ASTHO Improves Its Strategic Planning Health

For several years, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), a Washington DC-based organization with a mission to track US public health policy and advise its members on policy implications, took a traditional approach to its strategic planning process. This resulted in long lists of actionable priorities that primarily reflected the ideas and inputs of ASTHO’s board of directors, but did not always have staff and funding support planned out.

ASTHO partnered with Davidoff to shift its strategic planning approach to encompass a much deeper collaboration among board members, staff, funders, members, and other stakeholders. Working together, the organization developed a new planning process that delivered a Mission-Driven Strategic Plan reflective of shared goals and priorities, dedicated funding and resources, achievable success metrics, communication of priorities organization-wide, and a process to track implementation. As importantly, the process boosted levels of communication, understanding, and shared values across ASTHO internal teams, its public health member organizations, and external stakeholders, galvanizing them more fully around the mission.

“We also have a new operations plan informed by the strategic plan that’s increasing the performance of our overall organization in service to our members and their work in public health,” observed CEO Mike Fraser.

By improving its strategic planning health, ASTHO was able to align stakeholders around shared, values-driven goals and deliver even more potently on its mission of advancing the public’s health and well-being. That’s the power of a Mission-Driven strategic planning process. To learn more about ASTHO’s initiatives, visit here.