Envisioning The Way to Continued Success by The Bay: The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Organizational Strategic Business Planning Process

The heart of any organization’s strategy is what it actively chooses to do and not do and how effectively it executes those choices. However, Strategic Plans often fail or sit on a shelf unused because organizations tend to go through the motions of developing the Plan simply because common sense says “every good organization must have a Strategic Plan.” Or, they fail because the organization doesn’t appropriately focus on results, has only partial commitment of executives and staff, doesn’t have the right people involved in the Plan’s creation, or has difficulty accepting the change that often results when a Strategic Plan is implemented. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is determined to not let its Strategic Plan, completed in 2015, fail for these reasons.Other Strategic initiatives had previously been undertaken or were currently underway at SFPUC. In 2008, SFPUC developed its first Strategic Sustainability Plan (SSP), a combined Strategic Plan and sustainability Plan. SFPUC’s Wastewater Enterprise (WWE) recently updated and launched its 2014-2016 Strategic Business Plan, which was designed to align with the SSP and is now being implemented. The Power Enterprise (PE) was in the process of developing a Business Plan and some discussion had occurred about the development of a Water Enterprise (WE) Strategic Plan. It was evident to SFPUC executive leadership that an SFPUC-wide Strategic Business Plan was necessary to create stronger cohesion across its enterprises, divisions and bureaus in order to operate more efficiently and effectively, and work toward a common set of organizational goals.This presentation will showcase the dynamic and long-range Strategic business Planning toolkit and process components that allowed the SFPUC to explore and prepare for future known and unknown driving forces, adapt itself to emerging trends in the industry, and define the organizational Vision, Mission, Values, Strategic Goals, Objectives, Action Items and Performance Measures to support the delivery of the highest level of service to SFPUC’s customers, businesses, and citizens of San Francisco.Methodologies for conducting an internal cultural evaluation, the Effective Utility Management (EUM) self-assessment, visioning exercise, and development of the detailed elements of the Strategic Business Plan, including its cascading impact, will be shared. How SFPUC successfully incorporated accountability into the Plan by assigning Goal Teams/Champions to each of the primary Goals, deadlines and owners for each prioritized Action Item, and performance metrics to measure progress and overall results will also be discussed.As the success of the new SFPUC Strategic Business Plan will ultimately be determined by the SFPUC employees who are required to implement the Plan, the development of the Integrated Implementation Work Plan that provided one unified view of all implementation work activities, the associated task managers, and other ongoing SFPUC activities impacting the Strategic Business Plan implementation will be discussed, along with SPFUC’s change control strategy to get staff at all levels of the organization to accept the changes that will be brought about by the new Strategic Business Plan and implement strategies to remove barriers to its acceptance.Finally, in addition to the toolkit utilized by SFPUC to develop its organizational Strategic Business Plan, there were several implicit outcomes that were derived from the Planning process itself, that have long-standing impacts on the organization’s overall success:Aligning SPFUC and each of its divisions with one another, incorporating key elements of the Strategic Sustainability Plan, and aligning with the City of San Francisco as a whole.Unifying SFPUC employees toward one set of prioritized actions.Communicating with staff and stakeholders such that the Strategic Business Plan is universally adopted and implemented.Developing a common tool that is attuned to SFPUC’s changing needs.Establishing a framework for prioritizing areas for improvement and establishing timelines for addressing those needs.Capitalizing on SFPUC’s strengths so that it continues to strive for effective solutions and a culture of continuous-learning.