Strategic planning process sets stage for success.

When Andy Koval joined what was then called the University of Vermont’s Technical Services Program (TSP) as a biomedical equipment technician in 1999, he remembers being presented with the organization’s strategic plan as part of his new employee orientation. When clinical engineer Leah Rafuse joined one year later, she too received the strategic plan at orientation and thereafter heard periodic updates at staff meetings. “But we had no input into the goal-setting process,” she recalls, and the plan had little impact on their day-to-day jobs. Today, TSP’s strategic planning process has been transformed. Both Koval and Rafuse are now an integral part of the process, along with nearly half of the TSP’s 50 other employees. The strategic plan takes on daily significance to every employee as it is closely tied to the ongoing employee evaluation process. And, most importantly, nearly every aspect of TSP’s operations has been improved through the ideas generated in the planning process. What led to this transformation? In 2002, Michael Lane, TSP’s associate director, attended a program about the Baldrige quality program put on by the Vermont Council for Quality and began considering it as a framework to manage their organization. One year later, TSP adopted the performance improvement and innovation framework known as the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program within its strategic planning process. Today, the department uses that process to craft a thorough and actionable strategic plan that is linked directly to the facility’s vision, its customers, its core competencies, and the key factors that affect their business.