Confronting Change

Posts on this website are generally grouped according to the six topical areas of: 1) The historic lack of integrated strategic thinking at the federal level, 2) Why the federal government should have an explicit, fully developed strategic role, 3) Appropriate roles for national leadership in economic well-being, today, 4) Cautions and historic failures in “central planning” efforts, 5) Topics that a national strategic policy can most meaningfully address, and 6) Implementing and institutionalizing a national strategic plan.

1. The federal Executive Branch alone has 15 Executive Departments, and each of these has as many as 10-25 key sub-organizational entities (agencies, bureaus, services, administrations, offices, etc.). Within each of these organizations there are many policies, and some of these organizational units have strategic plans. However, there are few if any policies with a strategic focus that cross organizational lines, and few overriding national policies that are truly strategically conceived or developed. [link]
2. Why should the federal government have an explicit, fully developed strategic role? Because nations of the world are much more directly competitive with one another now, federal government actions affect all aspects of social and economic life, virtually all policies have strategic implications anyway, and strategic planning is a vital component of both the formal and informal leadership to which any national government should naturally aspire.
3. There are at least 3 components of appropriate roles for national leadership in economic well-being, today:
   1. Guiding the allocation of resources based on sound economics;
   2. Providing inspiration and incentives to entrepreneurs, other businesses, and even households; and
   3. Serving as change agent, where change is part of the an essential response to critical challenges such as preserving environmental services. [link]
4. Mixed results in strategic plans at the federal level, in the U.S. but especially elsewhere, have clouded the concept of a strong national strategic policy, and the potential for “over-planning” is a real and significant threat. [link]
5. What specific topics can a national strategic policy most meaningfully address? The core topics will almost certainly address economic conditions and economic development, and relevant policies must be carefully coordinated with states and sub-regions, and their respective planning efforts.  [link]
6. Implementing a national strategic plan starts with understanding why public-forum policy-making can be a win-win situation for politicians as well as society at large, and otherwise requires only the adaptation of existing tools and principles to become operational. [link]