Mapping and Deploying Strategy in the Public Sector

“The ultimate goal in implementing strategic planning is that your community’s needs and future visions are met in a way that is not only efficient, but also equitable.”

– Local Government Management Guide, New York State

The key challenge of strategic management is laying a foundation for success in the future while simultaneously meeting today’s demands. Elections, budgets, regulatory restrictions, and media attention are just a few of the factors that intensify this challenge in the public sector.

Strategy Mapping: Seeing how the pieces fit together

With so many factors exerting pressure on day-to-day operations, it is very difficult to maintain a strategic focus and almost impossible for a single functional area to advance strategic objectives. The strategy map forces your organization to think about how the various functions interact with and support each other.

A strategy map is a management tool that articulates an organization’s strategy through a series of cross-functional cause-and-effect relationships. Building a strategy map involves linking the key strategic themes from the four Balanced Scorecard perspectives. These perspectives are easily adapted for application in the public sector.

The result is a graphical representation of your organization’s strategy that can be easily built and clearly communicated. As a result, your public sector organization can quickly:

• Develop a common sense of purpose and direction
• Determine which initiatives are most critical to strategic plan execution
• Identify what measures would be best to assess strategic performance