This past weekend, I attended the wedding of a longtime friend – someone I first worked with over 30 years ago in government service. It turned into an unexpected reunion, filled with warm conversations and familiar faces, many now retired. A few, however, were still serving, including one former colleague who pulled me aside for a candid conversation.
He still works at the same agency where we once served. When he learned I now teach strategic planning and foresight, he expressed a concern that I’ve heard far too often: despite all the changes in leadership over the years, the agency still redoes its strategic plan every two years when a new Director comes in. Each time, they simply tweak the wording, update a few titles, and issue it as something “new.” In reality, little ever changes. Instead of developing something inspiring, motivating, and actionable, they merely check the GPRAMA box.
The Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act (GPRAMA) is a law requiring federal agencies to submit strategic plans and performance reports. While the law intends to improve government accountability and results, in practice, it too often becomes a compliance exercise – one that drains time and resources without delivering meaningful change.
This isn’t just one agency’s story. It’s a pattern across many government organizations.
Why do so many agencies treat strategic planning as a formality, rather than as a leadership tool to drive mission impact?
A few recurring causes emerge:
- Short-Termism: Leadership turnover and urgent operational demands lead to a focus on quick wins over long-term outcomes.
- Leadership Imprinting: New leaders want to signal change, even if it means repackaging the old.
- Compliance Culture: GPRAMA and similar mandates become check-the-box exercises rather than drivers of strategic value.
- Strategy Fatigue: Employees become disengaged when they see plans come and go without visible results.
- Lack of Execution Mechanisms: Without structures for implementation and follow-through, strategy becomes a shelf document.
But the problem runs deeper. Too many government strategies are built in a vacuum -without robust environmental scanning or future-focused analysis. This omission blinds agencies to emerging risks and opportunities that could shape mission success.
Why is environmental scanning so often skipped?
- Assumptions and Hubris: Leaders believe they already understand the landscape.
- Time Pressures: Scanning and foresight are seen as luxuries, not necessities.
- Confirmation Bias: Leaders seek data that confirms preexisting views.
- Resource Constraints: Strategic foresight is often deprioritized in favor of tactical needs.
What can be done?
We need to move from strategy as compliance to strategy as commitment – a commitment to mission, adaptability, and results. Here’s how government leaders and strategy professionals can help shift the culture:
- Integrate Foresight and Environmental Scanning: Regularly assess political, economic, technological, social, legal, and environmental shifts. Use insights to inform not just strategy, but operations and policy.
- Make Strategy Dynamic: Build living strategies with feedback loops that evolve as the environment changes.
- Build Buy-In at Every Level: Involve employees, not just executives, in shaping strategy to ensure relevance and ownership.
- Connect Strategy to the Mission: Clearly link the strategic plan to operational priorities and frontline actions.
- Emphasize Execution: Pair strategy with implementation plans, milestones, assigned responsibilities, and transparent metrics.
The homeland security community doesn’t have the luxury of stale plans or strategy theater. We operate in a world of asymmetric threats, rapid technological change, and evolving public expectations. Our strategies must be agile, inclusive, and future-focused.
A meaningful strategy isn’t just a document submitted to satisfy a legislative mandate – it’s vision that aligns people, resources, and decisions in pursuit of mission excellence.
Let’s stop checking boxes and start changing outcomes.