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In this time of so many unknowns:

• • How can we plan in such an uncertain environment?
  • What works and what doesn’t work when convening leaders for strategic planning?
  • How can we nurture an enduring culture of strategic thinking and execution?

Is strategic planning in an era of uncertainty an effort in futility?

Our community’s well-being and economic prosperity depends on us being engaged in collaborative efforts to plan our community’s response and recovery to a global pandemic. But it’s hard for our board of directors and community leaders to plan when the world is changing so fast and there is disruption everywhere we look.

Some leaders may want to take a wait-and-see approach or feel the need to just focus on the year ahead. But that can put our organizations and communities at a disadvantage. We need to engage in some form of deliberate, intentional strategic planning to help guide our preferred future. Strategic planning may be even more important in uncertain and turbulent times. It can provide clarity and alignment in our direction.

For some of us, our strategic plans have sat on shelves, collected dust, and failed to reach their potential as a “living document.” And we have all lived through a recession that has turned our plans upside down. This pandemic has reinforced what many of us have already learned through difficult experiences: no one can predict the future and even the best laid plans must be flexible.

If we’re expected to influence community well-being and economic prosperity, we need to be responsive to these realities and adjust our approaches to strategic planning. We need to think of strategic planning as practicing foresight, and not simply an episodic event.

How can you help leaders engage in foresight for your community?

Guest Speaker:

Matt Tarleton is an independent consultant that helps communities, nonprofits, and executives figure things out. He has more than 15 years of experience facilitating comprehensive strategic planning processes supporting economic development, community improvement, and workforce sustainability.

As Market Street’s Executive Vice President and co-owner, Matt helped guide the firm’s strategic direction, business development, and daily operations while managing strategic planning projects for clients around the country. Over the course of twelve years at Market Street, Matt worked with more than 60 different places and nonprofits influencing community well-being, economic prosperity, and the built environment: chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, metropolitan planning organizations, downtown development corporations, convention and visitors bureaus, workforce development agencies, community foundations, and others. His experience developing strategies for major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Austin, Indianapolis, Nashville, and San Antonio were complemented by work in smaller communities that have been equally inspiring in their devotion to community improvement: Watertown, South Dakota; Grand Island, Nebraska; Rogers, Arkansas, and many others.

Today, as an independent adviser, provides strategic guidance to communities, nonprofits, and executives that want to make their place more competitive, their organization more strategic, or their leadership more impactful. Learn more at: https://www.mtarleton.com/aboutme

Matt Tarleton, former Market Street’s Executive Vice President and co-owner

Cathi Hight

Cathi Hight, is President of the Hight Performance Group, an organizational development firm that helps develop healthy organizations to manage constant change, enhance customer loyalty and “work smarter, not harder.” She has over 20 years of experience in working with education, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit, and technology sectors.

Cathi is the author of The Member Retention Kit and A New Approach to Tiered Membership  and offers resources to help organizations attract, engage, and retain members. She helps organizations stay relevant, deliver benefits that members appreciate, and effectively communicate the value of membership.

Join Cathi Hight and guest speaker Matt Tarleton, former Market Street’s Executive Vice President and co-owner, as we discuss how strategic planning can be even more powerful in times of global and local uncertainty.

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