Strategic Plans…gotta have one….every public sector organization needs one right? Allow me to be the heretic…sort of.

I certainly agree that every valued municipal client of Performance Concepts Consulting needs to have a well conceived set of strategic priorities. These strategic priorities achieve relevance when stapled to the right concrete actions/initiatives. The intended impact of strategic priorities and their stapled actions/initiatives should be secured by setting results based targets that are tied to key performance indicators. The final result should be organization-wide alignment around a limited set of priorities, and an org culture focused on getting the RIGHT things done and doing things RIGHT.

The problem I have with traditional community based strategic planning involves none of the above objectives. The problem I have is one of execution. So many strategic planning exercises become mired in process, …

In the Canadian EMS world, everybody who is anybody knows about the risk posed by emergency department traffic jams when ambulances try to transfer patients.  Delays are significant.  90th percentile response times suffer as vehicle deployment patterns erode throughout the day.  The problem is endemic across Canada – witness the recent media expose in Edmonton concerning response time erosion, and the series of “Code Red” stories about zero ambulance availability in Ontario.  Performance Concepts master planning engagements in Ottawa and Thunder Bay have documented the problems in excruciating detail.

Non-emergent transportation poses a similar challenge in many jurisdictions.  As far as Councils and taxpayers are concerned, EMS units featuring highly trained paramedics are deployed to respond to serious medical emergency calls for service – not routine transportation of patients to hospital tests or diagnostic imaging appointments, or even medically necessary patient …