally reserve a separate meeting – early in the process – for data review. But in this case, because of the new health director’s late start date and compressed timeline, we knew that a dedicated data review meeting would be impossible. To shave weeks off the calendar, we cut the virtual data review entirely and then doubled the length of our first onsite meeting. That allowed us to present our research findings to the newly installed health director and immediately begin thinking about how he wanted to proceed, based on the data.
Though seemingly simple, this schedule change did entail some risk: If the data proved incomplete or inaccurate, there would be no time for additional research, and the department would not have a PHAB-compliant plan in time for reaccreditation.
The Outcome:
Despite the high stakes, our first meeting with the new health director went flawlessly. He praised Ascendient’s careful, exhaustive research, which allowed him to focus immediately on a future direction for the department. By the second full day of the onsite meeting, the steering committee was ready to take a deep dive on SWOT and begin drafting a strategic ambition for the next three years.
Beyond that initial meeting, we shaved additional weeks off the schedule by asking the client for quicker turnarounds on reviews and edits. Even with the added deadline pressure, everyone agreed that the quicker cadence helped to maintain momentum and focus throughout the planning process.
Because of our expertise in public health accreditation, we knew exactly what was required in a PHAB-compliant strategic plan, and we were able to deliver on deadline and on budget. From a high-level strategic ambition down to detailed action plans and KPIs, our client for the first time has a trackable system for measuring progress on its most pressing public health goals.
Crucially, all of this happened at a time of transition, allowing the incoming health director to instill a fresh vision and sense of excitement within the organization. It wasn’t necessarily planned that way, but starting his tenure with a new strategic plan proved to be a great leadership asset.
The Takeaway:
For the smoothest, least stressful strategic planning experience, most health departments will prefer a deliberate timeline with generous feedback loops. But sometimes reality intrudes on that ideal. Drawing on decades of experience and a deep bench of consulting expertise, Ascendient is able to cut weeks off the calendar when absolutely necessary – without cutting corners on the final product.
