Strategy is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term, or overall goals, under conditions of uncertainty.
A new Council, Groundhog Day, with the Troll of Myocum out again pedantically criticising. Already Mark Swivel seems to be his new target, for the crime of trying to establish a working relationship, and trust, with Council staff, within the ‘strategic planning workshop’, possibly the only dedicated forum between just staff and councillors dedicated to long-term thinking. If that is a failure of separation of powers, bring it on. It is the unremitting hostility of trolls that has many of the staff in their disconnected bunker.
Maybe if staff can be drawn into an active connection with their community we can talk about real measures of accountability, such as adopting effective strategies and real quality outcomes.
In the last term there was a rather weak and compromised rural land use strategy adopted – what are the quality outcomes from it? There were tortuously-developed Draft Residential and Employment Lands Strategies, supposedly stuck with State government. There is an extraordinary people-focused Transport Strategy. Is it not Council staff’s responsibility to act both bureaucratically and politically, if need be, to unstick [these draft strategies] and progress proposed actions to outcomes like real houses, access and mobility programs, or fit-for-purpose roads? And if they can’t unstick them, then we should be employing staff who can unstick them, or who can design, facilitate and advocate for non-conventional strategies, particularly for dire emergencies like housing and rural infrastructure.
Their performance should be judged on real outcomes, generally based on long-term goals, but also an ability to react to circumstances without being too adhoc. However, being strategic is really hard when under a barrage of personalised vitriol and negativity, which too often results in trauma and disengagement.
In a world with conditions of uncertainty, surely we should nurture the conditions for strategic thinking, feeling and acting?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
