Results Count

And the best way to get good ones is by holding fast to a strategic visioning and planning process

We’re going to start this Good Government Files series on strategic planning at the end. The video below shows what’s possible when elected leaders think and act with a strategic focus — and follow through with the funding and programs necessary for the hired hands to bring the plan to life.

The waaaaaay-above-average citizen survey¹ results the City of Round Rock, Texas achieved aren’t the result of luck or demographics or having Dell Technologies call it home. Citizens are genuinely satisfied with the work done by the municipal government because that municipal government has been listening to them and acting with a plan and a purpose for the better part of four decades.

Round Rock — where I worked for nearly 24 years, retiring at the end of 2021 — certainly isn’t an outlier when it comes to having a strategic plan. Plenty of cities and counties have them. It’s that Round Rock has been continually updating and refining its strategies and plans since the late 1970s. The North Star the city has been pointed at is pretty simple: a safe, business-friendly and family-friendly community that’s not just a bedroom community in the Austin region.

And day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, the city has taken incremental steps toward that vision.

If you’re working at a local government that isn’t operating according to a strategic plan, go find another one to work for. Because let’s be honest: If that’s the case, the folks you’re working for are just winging it.

That may sound a little harsh, but let’s face facts. We spend gazillions of dollars on infrastructure. Those roads, water treatment and distribution systems, wastewater systems, trails, stormwater systems, etc., take years to fund, plan, design and construct. If you’re not going about that work in a planned, thoughtful way, you shouldn’t be in the business of handling taxpayer money.

That said, great strategic planning doesn’t start with questions like, how are we going to pay to fix potholes in 15 years? It starts with blue sky thinking, i.e., creative ideas that are not limited by current thinking or beliefs². In other words, what can this place be in the future? Dream big. It’s OK.

As the late martial artist and actor Bruce Lee put it³:

Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.

Believe you me, the folks running Round Rock back in the early 1980s got laughed at when they aimed high and cast a vision for what the community could be. The doubters — and it’s a Good Government Truism that there will always be doubters —in the community thought no way this podunk town would be more than a limestone quarry, a convenience store and lots of farms.

Yet, some blue sky thinking followed up by a resolute focus on the steps needed to recruit business, build the infrastructure to keep up with rapid population growth and eventually start adding quality of life programs like a kick ass parks system resulted in the results you see in the video above. For those not familiar with Round Rock, it is home to major employers (including Dell Technologies, No. 31 on the Fortune 500), a regional medical hub, three university systems, a minor league baseball team, North America’s largest indoor water park and … you get the idea. (Of the eight businesses I just linked to, only one was here when I moved to Round Rock in 1989.) City leaders knew population growth was coming. So, they kept their focus on: safe, business-friendly and family-friendly. That was the vision.

The process is best described in this chart, courtesy of my friends at SGR, where, full disclosure, I do some consulting work. (CC stands for City Council.)

By staying focused on the vision, and running through that cycle, again and again, amazing things can happen — over time. The most important of which are: happy citizens and lower property tax and utility rates than other cities in Central Texas.

At SGR, we make a distinction between a strategic vision and a strategic plan. Many people use these terms interchangeably, but there is a unique difference. A strategic vision is all about direction and priorities and it is the responsibility of the City Council to set priorities and direction or vision. A strategic plan is about how you get there, and it is the responsibility primarily of the staff to create this strategic plan that is in alignment with the strategic vision which is created by the Council.

It’s not rocket surgery. But it does take steadfastness, patience and a willingness to give up short-term, quick fixes for long-term, sustainable solutions.

It’s not often I turn to journalists for tips on governing, but I came across this Steven Greenhut column earlier this year in Orange County Register and it really resonated with me. His advice to politicians? Keep it simple. So while dreaming big is advisable when creating that strategic vision, don’t ever forget the basics of good government.

Upon election to office, politicians come to believe that they have the wherewithal to solve the world's toughest problems. They usually mishandle the nuts-and-bolts chores they're charged with addressing, yet dream of altering the Earth's climate and eliminating enduring human conditions such as inequality and poverty. Most pols view themselves as the second coming of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, or even Ronald Reagan, when most of us just want public servants who make sure the potholes are filled, the streets are marginally safe, the government budget balances, the trash gets picked up on time, and homeless people aren’t defecating in our local park.

Onward and Upward.

1. For more on why I think you need to be doing regular surveys, check out this GGF post from August.

2. Definition courtesy of Collins Dictionary

3. Hat tip to James Clear of Atomic Habits for sharing the Bruce Lee quote.