CASE STUDY 2
Strategic Planning for Breaking Down Silos and Increasing Collaboration
Client Portrait
A highly successful 31-year-old division of an urban parks department in one of the largest U.S. cities, this client is responsible for management of natural resources in over 29,000 acres of urban parkland and safeguarding over 10,000 acres of threatened natural area within the city.
Client Challenge
At the successful completion of a ten-year organization-wide goal, this division needed to identify new organizational priorities and make plans for implementation. With over a hundred employees divided into specialized teams, the division’s organizational structure was highly silo-ed. Teams had significant overlap in resources and processes that compromised efficiency. In a climate of government budget cuts, the director of the division was seeking ways to improve efficiency, reduce redundancy, and increase collaboration between teams without creating concern among employees about job security.
How could the director introduce organizational change while maintaining or improving staff morale? What strategies could be employed to support a shift from the highly silo-ed culture characterized by a “we’ve always done it this way” attitude into a culture of collaboration and cooperation that could set and meet new goals?
Rally Point’s Solution
The organization contracted with Rally Point founding partner, Karen Abrams Gerber, Ed.D., to facilitate a one-and-a-half day strategic planning retreat. Rally Point staff worked closely with the group’s leadership to clearly articulate retreat goals.
The retreat included
- a shared visioning process for the next five years, linking the emerging vision to the division’s overall mission, and brainstorming upcoming annual goals;
- a focus on relationship building across teams and shifting from silo-ed team goals to division-wide goals; and
- a case study of a new project in which participants used their new collaboration skills to create a project plan. They explored creative solutions to harness team strengths and address challenges, as well as craft an integrated action plan that supports a more collaborative approach to project implementation.
Benefits & Impacts
The shared vision and shared ownership gained during the retreat led to
- development of division’s short-term and long-term goals;
- concrete skills for drawing on strengths and addressing challenges to enhance efficiency and impact, including opportunities for increased collaboration and shared systems;
- increased level of trust and understanding among the senior staff;
- heightened commitment to and excitement for collaboration; and
- implementation of new collaborative systems that have led to increased efficiency and effectiveness of this division of the city parks department.
