How a local government agency gained insight into their strategic plan and created an organized, real-time status repository with AchieveIt
ABOUT THE cITY OF WINSTON-SALEM
Formed in 1913 by the merging of industrial “Winston” and Moravian “Salem,” Winston-Salem is known as the “City of Arts and Innovation.” Situated in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, they provide quality, affordable services to more than 250,000 residents.
LIFE IS GOOD
The City of Winston-Salem is the 5th most populous city in North Carolina. They pride themselves for promoting open data about Winston-Salem to stimulate community engagement and innovation. In doing so, they’ve created a strategic plan tracking their KPIs, Key Work Items (KWIs), and what they call “Requests and Concerns,” which are questions that are communicated among the staff and formulated by their Mayor and City Council.
BIG CHALLENGE
Despite successful community engagement, tracking their newly established strategic plan was not always a high priority. The city was managing the plan using Excel and collecting updates via phone calls and email. This old process of updating was often clunky, with teams siloed. This made it difficult to gain visibility and buy-in, resulting in duplicated efforts and time wasted. While information was shared, receiving updates, and leveraging information for decision-making was a challenge. This led to a culture of “we have to check this box” rather than driving and understanding impacts with each initiative.
HELP ARRIVES
So, they turned to AchieveIt. By leading from the front, reinforcement and support from the top established a focus on execution. Through automated updates and plan execution, the team has achieved a newfound excitement for their work. This enthusiasm is allowing them to explore new ideas, harnessing data as an innovative resource that can help drive progress and success with the software. And with progress updates and reporting now seamless, the team is confident there’s correct insight into data, all because there is now clear visibility into the plan.
LIFE IS EVEN BETTER
Now, the city is in the top percentile of organizations providing status updates on time. All while tracking hundreds of initiatives across the organization. Expectations are clear and aligned across the organization, leading to realistic expectations and meaningful communication. With alignment, improved reporting cycles, and increased visibility, the culture is now focused on successful partnerships across the organizations to drive impactful change for the city.
We are excited for the new way of thinking across the team. This is different, this is not the old culture of just making sure to check the box, this is now a culture of “let’s make some good decisions with good data.”
- Hope Ann Walsh
Performance Analyst
