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Figure 2. Customer Priority/Satisfaction A C D E F G H I J K High A. B. C. I D. m E. P F. r G. t a H. n I. c j. e K. Low Emergency Calls Illegal Gang Activity Violent Crimes Illegal Drugs Neighborhood Security, Injury Traffic Accidents Property Crimes Non-Emergency Calls Prostitution/Lewd Behavior Non-Injury Traffic Accidents Traffic Safety Entbrcement Low Degree of Satisfaction High Source: Adapted with permission from an IBM Leadership Institute chart. For an organization, the workload, in terms of current demands and projected future demand, should be identified and analyzed. Additionally, employees' atti- tudes about their work environment, communication, management support, and fairness--together with their moti- vation and morale levels--are impor- tant to understand. Once information in these areas has been collected and analyzed, it must be developed into a manageable set of strategic issues, which should become fairly obvious from the information col- lected and analyzed. With a good work- ing knowledge of current issues and challenges, it is time to move to Step 2, which involves determining priorities and developing strategies. Step 2: Make Decisions and Develop Strategies Two types of decisions must be made: What is the community's or organiza- tion's vision? And what are its priorities? A vision establishes a community's or organization's view of the future. It often is described as a destination point, "a place to be" in the future. A vision should be clear, concise, and easily un- derstandable. It should be memorable and should easily generate commitment and enthusiasm. For a community, developing a vision that accurately reflects common values and issues can be a substantial challenge. All members of the community, includ- ing residents, businesses, community groups and organizations, and the media, must be engaged to some extent. Here are three approaches to devel- oping a community vision: Council/Board Approach. The city or county, council or board establishes the community's vision, based on survey re- sults and community meetings. This ap- proach often is difficult because coun- cilmembers are busy wi~h day-to-day issues, and they may find it hard to focus on strategic issues and future visions. Vision Task Force. A task force or working group is appointed with the specific assignment of developing the community's vision, again based on sur- vey results and community meetings. This approach adds needed focus to the vision effort, but it establishes one more decision-making body. Community Vision-Setting Sessions. All members of the community are in- vited to participate in vision setting ses- sions, each examining an important as- pect of community ]ifc. Participants arc asked to share their visions for the com- munity and to reach some consensus. This approach often generates the most enthusiasm among community mem- bers. Developing a vision for an organiza- tion, while difficult, is less challenging than developing a vision for a commu- nity. There are three approaches to de- veloping a vision for an organization: Executive Officer/Leader Approach. The CEO or leader of the organization establishes the organization's view of the future. Executive/Senior Management Team Approach. A team of the organization's senior managers is selected to develop the organization's view of the future. Bottom-Up Team Approach. Line em- ployees and lower-level employees are involved in the vision development process. The second type of decision to be made is that of determining relative pri- orities, as reflected in specific goals and objectives. These goals and objectives must be dearly related to the vision. In a sense, they are milestones on the route to realizing the vision, and as such they must be explicit, precise, and measurable. Once a vision, goals, and objectives have been determined, strategies for ac- complishing them should be developed. Strategies establish the basic or specific approaches to achieving the defined vi- sion, goals, and objectives. There are several types of strategies: Technical change strategies involves changing the way in which services are provided and an organization's output is produced. These changes occur through process reengineering or similar ap- proaches. Structural change strategies focus on altering the structure of specific jobs or modifying organizational roles or rela- tionships. Examples of this type of change strategy are: combining similar 30 OCTOBER 1997