Background

Cornerstone Planning Group was commissioned to support the Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) in developing their new Strategic Plan (2020-2025). The Board provides pan-Canada leadership and coordination for official place names, and this Plan was developed to guide their direction, objectives and activities over the next five years.

Process

Drawing upon the Cornerstone’s expertise in developing Strategic Plans, the team developed a framework for identifying strategic objectives, setting milestone targets and assigning implementation responsibilities to guide GNBC activities.
Strategic objectives were developed through a series of interviews with Board members to discuss progress to date plus a collaborative workshop that was held in conjunction with the Annual Board Meeting of federal, provincial and territorial members. The workshop was conducted in a World Cafe format and included discussions of:

  • the relevance of past strategic objectives
  • challenges experienced by the GNBC in fulfilling their mandate
  • successes and challenges in monitoring the GNBC progress

Solution

The Cornerstone team included a range of experts to ensure workshop discussions were inclusive of cultural diversity. French translation and facilitation were also available.
The strategic objectives identified in the Plan were intended to strengthen the effectiveness of GNBC operations, refine policies and procedures, and encourage the use, exchange and promotion of authoritative geographical names.

The Results

Four strategic projects were developed in the Final Report to facilitate management of activities and reporting of progress:

Project 1:

Review GNBC Role Mandate & Governance

Project 2:

Enhance Internal Communication & Collaboration Initiatives

Project 3:

Improve GNBC Database content and Management

Project 4:

Enhance Profile & External
Collaborations

Cornerstone’s framework approach ensured that the Strategic Plan and its supporting projects were implementable with the organization’s current resources and measurable in their outcomes.

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