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Visioning
and Strategic Planning
What
This Core Competency Is and Why It Is Important
 Curriculum
Guidelines
Court
Purposes, Environment and Processes
Fundamentals Organizational
Foundations Change
and Alignment Strategic
Thinking
Effective
court leaders take time to vision the future because visioning impacts the
bottom line. Visioning and
strategic planning help courts and court leaders avoid isolation, create
and maintain momentum for change, and improve day-to-day court
management.
The
urgent often drives out the important in all organizations, courts
included. Visioning and strategic planning counteract natural
tendencies toward inertia -- activity rather than accomplishment -- by
focusing courts on: their enduring purposes and responsibilities,
preferred futures built around these commitments, and strategic direction
and realistic action steps.
These
proven management and leadership tools help presiding judges and their
court managers focus themselves and others on the court’s primary
purpose -- or mission -- as well as establish both long-term goals and
shorter term improvement priorities.
Strategic planning, which usually includes a visioning component,
is an ongoing, systematic process used in organizations of all types to
critically and creatively: (1) assess where it is now, (2) define where it
wants to be in the future, and (3) develop comprehensive strategies to
move the organization in a desired direction.
While
complementary, strategic planning and visioning differ.
Visioning is a creative, collaborative process that asks court
leaders and their justice partners to articulate a preferred future: what
the court will look like and be doing when performing at its very best.
A vision statement, which is the outcome of a visioning process,
describes that future. Research
suggests that vision statements are most effective when they “tell a
story” of a new reality--a lucid and detailed preferred future.
Effective vision statements elevate and compel action because they
are both bold and inspirational and believable and achievable.
Strategic
planning includes other vital elements specifically: defining a court’s
mission –or purpose --and fundamental values; environmental scanning or
trends analysis; a SWOT (i.e., strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats) analysis; identifying strategic issues or key performance areas;
long-range goals (i.e., end targets); objectives (i.e., means to achieve
the goals); and short-term priority projects.
Implementation
consistent with the strategic plan and monitoring and evaluating progress
and outcomes round out the essential elements of long-range strategic
planning. These steps help
ensure that visioning and strategic planning are more than a cerebral
exercise. Implementation and monitoring progress and evaluating results
are all critical. They ensure
that the projects and activities that flow from visioning and strategic
planning produce the desired outcomes.
Courts
that have completed either internal or community-based visioning and
strategic planning processes report improvements in the following areas:
(1) case management practices; (2) access to the courts and
justice; (3) use of technology to enhance services and access; (4)
community outreach and education; (5) cultural diversity and providing
culturally responsive court services; (6) court governance and structure;
and (7) the internal work environment so as to attract, retain, and
motivate a skilled workforce.
Court
leaders invest time in visioning and strategic planning processes and
their follow up because:
-
Strategic
planning supports local trial court autonomy by placing the onus for
change and the responsibility for creating it squarely on the trial
court’s judges and staff.
-
The
processes help build consensus within the court and between the court
and its justice partners and community leaders about what the court will become, and when and how it will do
it.
-
A
strategic plan develops priorities and goals that are clear and
accepted throughout the court and justice system.
-
A
vision of the future, the long-range strategic plan, and its
implementation help ensure continuity when the leadership of the court
changes.
-
Strategic
planning is an acceptable change and alignment mechanism modeled by
courts across the nation.
-
Strategic
planning supports a positive response to public demand for increased
court
accountability.
In
sum, visioning and strategic planning can help court leaders shape their
courts and organizational environments by:
-
Challenging
court and justice system practitioners to think beyond day-to-day
problems and crises
-
Fostering,
developing, and sustaining internal and external cooperation,
collaboration, and partnerships;
-
Allocating
and using limited resources strategically;
-
Improving
day-to-day court management practices;
-
Enhancing
court-community communications and increasing public understanding of
and satisfaction with the courts and the justice system; and
-
Creating
futures driven by the judiciary’s deepest commitments: equal justice
under law; independence and impartiality; equal protection and due
process; access to justice; expedition and timeliness; accountability;
and public trust and confidence.
View
the Summary
of Visioning and Strategic Planning Curriculum Guidelines or click on each of the five Curriculum Guidelines to see the
associated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Court
Purposes, Environment and Processes
Fundamentals Organizational
Foundations Change
and Alignment Strategic
Thinking
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and Strategic Planning MSWord version for printing.
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