By Philip Reed
As mentioned at the most recent All-Employee Meeting, the Tactical Action Plan is being updated for fiscal year 2021. What exactly does that mean, though? How are those updates made, and how do they benefit the organization?
It’s best to start by looking at the big picture: Strategic Roadmap 2024. This is the document that defines WAPA’s strategic focus. It was developed in 2014, and at that point it looked forward to a horizon that was 10 years away. The Roadmap itself will also be seeing a refresh in 2021.
As one might imagine, a lot changes in 10 years. Working toward goals that far out is beneficial for any organization, but that organization must also be agile enough to adjust trajectory when necessary.
That’s where the Tactical Action Plan comes in. The TAP focuses on strategy within the two-to-three year range, helping WAPA to make decisions in the near term that will get the organization where it needs to be in the long term.
The Strategic Roadmap defines WAPA’s focus as improving its Business, Technology and Organizational Excellence; building mutually beneficial partnerships across our numerous stakeholders, both internal and external; and evolving the services WAPA provides to meet customer needs. All of which contributes to WAPA better powering the energy frontier.
The TAP outlines the specific activities WAPA will focus on to achieve those critical pathways.
Even more granular is the Annual Plan, which has a scope of one year and which outlines very specifically what the organization will do within the year to achieve the goals laid out in the TAP.
Since WAPA’s first TAP in 2014, the organization has consistently reduced the number of TAP goals. This is intended to improve focus and alignment around the activities that will truly drive the organization to the next level.
The most recent TAP, developed in 2019, had 14 initiatives. In the spirit of continuous improvement and continuing to focus organizational priorities, WAPA again evaluated its TAP Goals when developing the Annual Plan for FY 2021.
During this evaluation, WAPA placed each goal into one of two categories: strategic goals, which are the efforts that will truly change WAPA’s trajectory for customers, for employees or in the industry; and programmatic goals, which are primarily focused on continuously improving activities the organization already performs.
The breakdown of goals looked like this:
- Strategic Goals: Preparing for Markets; Fiber Partnerships; Data as a Strategic Asset; Human Performance / Just Culture; Program and Budget Integration; Organizational Approach to Markets (on hold)
- Programmatic Goals: Physical Security; Emergency Management; Cybersecurity; Transformer Management; Asset Management (Major and Additional Assets); Leadership Development; Acquisition Management
In order to accomplish strategic goals, a large percentage of the organization must work together for many years to be successful. Programmatic goals are still very important to WAPA’s success and the organization would be best served by empowering the relevant program managers to work with their stakeholders to continuously improve and develop their programs.
The goals identified as strategic were retained as TAP goals, for a total of six: Preparing for Markets; Organizational Approach to Markets; Fiber Partnerships; Data as a Strategic Asset; Human Performance / Just Culture; and Program and Budget Integration. Organizational Approach to Markets is on hold this year while the organization focuses on Preparing for Markets.
The TAP’s four strategic enablers remain unchanged, as they are foundational for WAPA’s mission success: Safety; Communication; Inclusion and Diversity; and Partnership and Innovation.
With the help of documents such as the TAP—and its improved focus—WAPA will continue to seek opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness to keep rates low and deliver value to customers, employees and the industry.
Note: Reed is a public affairs specialist.
Last modified on March 5th, 2024