Discuss the benefits of Strategic Planning.

Strategic Plan Proposal – Written Assignment 1Submit a one-page proposal for a strategic plan that is relevant to your area of Public Safety (Police, law enforcement)New Haven Police Department, New Haven Connecticut USAThis paper should define the challenge and clarify the current state to establish a starting point. Use the text model on pp. 102-104 as a guide. The paper can be either a one-page narrative, or an introductory paragraph followed by a SWOT analysis.Textbook access:Go to being Strategic Everyday Part 1 1-7 Seven in the table of contents1-7 Seven covers the first chapter Pages 102 – 104 Below SEVEN________________________The Art of Crafting StrategyThe dogs sleep under the table, having gotten all the scraps they can hold, and the men have pushed their chairs and benches back, replete, and are nursing their cups of mead.They feel well pleased. After much discussion before and during the meal, they’ve agreed on the three most important choices they’ll need to make in order to create the castle they’ve envisioned.Llewellyn summarizes, “All right, my friends, we’ve made some important choices: we’re all in agreement about the three parts of our plan. We need first to design the castle—a castle that will protect us as we hope, and that we can build with the skills and materials we have, or can get. Second, we need to decide how we’ll build it—the whole process from start to finish. Third, we need to figure out how to defend and provision ourselves while it’s being built. Is that about it?” He looks around the table.Dafydd, who has perhaps had more to drink than most, raises his cup. “Well done, my lord. I believe that is it: the best way to get from this room, dozing around the fire like old dogs, to sitting in our beautiful Welsh-built stone castle on the hill, dozing around the fire like old dogs.”Everyone laughs and raises their cups and mugs to Llewellyn, and to themselves.The question “What’s the best way to get from where I am to where I’m going?” is, in my mind, the essence of being strategic. It involves stopping your forward momentum, taking a breath, pulling back the camera (again), and reflecting on the core directional choices that will most effectively get you where you want to go. As I noted in the previous chapter, strategies are those “core directional choices” I’ve been talking about since the introduction. Crafting strategy is the process of determining which core directional efforts will best move you toward your hoped-for future.As I noted in the last chapter, this is—ironically—the point at which people are most prone to stop being strategic. Even if they’ve stayed Fair Witness–like and thoughtful up till this point (clarifying their challenge, then understanding where they are, where they want to go, and what’s in the way), this is where people tend—metaphorically—to jump up and just start climbing the hill. Or else to do the opposite: get overwhelmed by the seeming enormity of the distance to be crossed, shrug, and walk away.So, I want to help you to avoid both those things. I want to help you learn to do the thing that most people fail to do at this point: craft strategy.CRAFTING STRATEGYFortunately, the skills you’ve been honing throughout this process will serve you in this step as well. They provide a way for you to pull back from the confusion of tactics in order to first choose a clear strategic “road.” Fortunately for you, the skills you’ve developed in previous parts of the process will continue to serve you here: DETERMINING “WHAT’S THE PATH”: STRATEGY Be a “Fair Witness”Pull back the cameraSort for FITBe a “Fair Witness” and Pull back the camera are the same as they’ve been all along. You get as objective as possible and step back from the details to take in the whole picture of what you’re trying to accomplish, so that you can select the strategies that will most effectively move you in the direction you want to go. The thing that’s great about pulling back the camera at this point is that you can finally see the whole picture: where you are now, where you’re trying to go, and what’s in the way. It’s like using the “Region” view on MapQuest to get driving directions from one city to another.The principle behind sorting for impact—which you’ve used all along as a way to determine which things are most relevant—stays the same in this step, but we add some specifics about how to sort. The process we use to determine relevance in this final step is something we call sorting for FIT.FIT AS A SCREEN FOR STRATEGYLet me explain. “FIT” stands for “Feasibility,” “Impact,” and “Timeliness,” and it’s a great support for determining which strategies will best move you toward your desired outcomes:Feasibility simply means deciding whether you can actually make a given effort. Do you have (or can you get) the resources, skills, time, and support you need to complete the strategy you’re proposing? Is it possible, given the obstacles? (For example, our Welsh friends could have proposed as a strategy convincing the English to build the castle for them. Probably not feasible.)Impact focuses on whether or not the proposed strategy is a good use of your resources. Will you get a “big bang for the buck”? In other words, will it give you a lot of movement toward your desired outcomes with a reasonable expenditure of effort?Timeliness focuses on two things: ordinality (a great word, and one that I’m happy to have the opportunity to use here) and opportunity. “Ordinality” means the order in which things have to be done. Is this strategy something that needs to be done now, or are there other things that need to be done first? Opportunity is about having the chance to do something: is this strategy one that needs to be done quickly, before the window closes? Remember also that twelve to eighteen months is generally an appropriate time frame for crafting strategies. Focus on the strategies that make the most sense to accomplish in the next year to year and a half.Let’s walk through one of FDR’s strategies as an example of using this “FIT” approach: “Put people back to work (even if you have to ‘make it up’).”Was it feasible? Yes, because Roosevelt had the resources of the Federal Government behind him, as well as the will of the U.S. electorate, which had just put him into office. He also had a huge group of out-of-work people who were ready and willing to do almost any sort of work to support themselves and their families.Was it impactful? Yes, putting money into people’s pockets for work done would have an immediate effect on all the businesses that supported working people. They and their families would once again be buying food and clothing, using transportation to go to work, getting their hair cut, buying school supplies, going to the doctor. It would set the wheels of commerce turning again and create a powerful positive shift toward “getting America back on its feet.”Was it timely? Yes: it needed to be done as soon as possible and was essential to put into motion before many other steps could be undertaken (steps that required people to be working, like collecting income tax). And there was opportunity. A great many large public works projects needed doing, given the dramatic shifts in the country’s infrastructure with the advent of automobiles as a common form of transportation and electricity as the primary power source. Many thousands of people could be put to work building roads, dams, and hydroelectric plants.You can see that this strategy passes the FIT test. If you ask the same three questions about his other two strategies, you’ll see that they were FIT as well: core directional choices that would be feasible, impactful, and timely in moving the country from where it was toward where FDR had promised the American people it would go.FIT is a useful screen for strategy because selecting good strategies is about “picking your shots.” Think about it: success in any endeavor involves making good choices. Generally you don’t have unlimited time or endless resources to devote to reaching a goal. You have to make the best use of the time and resources you do have. This is as true in business as in your personal life; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched as business leaders squandered their energy on efforts that weren’t FIT—that weren’t best suited to helping them achieve their business goals. By being a Fair Witness, pulling back the camera, and then screening your proposed strategies with FIT, you’ll have a great chance of making core directional choices that will get you where you’re going, building your own business or personal castle on the hill.Try It: Creating StrategyNow you’ll begin creating your own “path”—strategies for achieving the future you outlined in the previous chapters. Review your “what is” (p. 39), your hoped-for future (p. 65), and “what’s in the way” (p. 80). Pull back the camera, so you can see all three elements in your mind’s eye. (Remember the MapQuest metaphor!) If you like, you can summarize these first three elements of your situation below:Figure 11. What Is2. What’s the Hope (Key Elements of Your Hoped-for Future)3. What’s in the Way Use the Fair Witness self-talk you created for yourself in chapter 5 to stay objective as you reflect on where you are, where you want to go, and “What’s in the Way.” Here, or on another piece of paper, propose possible strategies you’ll use to achieve your vision:4. What’s the Path Now, “sort for FIT”: check each strategy for feasibility, impact, and timeliness. Revise, eliminate, and/or add new strategies as necessary. Write your final three or four strategies below:Strategies for Achieving My Vision in 20——1.2.3.4.