The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Tanya Settles
December 19, 2025
Across local governments strategic planning has become both an expectation and a source of endless frustration. Leaders launch the planning process with optimism and an appreciation for measuring outcomes only to find the plan sitting on a shelf disconnected from daily operations and, for 2025, quickly eclipsed by new challenges. Engagement with the planning process can dissipate over time by employees and community members alike who lose interest and commitment. Leaders may replace planning with what is perceived to be more pressing challenges and then feel trapped between wanting strategic clarity and fearing wasted effort resulting in an inability to deliver on the promises in the plan. If we learned anything this year it is a reaffirmation that the only constant is change. Now is a chance to take advantage of the do-over around the corner and rethink strategy and planning for the next year while at the same time avoiding strategy fatigue in the process.
Traditional Planning Models Create Fatigue
Leaders and employees are often initially excited about designing organizational priorities and a roadmap for success. However, as McKinsey & Company noted years ago, often leaders find that strategic plans are time consuming, do not pay off and yield few new ideas. Consequently, impediments to implementation become apparent before the process even begins. Common but well intentioned mistakes include:
Prioritizing the Document, Not the Work it Represents. Public sector organizations make significant investment of resources and time into developing multi-year plans that are often outdated before they are implemented. These plans are mistakenly viewed as a point in time project rather than a living evolving document that can (and should) be changed over the life course of the plan. Ideally, this life course is reasonably short and often 3 years or less.
Engagement is Too Shallow, Too Late, Too Performative. A well orchestrated planning effort encourages participation from community, partners and employees but often the result does not meaningfully incorporate diverse perspectives into decision making. People who see their fingerprints on the final plan and help shape priorities are far more likely to support implementation. When engagement is transactional skepticism and distrust grow.
Static Cycles No Longer Fit Dynamic Environments. Traditional planning assumes relatively stable conditions and multi-year plans are common. These are not common times though and public sector organizations face rapidly changing environments that range from fiscal uncertainty to equity expectations to unanticipated service demands tied to unforeseen circumstances (such as wildfires, pandemics or shifts in federal priorities) that impact local government operations. Expecting strict fidelity to a document undermines the ability to shift priorities when necessary.
Overcoming Strategic Planning Fatigue
To overcome these challenges of traditional strategic planning a modern approach is needed. Viable strategic planning requires a different skillset that leans more into organizational change management than planning. Lightness, agility and adaptability are key. Promising approaches include:
Start with Co-Creation. Today’s strategic planning begins with collaborative problem definition that emerges from techniques like appreciative inquiry, human-centered design and structured listening sessions that yield insight, perspective and rebuild trust. This means listening to the people who are the closest to the work and those who experience the results. Then honor their contribution by including their insight in plan priorities.
Iterative Agility is Key. Replace a static long-term plan with a living strategic framework. Adaptive governance and agile strategy mean using rapid learning cycles to improve resiliency and outcome attainment. Begin by identifying a limited set of strategic imperatives and build in processes for incremental assessment and strategy refresh cycles.
Align Strategy with Organizational Capacity. Before finalizing priorities consider a capacity and readiness assessment. This process will help identify what is feasible with current resources and indicate where partnerships, technology, staffing or other investments are required. Even if the capacity and readiness assessment results in scaling back the plan the overall strategy will be grounded in operational reality. This means a greater likelihood of attaining goals, objectives and meaningful outcomes.
Build Transparency and Accountability. Public sector organizations strengthen trust when they share progress openly. Simple and accessible dashboards offer visibility into status, challenges and wins. Transparency motivates follow-through to avoid the “plan on a shelf” problem and demonstrates integrity.
Moving From Fatigue to Momentum
Strategic planning fatigue is a symptom, not a failure. Fatigue signals a need for clarity, direction and trust that results in tangible improvements. Public sector planning can be used to improve transparency and legitimacy but adaptation of approach is necessary. When government entities embrace adaptive planning, inclusive engagement and implementation-centered strategies momentum replaces cynicism. For local government leaders this means considering a strategic plan that changes with today’s dynamic environment resulting in a strategy that is lighter, more dynamic, more participatory and more honest about capacity. When strategy reflects reality and includes real voices it leads to real action. Then planning is not a burden but a powerful driver of public value and transparency.
Author: Tanya Settles is the CEO of Paradigm Public Affairs, LLC. Tanya’s areas of work include relationship building between local governments and communities, restorative justice, and policy and program strategy and evaluation. Tanya can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions in this column and any mistakes are hers alone.
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