Our Journey From Strategy to Action

About this webinar

The American Planning Association (APA), the national membership organisation for urban planners in the United States, had 144 items on its two-year strategic plan, no single view of all the work underway and more commitments than it could realistically support. Mike Welch recalls a culture in which people came to expect that some promised work would never be finished. What changed when APA began making harder choices about what to pursue?

In this conversation, Mike Welch of APA joins Laura Barnard and Stuart Easton to explain how the organisation narrowed its priorities, challenged established programmes and built greater confidence in following through on its commitments.

What you'll hear

• From 144 items to four or five initial priorities. APA brought scattered work into view, involved leadership in defining and weighting strategic criteria, and concentrated resources on a much smaller number of initiatives rather than trying to advance everything at once.
• A difficult decision about international outreach. Mike describes a programme with committed advocates but, in his assessment, limited value for members. Its relatively low score against leadership's criteria made the trade-off visible and, in his account, helped APA stop further spending. Laura explains how AHP and pairwise comparison can make the judgements behind prioritisation more explicit.
• How executive buy-in was earned. Mike explains why he started by interviewing executives about their problems, using their language and demonstrating early value rather than asking them to surrender decision authority. Support from APA's CEO and board mattered, as did working through resistance when familiar programmes lost priority.
• Building delivery capability, not just choosing better work. With training and coaching from PMO Strategies, APA introduced practical project-management methods, risk planning and support for project sponsors. Mike describes building capability gradually, learning which practices worked and later introducing a separate delivery-management tool.
• What changed for the people doing the work. Mike contrasts the old expectation that some commitments would inevitably fall away with a new sense of confidence, satisfaction and pride. In his account, people became more confident that when APA committed to something, they could see it through and deliver value for members.

The conversation also explores recurring strategy and portfolio reviews, how pandemic conditions made some early changes easier, and the continuing difficulty of measuring long-term impact for members.