The government's goal is and always should be to provide high quality services at a reasonable cost. Stated differently, the government should strive to achieve outcomes that represent the best value for the taxpayer. Especially since the close of the Cold War, governments at all levels have come under increasing scrutiny to measure results and justify funding decisions. Establishing this connection between results and investment, or ROI, is a significant challenge.

Many of the government management focuses of the past and today: MBO (Management by Objectives), ZBB (Zero-Based Budgeting), PPBS (the Planning-Programming-Budgeting System), GPRA (the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act), and today's PART (Program Assessment Reporting Tool) to name a few -- were created to achieve this grand ideal. Each acronym drove changes to processes and policies, and multiple calls for data and action soonest order. Each acronym had, at best, mixed success, and was succeeded by a new, but similar initative. So, what does this say about government today and the moving forward?

• Government has entered the era of the dreaded external mandate:
  Unplanned-for requirements to comply with a demand, produce information, or make a change will multiply moving forward. Agencies at the Federal level in particular will struggle with how to define their strategic objectives while responding to demands from legislation and executive decrees.
• Taxpayer ROI is here to stay:
  The concern for taxpayers' ROI and attempts to link an agency's budget with the agency's performance is here to stay. Each individual initiative will have mixed success and ultimately make way for a new acronym, but the focus will remain constant.
• The value is in the journey more then the destination:
  The ultimate goal of establishing and maximizing taxpayer ROI may remain elusive, but the real value of efforts like PART is government managers are paying more and more attention to the results of their programs.
• Technology will drive visibility:
  The march of technology has increased the ability to process and track large amounts of information. Technology tools such as portfolio management and business process management are the latest tools that will continue to drive the transparency of government and the ability to track all the details necessary to establish taxpayer ROI.

There are also several lessons for government organizations dealing with these initiatives. First, relationships with key stakeholders (e.g., finance, performance measurement, strategic management) are critical for agencies who want to meet external mandates and respond to required changes. Second, change should be driven by the organization itself with input from external guidance , but that is more than just simply responding to Congressional, Presidential, or other pressure. Agencies can do the minimum required for each initiative, but that is ultimately counterproductive as organizations reinvent the wheel every few years to meet the next initiative. Agencies will gain efficiencies and ability to communicate value to stakeholders by establishing a strategic management mindset.

Below, we look at the reasons for taking charge of your strategic process then define the seven strategic management functions needed to develop and implement an organization's overall strategy for relating to its current and future environmental demands.

Motivating change and seeing it through to success are always a challenge. Even when everyone understands the need, shares a common vision of the future, and knows what they must do; unforeseen circumstances can arise to derail even the best-laid plan. Managing change is especially important in government. The political system, the varying role of government, and the changing world it deals with make change constant and complicated for agencies. The work of government agencies is too important to be left to chance or to be defined by random data calls and oversight requests.

Legislatures and oversight bodies instinctively desire to guide improvement. At the same time, for change to be lasting and effective, it has to come from within. Through direct observation and research, Pivotal has seen many examples where agencies have chosen to recast compliance ø responding to the requirements of a law or directive ø into the context of self-directed and self-motivated improvement. These agencies have experienced greater levels of success than those that do not seize the initiative.

Generally, the successful agencies have adopted Strategic Management ø a holistic approach to effectively leading an organization via a long-term, goal-oriented, and focused perspective. Strategic Management covers the development and implementation of an organization's overall strategy. It is related to the organization's current and future demands. Paradoxically, when an agency embraces a need for change that extends beyond simple compliance with an external mandate, it takes the best first step towards actually achieving compliance , and Strategic Management leads to that embrace. If change is driven by the organization's own assessment of its current and future needs, with compliance fitting in, and sets its own course and strategy for meeting its goals, the organization stands a much better chance of achieving its goals and meeting the external requirements.

Many organizations consider the act of strategy to be writing a plan . The processes of Strategic Management go beyond that simple first step.

