Strategic Plan and Organizational Assessment

The Cleveland City Hall 10-Year Strategic Plan is a document under development that will serve as a roadmap for defining and achieving strategic focus areas and initiatives to modernize the way City Hall operates. The plan includes an overarching aspirational purpose statement for the organization, guiding principles, strategic focus areas, measures of success, and specific initiatives.

Under Mayor Bibb’s leadership, we have bold aspirations to transform the way the city operates into a modern organization that can serve residents effectively and empower our employees to make a positive impact on our community. The plan will serve as our north star for defining the type of organization we want to be and a roadmap for how we can get there over time.

We hope to engage as many employees, residents, and customers of city services as possible throughout this strategic planning process. Some departments will be more engaged than others based on the nature of the services they offer and ongoing strategic planning initiatives within their departments. Once the plan is developed, we believe all employees and staff will have a role to play in implementing the identified strategic initiatives.

The plan will be specifically focused on the services the Departments of City Hall provide to residents and the operations/processes that enable them. So, this is a plan for City Hall as an organization, not a master plan for the entire City of Cleveland. Think of it how a private business or nonprofit might conduct a strategic planning process and organizational assessment. In the coming years, the Planning Department will be conducting a master plan for the whole City.

Departments will vary in terms of their level of involvement with strategic plan development and implementation. While every part of City Hall will be considered in the development process, our focus will be on the departments offering direct services to residents funded through the general fund. As such, the Department of Community Development, Department of Public Safety, Department of Utilities, the Port Authority and certain divisions of Public Works that are enterprise-funded will be indirectly involved in the strategic planning process.

We are partnering with EY, a global professional services firm with extensive experience in supporting governments and private sector businesses in their strategic planning efforts, as well as Compass Consulting, a Cleveland-based organizational development firm. The project itself will be managed through the Office of the Mayor and a steering committee with leaders from across the organization.

Although the City completed a management and efficiency study in 2009, there has not been a holistic strategic plan and assessment conducted in recent decades. We believe it’s important for all of our staff, residents, and customers to understand and align on our collective vision for how the City should operate and what initiatives we will be embarking on across departments to achieve that vision over time.

We hope that all of our employees will feel tangible benefits from this plan as we identify and implement initiatives to enhance the way we collaborate and deliver city services. At this stage, we are focused on developing the plan itself, which will not immediately impact staff beyond periodic opportunities to provide input and perspective on identified initiatives. Specific initiatives that may impact structures and processes will be determined in consultation with Department Directors.

Our purpose statement for City Hall is meant to capture 'why' we do the work that we do and the impact we seek to make on the City of Cleveland. The purpose statement is complementary in nature and builds upon the organization’s mission, which captures 'what' we do.

This strategic plan is a key enabler of how we can achieve Mayor Bibb’s strategic priorities. Specifically, we believe it is closely aligned to the priority to ‘modernize City Hall’ and that the plan will serve as a roadmap for how to achieve it. Moreover, the strategic plan is specifically focused on the operations and services of City Hall and how internally, within our organization, we can contribute to the strategic priorities for the city.

The planning process began in July and is expected to result in a published plan by end of the calendar year. Throughout September there will be various opportunities for individuals to contribute to strategic plan initiatives. Participation in these sessions will be determined by Department Directors. The implementation of the plan will take place over a number of years. However, we will begin implementation of priority initiatives on an 'as available' and 'initiative-by-initiative' basis such that resourcing needs are fulfilled before embarking on a particular initiative.