Now that you know where you are and where you want to be, the next step is to identify the organization’s strategic issues and the key policy levers or challenges that need to be addressed. Generally, these strategic issues are ones that an organization can do something about. The analysis or assessment completed when determining the features outlined in the Where Are We Now? section will provide the context for these issues. The goals, objectives, and strategies create the roadmap for progressing toward the future.

Face the obstacles.[17] Once you’ve decided and articulated the future you want to create, you must be very accurate about the obstacles you’ll need to overcome to make it happen. Human beings, in general, tend to either over- or underestimate the importance and impact of obstacles. Here again, it’s critical that you have an observational, objective eye. Look at the possible obstacles to your vision as objectively as possible. Doing so will make it much more likely that you’ll be able to assess them effectively and take appropriate action.

Make core directional choices and then get specific.[18] Strategies mark out the pathways that will lead to your desired future. Strategies are core-level decisions about how to best focus your time and energy. Sometimes, people can move straight from vision to tactics without establishing clear strategies, and they end up with uncoordinated efforts that don’t make the best use of important resources.

Goals. These are statements that convey what an organization wants to achieve. They answer the question of what you must focus on to achieve your vision.

• To identify your goals, it is important to determine and agree upon strategic issues that face your organization. As described above, a strategic issue is a question or challenge about which the organization can do something. In developing the strategic issues, think about mandates, mission, values, services, customers, financing, organization, and management.[19]
• Start by developing a list of strategic issues, then prioritize the list and develop goals to address the issues. This is a great group exercise to complete with the team. To develop the list of issues, you will want to review your mission, vision, and SWOT, SOAR or needs assessment.
• Example: A strategic issue might be: How can we ensure that children are ready for kindergarten? The goal that would then be developed from this strategic issue would be: Children enter kindergarten ready.

Objectives. Objectives are more specific than a goal and may be either qualitative or quantitative, and they must be met to reach your goal.

• After your list of goals is developed, begin thinking about what you must do to reach your goal. Ideally, you will have more than one objective for each goal.
• Example: Goal: Children enter kindergarten ready. Objective 1: Children receive high-quality early care. Objective 2: The early childhood workforce will be equipped to support children and families as they transition between early care and K-12.

Strategies. These items convert the objectives into specific actionable steps. Strategies outline the “what, when, and who” of specific actions, and they are measurable. Within your operational or action plan, the ownership for these strategies will be defined along with additional details and tasks to accomplish the strategy.

• When developing strategies, think about how the organization will measure success and track progress.
• Example: For Objective 2 in our example above, some strategies may include: Strategy 1: Develop professional development opportunities targeted to transition supports. Strategy 2: Develop agreements with K-12 to align professional development for family supports.

Please see an example below of how Oregon included these elements in their Raise Up Oregon: A Statewide Early Learning System Plan 2019–2023. More examples can be found in the Appendix.

Used with permission: Oregon Early Learning Council. (2019). Raise Up Oregon: A Statewide Early Learning System Plan 2019-2023. Salem, OR: Oregon Early Learning Division. https://oregonearlylearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Raise-Up-Oregon-Web- corrected.pdf