Benefits of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes for organizations, including to:

• Build consensus about where an organization is going
• Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization's capacity for implementation
• Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization's constituents
• Develop a sense of ownership of the plan
• Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization's resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities
• Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed

Other reasons include that strategic planning:

• Bridges staff and Village Board
• Identifies and addresses major problems
• Increases productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness
• Provides clearer focus for the organization, producing more efficiency and effectiveness

The Village of Howard has been working on coordinating our VillageTrack (performance measurement program), strategic planning, and annual budget processes into a comprehensive performance management process, called Managing for Results.