Strategic Planning and Organizational Development

Developing organization strength, unity, and vision

Organizations that have a clear strategy, efficient processes, and effective systems can prioritize operational needs, while providing an optimal level of service to constituents. But it can be challenging to take a step back and look at the big picture when you’re focused on the day-to-day.

With decades of experience in organization development and strategic planning, BerryDunn’s local government consulting team can help set your organization up for future success. Our experts will guide you through the process of defining your vision, developing a strategic plan, refining your business processes for greater efficiencies, and implementing and managing change.

Services

We consider all aspects of the organization to help ensure broad organizational progress, buy-in, development, and ultimately, success.

Strategic planning

Organization and leadership development

Organizational change management

Strategic planning

Our consultants have partnered with dozens of cities and counties to help guide their strategic planning efforts. From stakeholder and community engagement, to needs assessment and facilitation, to strategic plan development and implementation, we can help you through the entire process or at specific stages.

Community engagement

We use online and in-person strategies to actively engage your community in the strategic planning process.

Stakeholder engagement

We help you engage stakeholders—elected officials, department heads, and employees—to generate buy-in, consensus, and support for your plan.

Facilitation

Our consultants are certified in the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ (ICA) Technology of Participation® (ToP®) facilitation methodology.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (DEIBA)

We integrate DEIBA strategies in all of our engagements to facilitate authentic, inclusive, and accessible strategic planning processes.

Organization and leadership development

A great organization is a combination of effective people and efficient processes. We get to know each client and their unique challenges, investing the time to hear your vision, goals, and preferences to help you develop your workforce, improve performance, and strengthen the health of your organization.

Organization assessment

Our team has the knowledge and tools to assess and benchmark your organization, departments, or specific goals such as organizational structure or culture.

Management and senior team coaching

We are skilled at coaching leaders to prepare them for change and growth, and support project success for better long-term results.

Business process improvement

We use Lean Six Sigma and other methodologies to identify root cause issues and develop more efficient processes and workflows.

Organizational change management

Critical to the success of organizational initiatives, we embed change management into every engagement. We use the Prosci ADKAR^®model and other tools to assess the impact of change, conduct readiness assessments, and involve key stakeholders to promote buy-in and build consensus. We partner with you to monitor project progress and ensure that resistance is addressed early on.

Change readiness assessments

We help you assess your employees’ and community’s readiness for change using the Prosci ADKAR^® model, and then monitor resistance and provide strategies to overcome roadblocks.

Leadership training and coaching

We provide support to help leadership run projects successfully, manage change, and be effective sponsors.

Communication planning and strategy

Our team knows that communication can make or break a project. We provide hands-on assistance in planning and executing a communication strategy, internally and externally.

Actively guiding organizational success

We help you align organization development efforts with your goals, objectives, mission, and vision, taking into consideration how your efforts will impact different areas, including departments, divisions, functional areas, stakeholder groups, and the organization as a whole.

Proven yet flexible approach

Team-centric mindset and highly qualified resources

Supportive engagement and facilitation methodologies

Focus on conducting inclusive and engaging processes

Proven tools and technologies

Extensive background in organization development

What to expect at BerryDunn

Focused on inspiring organizations to transform and innovate, BerryDunn’s Local Government Practice Group can help you solve your biggest challenges for your organization as a whole and in specific areas. Our team is comprised of broadly specialized consultants and former local government employees who exclusively serve local government clients.

We provide expertise in areas including finance and administration, community development, technology management, justice and public safety, parks and recreation, and health and community services. Our focus is on practical and actionable plans, using principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our recommendations.

About us

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Industries we serve

Industry

Local Government

Featured content

featured news + insights events success stories

An adaptable and inclusive strategic plan

DuPage County, the second largest county in Illinois, enlisted BerryDunn to update its strategic plan to address emerging challenges including economic shifts and regional unemployment.

The county, with a population of 920,000, needed a plan designed to be adaptable and to prioritize diversity and inclusion across the county's services, programs, and policies.

BerryDunn facilitated collaboration among county departments to align goals, focusing on six strategic objectives including environmental stewardship and reducing public water connection costs. The project concluded with a working session to help the county independently implement the plan and allocate resources effectively.

Our experienced local government consulting team guided the success of the project by:

Gathering community input through several community forums and group interviews with community representatives and county employees, as well as the collection of broad input from a variety of stakeholders through a web-based community engagement site.
Creating a comprehensive environmental scan and SWOC (strengths, weakness, opportunities, and challenges) analysis to inform elected officials and senior leadership for plan development sessions.
Providing guidance, best practices, and industry expertise to craft actionable objectives to implement the plan with a focus on clear performance metrics to measure progress and create accountability.
Developing a budget survey to gather community input on prioritizing county funding for the strategic goals and objectives in the plan and helping to align and integrate the strategic plan with the county’s budget.

View strategic plan >>

Client spotlight

DuPage County, Illinois

A shared vision in strategic planning

Menifee is a rapidly growing community spanning roughly 50 square miles and home to over 116,000 residents. The city engaged BerryDunn to help them develop a new strategic plan to make progress toward a shared vision for the city’s future.

Our consultants helped the city in developing a long-term strategic visioning effort that established a set of priorities and objectives and provided implementation guidance. The approach focused on engaging and analyzing the city’s internal organization and the community by researching, interviewing diverse groups, and conducting community forums.

Our experienced local government consulting team guided the success of the project by:

Leading a highly engaging, inclusive, and participatory process with the city’s leadership, staff, community, and other stakeholders.
Leveraging various information-gathering strategies including interviews, focus group meetings, in-person and virtual community forums, and online surveys via an engagement platform.
Developing a detailed environmental scan to guide strategic planning sessions and developing key components of the city’s plan.
Facilitating meeting with senior leadership to review initiatives from the previous strategic plan and develop key action items for the continuation of current initiatives and implementation of the new items.

View the strategic plan >>

Client spotlight

City of Menifee, California

The county's first strategic plan

Orange County, North Carolina, engaged BerryDunn to assist in facilitating its first countywide strategic plan to create a cohesive vision for the future. The county stressed the importance of a community-led process that would help inform decision making. BerryDunn collaborated with the county manager’s office and county board to identify key objectives and actionable strategies to address critical issues such as community health, public transportation, environmental sustainability, and more. BerryDunn will continue to work with the county in the coming years to assist in progress reporting to help ensure the strategic plan remains a living document.

Our experienced local government consulting team guided the success of the project by:

Facilitating a community engagement process that sought to meet the community where they are, including strategies such as pop-up events, community forums, and “meeting-in-a-box” kits to identify a community shared vision.
Analyzing statistically valid survey results to help inform the strategic planning process
Reviewing department strategic plans to analyze and provide recommendations to help ensure alignment with the countywide strategic plan.

View the strategic plan >>