By adopting Strategic Management, agencies achieve the goals set by higher authorities and legislatures. Success increases when the planning phase is followed by deployment, implementation, and evaluation. Effective strategic management needs to be supported by stakeholder involvement, budget integration, supporting technologies, and performance measurement. The net effect is to develop organizational introspection that will help the agency to respond not just to the current attempts to quantify return on taxpayer investment, but also to create a self-reinforcing loop that will continually improve the organization and let it meet future requirements.

• Plan Development.
  Create a process for codifying the plan, identifying the plan's necessary content (mission, vision, goals, SWOT, etc.), and developing the actual plan. The process of developing the plan is often as important as the document produced. The degree to which stakeholders get involved has significant implications for buy-in, ownership, speed of implementation, and, ultimately, the plan's overall success . Organizations should consider not only the framework and technique it will use, but also the methods it will use to gain the support of stakeholders (including organizational leadership, employees, representatives of peer organizations, customers, suppliers, and owners or other vested parties).
• Deployment & Communication .
  Once the plan is developed, it requires publication and communication that facilitate understanding and commitment. The communication plan should be structured to answer:
• Who should be familiar with the plan (employees, customers, suppliers)?
• Will people be able to describe the vision and goals in their own words?
• Will stakeholders know how they can contribute to successfully implementing the goals and objectives of the strategic plan?
• What vehicles for communication (email, websites, documents, pamphlets, etc.) will be most effective?
• When will the plan be ready?
• How will the plan be Òsold,Ó approved, and maintained?
It is also vital that all parties involved realize that they have a stake in the success of the plan, and to ensure that the plan actually has an impact on the organization. Organizations generally achieve this by integrating the plan with their methods for evaluating performance and developing budgets by:
• Ensuring that budgeted initiatives have clear connections to goals or objectives outlined in the plan
• Tying individual or group compensation to achievement of the plan
• Creating feedback loops that facilitate evaluation and introspection
Doing all of the above does not guarantee success. Make sure that people within the organization believe the plan is relevant to them and that their contribution will be recognized and rewarded.

• Implementation & Action .
  Employees at all levels are expected to take action on goals and tactics. This includes assigning roles and responsibilities, reporting progress, and integrating the plan with the budget process (if not already done in the planning phase). The plan should align with people's daily business operations and work products. The methods and processes should be used to regularly evaluate and recognize progress. Doing so requires a sufficient level of supporting technology and reporting mechanisms to ensure that executives and employees have a clear sense of:
• Where the organization is headed in relationship to the goals and objectives laid out in the plan
• What steps and actions the organization expects of groups and individuals
• How to take corrective action if necessary
• How to regularly assess the appropriateness of a given strategy
• Evaluation & Review .
  A key part of Strategic Management is creating opportunities for evaluation of the organization's performance and review of the plan's impact. It is important to consider:
• Are we following the plan?
• Is it having the desired effect and impact?
• How many of the organization's programs and initiatives are aligned with the strategic plan?
• Does the plan align the strategic planning, financial, and performance measurement organizations' points of view and requirements?
• How much time is necessary to evaluate the impact of a given strategy and the desirability of achieving a given goal?
The Evaluation & Review phase includes performance measurement activities: defining, collecting, and monitoring strategic measures. The Balanced Scorecard is an example of a framework used by the private and public sectors in the last decade to guide these activities. Technology also plays an important role in evaluation and review, and there are numerous systems that can support the data collection, analysis, and decision making around metrics.
• Feedback & Update .
  Strategic Management involves determining when and how often to update the plan (or when to enter into the planning phase again). Best-in-class organizations establish a strategic management calendar, and schedule planning and update activities accordingly. Often these events involve bringing stakeholders together from across an enterprise, so the schedule is planned well in advance. Organizations should consider critical management activities such as POM and budget development, and when planning should occur in relationship to them.
  
  The objective of the update should be to assess the appropriateness of the overall strategy or parts of it and make revisions accordingly. It is an opportunity to take a step back from daily execution of the strategy and evaluate its current impact and viability for the future. Results, data gathered, and lessons learned from all phases of Strategic Management should feed the update process.

Strategic Management provides a formal process for managing an organization' strategy. When it is combined with a proactive approach to stakeholder management and a positive attitude toward external mandates, supporting the strategy becomes easier, less costly, and more effective.