|
Kol
HaLev’s Strategic Planning Process
by Greg Selker
Over the
past four years, Kol HaLev members have worked on developing
our values, vision and mission, beginning with an initial group
of 40 or more people that first distinguished our broad values
and used these as the basis to facilitate the development of
Shabbat Guidelines for our Hagiga program. As our values have
been clarified and distilled into their present form of six
values-statements, they have provided both a strong foundation
and a powerful context for the creation of our vision and
mission. This year they have also provided continuity for us as
a community, as under the auspices of the Legacy Heritage Grant
we held a community-wide retreat in November that focused on two
broad themes:
- What does
“leadership” mean for Kol HaLev?
- And,
as a community, what are we committed to produce over the
next three to five years?
Beginning to
answer these questions, the 45 people at the retreat studied
with Rabbi Jeff and Brian Amkraut (provost of Siegal College)
and were led by me (Greg Selker) in beginning to distinguish
what our vision, mission and values would look like if over the
next five years they were fully and powerfully expressed within
our community. At the retreat we broke into teams, one for each
goal area of our mission, and began to create a picture of
specific and attainable outcomes that were also highly
representative of our six matching values-statements. Towards
the end of the day, we collected all our thoughts together into
creating a set of ideal Kol HaLev leadership characteristics.
The day culminated with each team’s writing a definition of
leadership for its specific goal/values-statement area.
Over the past two months, a group of 10-20 people representing
different ages and constituencies within our community has been
meeting and working together to complete the strategic planning
process. Using the end-state envisioned at our November 2007
community-wide retreat in each of the goals/values areas as a
starting point, along with our values, vision and mission, we
have outlined specific strategies and tactics that could be
deployed. Essentially, we have filled out the skeleton of the
strategic planning framework with the flesh and bone details
necessary to take an intended outcome and bring it into reality.
Now we are at the final stages of the strategic planning
process: introduction, discussion, acceptance and/or rejection,
and ownership of the actions required to produce the intended
results. This month the goals and strategies under each
goal/values-statement area of the plan will be published on our
website. [To view this document,
click here.] Over the next several months leading up to our annual
meeting, the detailed tactics under each goal/values-statement
area will be discussed in our newsletter. We will also be
creating a threaded discussion board on our website for the
community’s comments, thoughts and input. We will be working
with the existing committee structure within Kol HaLev to
introduce the details of the plan and to begin creating the
timelines and accountabilities necessary for the completion of
tasks. Finally, the Kol HaLev Strategic Plan will be presented
and voted upon at our annual meeting.
As the details of the Strategic Plan are published and
discussed, each Kol HaLev member’s thoughts, viewpoints and
input are both sought-after and important to the process.
Hopefully, the Strategic Plan, like our Values, Vision and
Mission, will become a unifying experience showing who we are as
a community and powerfully expressing what we stand for, what
we’re committed to and what actions we plan to take.
Webkeeper's note: This
description of our strategic planning process first
appeared in the March 2008 issue of our Kol HaLev Happenings
newsletter. Emphasis added.
|