How to Lead by Design with Strategic Planning
In the New Year, there are both feelings of hope and overwhelm. In addition to excitement with new possibilities, there’s still the weight of unfinished work and upcoming expectations, and the sense that everything feels a little less stable than it used to.
That tension was front and center in ACJI’s recent Learn@Work Live with Nicholas K. Powell, PhD, Georgia Department of Community Supervision. How do you stay focused when everything around you is changing?
ACJI Affiliate Dr. Powell leads strategic planning efforts and brings an implementation science lens to the work. His insights turn planning from paperwork into practice, and these lessons apply to any mission-driven organization but are especially useful for probation and parole agencies.
We’ve embedded the full webinar here, but scroll ahead for a few short highlights.
Strategy Does Not Start With a Plan
When organizations talk about strategy, the instinct is to jump into planning. What should we do this year, and what initiatives matter most?
Dr. Powell challenged that instinct by reframing strategy as something that begins long before goals are set. At its core, strategy is about people. Before people can align around a shared direction, they need clarity about who they are and why they show up to the work.
That clarity comes from asking questions we rarely slow down enough to answer.
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why do you do it?
These questions shape how we make decisions and priorities. Especially in justice work, it’s easy to lose sight of the call to service that initially brought us here. Without intention, drift becomes the default.
Choosing Intention Over Resolution
Rather than starting the new year with resolutions, the conversation invited a different approach. Webinar host, ACJI’s Director, Community Relations and Strategy, Dr. Alex Walker, introduced the idea of choosing a word for the year. Not as a slogan or a goal to check off, but as a compass to return to when feeling overwhelmed.
The power of this is taking the time to define what that word looks like in practice and using it as a steady point of reference throughout the year. When participants were asked to consider what others might notice if they truly lived their word, the answers revealed a desire for greater presence and alignment. Not for more productivity or achievement. Growth doesn’t always come from adding more. Sometimes it comes from letting go.
Focus on Purpose Instead of Motivation
One of the most resonant ideas from the session was the distinction between motivation and purpose. Motivation fluctuates and depends on energy, circumstances, and mood. Purpose is steadier. It brings you back when motivation fades.
As Dr. Powell put it, “…vague wishes drift. Clear purpose directs.”
A Plan as a Discipline, Not a Document
Once the conversation turned toward planning, the emphasis stayed firmly away from shelf-bound binders and documents. An unused plan is the same as having none.
Instead, strategy was framed as a discipline. A way of thinking and deciding deliberately rather than reacting to the loudest issue in the room.
Dr. Powell offered a simple structure that applies to both individuals and organizations.
- Purpose grounds you in why the work matters.
- Priorities force you to choose what matters most right now.
- Practices translate intention into consistent action.
This approach acknowledges a hard truth. Energy is finite, and when everything is a priority, nothing truly is. Focus comes from doing fewer things better and returning to them again and again.
For more insights about implementing a strategic plan, check out another one of our recent blog posts here.
Not A Roadmap, But a Navigation System
A roadmap assumes a fixed route, while a strategy rarely works that way.
Instead, think of a plan as a navigation system. The destination remains steady, but the route adjusts as new information appears and conditions change. When you miss a turn or encounter a roadblock, the system recalibrates rather than abandoning the journey altogether.
This mindset allows for adaptability without losing direction. It also normalizes course correction as part of leadership rather than a failure.
From Personal Clarity to Collective Alignment
As the conversation expanded from individual reflection to organizational leadership, one theme became clear. Personal clarity strengthens collective strategy.
When leaders understand their own identity and purpose, they are better equipped to recognize and respect the identities of others. Strategy becomes less about control and more about alignment.
Dr. Powell compared this to an orchestra. Each person brings a distinct sound. Strategy is what allows those sounds to come together in harmony. Not by making everyone play the same part, but by ensuring everyone is oriented toward the same mission.
This shared clarity makes tough decisions easier. When priorities are explicit and purpose is visible, decisions feel less personal and more principled. Disagreement does not disappear, but it becomes grounded in shared goals rather than individual preferences.
Check out our 8 Strategic Planning Tips from an Implementation Pro blog post, here.
Lead by Design
The session closed with a simple but powerful distinction. Change will happen whether we plan for it or not. The question is whether we respond by default or lead by design.
Leading by design requires intention and the discipline to return to purpose when required. It asks us to slow down long enough to clarify who we are, what matters, and how we want to show up.
As this year goes on, the invitation is not to do more, but to do what matters with greater intention.
- To ground strategy in identity
- To use plans as living tools
- To stay focused, not by resisting change, but by anchoring ourselves in purpose.
The goal is not just to survive another year of change. It is to lead through it with clarity. If you are ready to move from reflection to action, ACJI offers a next step.
This spring, Dr. Powell will lead the Strategic Planning Intensive, a four-week experience designed to help leaders build plans that guide real decisions and daily practice. The intensive focuses on strategic planning as a discipline, not a document, grounding plans in purpose, implementation science, and data so they stay alive long after they are written.
If you want to lead with clarity rather than default, this intensive is designed to support that work. Learn more here.
