When I decided to leave my dream job at the City of Henderson and begin making my new dream job at Provo City, I knew I would need to create a vision for what GIS needed to be for my new organization and effectively communicate that vision to my directors. This was an idea I learned from attending Urisa’s GIS Leadership Academy.
The vision I DID NOT want to create is based upon my observations where “GIS” is perceived as a person or persons who perform GIS data entry tasks. This creates a bottleneck of information and data flow. I have seen this in the form of hard-copy maps, or napkins, with redlines stacked upon a GIS staffer’s desk waiting to be entered into the GIS database.
The vision I DID want to create is centered on removing any bottlenecks to the flow of data between the database and the users. The data really belongs to the users. The GIS staffers are there to channel the flow of data and put the tools in place to make sure errors cannot be introduced into the data. It should be a community effort at all levels to improve the data and leave the database better than we inherited it.
While it would be impossible to put GIS desktop software on the desktop of the entire organization and train everybody on using GIS software, the capabilities have shifted in recent years to the point where we can create tools customized to individual workflows that make it easy for everyone in the organization to create and manage the data that is closest to them.
The timeframe on the strategic plan forces me to evaluate the plan periodically, although I have noticed over time that: the areas of focus change from year to year, the core responsibilities pertain specifically to general GIS functions, and the vision and mission statements remain unchanged to match the overall strategy and approach to the desired outcomes.
So did my strategic plan summary help? Absolutely. Although I designed it to be general enough to be all-inclusive to new ideas and projects brought to light by the organization, this plan guides and boundaries what projects we place on our list of areas of focus, and to which ones we have to say ‘no.’ In the end it seems to come down to prioritizing the projects that will best help the organization help itself.