Strategic Planning That Holds When Everything Else Shifts
Updated: 20 hours ago
The Challenge
KTOO Public Media, Juneau's primary locally owned newsroom and Southeast Alaska's largest, was wrapping up a five-year plan its own leadership called "the best plan ever." For the leaders who had built it and lived with it, it had been a genuine North Star. But significant staff turnover meant most current employees hadn't been part of shaping it, and the connection showed. The plan hadn't become the organizational rallying point leadership had hoped it would be for the full team.
There were also structural gaps the next plan needed to address: no clear mechanisms for tracking progress, and no link between performance reviews and strategic goals. KTOO didn't need to start over. They needed a process that would go further and bring more people along.
What no one knew yet: KTOO was about to face the single largest funding crisis in public media history, and the planning process they were in the middle of would be the foundation that allowed them to respond.
Our Approach
KTOO Public Media engaged Brevity & Wit for strategic planning from January through June 2025. Judy Oyedele of Joyedele Consulting served as lead consultant on the Brevity & Wit team. We gathered input from the full staff, every board member, and the Community Advisory Board, then synthesized what we heard into a strategic briefing book: a thinking tool for the group to work through together. By the time 16 board members and staff leaders gathered for the full-day retreat in April, they arrived already primed to build on a shared base of knowledge and make decisions as a group.
Some organizations complete strategic planning in an afternoon. That can produce a useful document. It can't produce what KTOO's leadership named as a defining feature of this approach:
"Strategic planning isn't just about ending up with a plan. At least the way you do it, it's also this opportunity to do a lot of relationship building — leadership with leadership, leadership with board, board with board members, community with the organization. It serves two purposes." - Cheryl Snyder, Vice President & General Manager, KTOO Music & Arts
The retreat was designed to give every thread of conversation enough room to go somewhere, with dynamic working sessions, careful pacing, and no rushing at the end. Participants left with a draft plan and a clear 30-day action agenda, a deliberate design choice to prevent the drift that follows intensive planning days.
"I've never been through such a thorough, thoughtful process for strategic planning." — Retreat participant
Beyond the retreat, we worked with leadership to build the accountability infrastructure: progress review mechanisms, board-level reporting structures, and management processes to keep the strategy visible after the engagement ended.
Impact & Results
A record fundraising year — built on groundwork laid at the retreat
Within weeks of the retreat, federal CPB funding, a cornerstone of public media revenue, came under serious political threat. KTOO's response was grounded in scenario planning they had done at the retreat months earlier, including a direct examination of what they would prioritize if they lost significant operating budget.
"This strategic plan had life long before it was complete. We were already working on priority area one, objective one the minute we left that retreat. Had we not had the time to think through that and start to develop the case — I don't think we would have had the same success." - Justin Shoman, President & Executive Director
The fundraising year that followed was, in leadership's own words, "astounding," the product of thinking the organization had already done before the crisis ever arrived.
A more actionable plan — and a new structure to hold it
The previous plan had "lovely priorities and broad statements, with a few tactics underneath" and measurement that felt like everyone shrugging their shoulders. This plan went further into the weeds in a way that made progress concrete and reportable.
The board created a new Strategic Development Committee, a governance structure that didn't exist before, with an explicit charge to monitor plan progress and hold management accountable at the board level. Monthly strategy check-ins and quarterly deep-dives are now embedded in the management calendar, where progress is reviewed, blockers are named, and priorities are reaffirmed. That's a fundamental shift in how the organization engages with its own strategy.
Still in motion — and honest about it
Broader implementation was slowed by the funding crisis. With the organization in fundraising response mode for much of the year, some priorities were put on the shelf. Full staff engagement with the plan, beyond the initial survey and feedback process, is still developing, with the goal of connecting individual performance goals to strategic priorities as the next milestone.
This is the nature of a living plan in a turbulent environment. The foundation held. The rest is being built.
What It Takes for This to Work
KTOO's leadership was candid about what they'd tell another organization considering this kind of investment.
You need leaders who are genuinely in it. The process requires real engagement, from showing up to the retreat prepared to doing the harder lifting of turning outputs into action plans. Leadership's willingness to carve out time, including a few deliberate off-site work sessions after the retreat, was what moved the plan from paper to practice.
Push hard for external voices. The one reflection KTOO leadership wished they could revisit: stronger attendance at the Community Advisory Board focus group. Internal stakeholders can validate what you already sense. External voices can illuminate what you can't see from inside. Invest in getting them into the room.
Commit to feeding it. A strategic plan is not a deliverable. It's a practice. Organizations that get the most from this process are the ones that treat the plan as something that needs to be worked and returned to, not filed and referenced occasionally.
Know what you're signing up for, and whether you're ready. This work requires real commitment: leadership that will show up prepared, do the harder work of turning retreat outputs into action, and keep feeding the plan after the facilitator is gone. It also requires enough organizational stability to think. KTOO was in turbulence when this work began, but not yet in crisis, and that distinction mattered. As leadership reflected: "We never could have started in the crisis. It would have been impossible." Organizations that need a survival plan need something different than a strategic plan. This process is for organizations that are ready to be serious about what comes next.
"If you're sincere about being thoughtful in the direction you want the organization to go, and you're willing to continue putting energy into it long after the facilitator is done — this is a wonderful process that will be impactful." - Justin Shoman, President & Executive Director
Joyedele Consulting specializes in organizational health assessments, strategic advisory work, and leadership development for mission-driven organizations. If your organization is approaching a strategic planning cycle, a leadership transition, or a moment of meaningful change — and you want to start from a place of clear-eyed understanding rather than assumption — we'd welcome a conversation.
