Case Study
From competing agendas to a shared plan: aligning a multi-partner program
State Government Technology Program | Three Organizational Partners | November 2022
The challenge
A large state government technology program, jointly operated by a client agency, a shared services technology office, and an implementation partner, needed to align three organizationally distinct partners around a shared strategic vision and plan. Each partner brought different missions, cultures, and priorities. Previous planning cycles had produced strategies that lacked genuine cross-organizational ownership and commitment, and the program was entering a critical multi-year phase that demanded a higher level of alignment than had previously been achieved.
The approach
Patrick designed and facilitated a two-day strategic planning workshop bringing together approximately thirty leaders across the three partner organizations. The engagement began well before the workshop itself: Patrick conducted executive interviews with key leaders, administered a stakeholder survey to assess current-state perceptions across competency areas, and synthesized results from prior workshop efforts to identify persistent themes and unresolved challenges and gaps.
The workshop was structured in four phases across two days: celebrating the program’s mission and progress, conducting an honest current-state assessment, refreshing and validating a shared vision across all four strategic ambition areas, and defining the strategic initiatives and roadmap for the next two to three years. Breakout group structures were designed to ensure cross-organizational mixing rather than allowing partners to self-sort, which accelerated the development of shared perspective.
Pre-work included a quantitative survey that scored both the importance and current maturity of 51 organizational competencies, mapped against four strategic ambitions. This data anchored the current-state conversation in evidence rather than anecdote, and prevented the session from being dominated by the loudest voices in the room.
The outcome
“One of the best sessions, if not THE best session I’ve ever attended.”
The workshop produced a refreshed and co-owned vision, a set of declared cultural principles to govern cross-partner collaboration, prioritized strategic initiatives, and a multi-year roadmap. Critically, the process created genuine cross-organizational ownership: because all three partners had contributed to the analysis, vision, and plan, the outputs reflected shared commitment rather than one partner’s agenda imposed on the others.
The shift in the room was palpable to participants.