U.S Government Does Not Have a Strategic Plan

U.S Government Does Not Have a Strategic Plan

Many find it difficult to believe that the Government of the United
States does not have a strategic plan. While it is true that various departments and agencies within the government have strategic plans (the Department of Transportation usually creates a good strategic plan) the government, as a whole, does not have a long-term strategic plan.

Every four years there is a presidential election and senators and house members are elected every six years in the United States. Whoever is elected as president sets the agenda, along with a Congress who sets the budget. That means the long-term strategy of the federal government can (and often does) change based upon the personal agendas of these individuals.

Have you noticed that sometimes the U.S. Government helps a foreign country and then at other times, after an election, that assistance changes? Or sometimes the relationship with the United Nations is stronger than at other times? Strategic relationships often depend upon who is sitting in the chairs of leadership.

A few years ago I was sitting in the living room of a Prime Minister in the Caribbean listening as he described how the U.S. government developed a relationship with his country only to then find that the United States did not like the fact that offshore gambling was allowed, which could encourage money laundering. According to the PM, the U.S. Government provided enough pressure to cause this small island nation to revamp its policy, a policy that was a major revenue generation for the country.

Strategic planning, a process that has successfully been used going all the way back to ancient Greece, a process created by military institutions (segments of government) and perfected by business, is not used at the macro level by the U.S. Government.

Do you think China's growth is happenstance? It is not. It is part of China's strategic plan that it created years ago. In fact I am told that this is China's eleventh 5-year strategic plan. Thus, China has been working off of strategic plans for the last 55 years.

Perhaps it is time leadership decides where the U.S. should be 10, 15 or even 20 years from now instead of only thinking short-term and changing the agenda all the time. Imagine if a business brought in a new CEO every four years and a new Board every six years and they changed the entire focus of the organization based upon their own personal agendas.......

Need prove the federal government needs to concentrate on strategic planning? The White House blog today (march 3) writes:

"The Federal government owns 1.2 million properties across the country making it the biggest property owner in the United States, but billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted each year on government properties that are no longer needed.  This includes roughly 14,000 buildings and structures currently designated as excess and thousands of others that are underutilized."

An organization governed by a strategic plan that is constantly controlled and monitored would never let that happen.