WIESBADEN, Germany - Members of the U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden command team, directors and strategic planning teams joined together Sept. 20 to review past successes and continue fine-tuning for the future.
After a year which saw the garrison lauded as the Army Community of Excellence Gold Award winner and Commander in Chief's Installation of Excellence winner, leaders stressed how important the strategic planning process was in earning the recognition and continues to be in meeting the future needs of service members and their families.
"There is no doubt that we were able to win the Army Community of Excellence award due to this process which underpins everything that we do," said Col. Jeffrey Dill, USAG Wiesbaden commander. "The challenge for us is that transformation is changing everything around us."
Ensuring the garrison is able to continue delivering programs and services at the high level with which community members and newcomers have become accustomed will be the focus of future strategic planning sessions. As construction, unit moves and a host of other factors continue to change the face of the Wiesbaden military community -- added to the fact that new fiscal realities are tightening budgets everywhere -- strategic planners must remain flexible to new ideas and innovative thinking.
"We're leading the way with our strategic planning," said Lorie Khatod, strategic planner for USAG Wiesbaden's Plans, Analysis and Integration Office. "We have mature processes in place that allow us to have strategic successes throughout the year."
Khatod explained that the meeting was intended to close out planning from fiscal year 2011 and to gear up for FY 2012. "It's an opportunity for all of the directors to sit down with the commander and to obtain his strategic expectations for the upcoming year while allowing us to close out strategic objectives from FY11.
"I think the fact that we will receive higher visibility with the U.S. Army Europe move to Wiesbaden, that we already have close ties to our mission support partners and the fact that we were the ACOE Gold winner encourages individuals to be more willing to join in the strategic planning process," said Khatod.
Unit and organization leaders realize that they are welcome to join in the process to implement positive change regarding readiness and well-being, she said, adding, "It's definitely a partnership that we do because they use the programs and services that we provide.
"We have an opportunity to be innovative and creative because we are the center of excellence. I think there's an expectation (throughout the Army) for us to push the boundaries," Khatod said. "I would hope that we would continue to push those boundaries and to think outside the box."
Khatod, who is moving on to a new position with the Installation Management Command-Europe in Heidelberg, said helping the commander guide the strategic planning process in Wiesbaden has been highly fulfilling. "It's been a rewarding experience for me to see such a huge change in such a short amount of time. The directors, managers and community as a whole have been open to new ideas and new strategies."
After spending several hours refining the organizational philosophy, strategic goal statements and identifying skill sets needed for the next steps in strategic planning, Dill stressed the importance of "keeping the process going. I think the time is well spent and I appreciate the progress."
Social Sharing