Strategic plans fail not because they are written wrong but because the process that produced them did not create the ownership needed to implement them. Confluence designs strategic planning processes around that distinction, for state agencies, government enterprises, county governments, nonprofits, and associations navigating significant transitions.
Strategic planning engagements across government, nonprofit, and private sectors
Allocated by state leaders to programs recommended by a Confluence-facilitated task force
CTE FY2026–FY2030 Strategic Plan currently in development
The Clean Transit Enterprise is an unusual institution: a dedicated-revenue enterprise within CDOT with statutory independence, a mandate to deliver measurable climate outcomes, and a Board that spans CDOT leadership, transit agencies, and other stakeholders. When CTE Director Craig Secrest sought to develop the enterprise’s first five-year strategic plan, he retained Confluence to design and facilitate the process and to serve as an ongoing thought partner.
The engagement began with a full-day Board retreat in March 2026. The retreat was designed to do something harder than produce a list of priorities: to surface the genuine strategic tensions that would shape any honest plan, and to give Board members the space to engage with those tensions directly before any drafting began. The central tension the Board needed to work through was the question of CTE’s fundamental role — whether the enterprise should operate primarily as a funding partner to transit agencies, distributing grants and stepping back, or as a more active accountability-oriented entity with expectations about how grantees perform and what outcomes they deliver. That question does not have a clean answer. The retreat surfaced it, named it, and gave the Director a clear picture of where the Board stood.
The retreat also produced alignment on five candidate strategic goals: strengthening Colorado’s transit network, accelerating the transition to zero-emission transit fleets, building the financial sustainability of CTE itself, expanding CTE’s statewide presence and partnerships, and establishing the measurement and accountability infrastructure that CTE needs to demonstrate its impact. Each goal carries short, mid, and five-year objectives designed to be revisited as the environment shifts.
Confluence is leading the drafting of the FY2026-FY2030 Strategic Plan, working iteratively with Director Secrest. The plan is designed as a living document — not a static blueprint — with formal check-in points at 12 and 30 months and a structure that allows revision as federal policy, oil and gas revenues, and the pace of transit electrification technology change in ways that cannot be fully anticipated. Board adoption is targeted prior to the November 2026 election.
The measure of a strategic plan is not whether it gets adopted. It is whether the organization is still using it twelve months later. The CTE plan is designed around that standard.
Strategic plan in development
Board retreat & 1:1 engagement · Iterative plan drafting ·
Ongoing advisory
Board adoption targeted prior to November 2026
election
CTE formula grant and stakeholder engagement
work (SB25-230)
At the request of the Department of Local Affairs Executive Director, Confluence designed and led a multi-phase strategic planning process for the agency. The engagement began with individual interviews with each Division and Office leader to surface staff perspectives on the history, current needs, and future direction of their programs.
Two leadership retreats workshopped priorities and developed strategies to advance them. Confluence also led multi-hour sessions at all-staff meetings across the Department to gather program-level input and build staff ownership of the process. Confluence drafted DOLA’s three- year strategic plan and worked with agency leadership to finalize it, including division-level engagement to prepare leaders for implementation.
DOLA 2024–2026 Strategic Plan
Confluence’s process began before anyone sat down. Each council member received a pre-retreat survey — not about policy priorities, but about values and experience. What are the three most important things for you to achieve as a council member? What did you learn about the community while running for office? Those questions do something a standard opening round-robin does not: they surface what people actually care about before the political performance starts. By the time the room came together, the landscape of common ground was already visible — to Confluence and, once it was made explicit, to the council members themselves.
Late March 2026
When a new Director took over the Division of Criminal Justice, DCJ contracted Confluence to engage internal and external stakeholders and provide consultation to inform the transition. Confluence designed and managed an online staff survey to establish a baseline of internal perspectives, followed by focus groups to gather deeper input, and individual interviews with each office manager.
In parallel, Confluence designed and managed a separate survey of external partners and stakeholders. Reports summarizing all input were produced for the Director and directly informed DCJ’s strategic plan.
Staff survey · Focus groups · Individual interviews ·
External stakeholder survey
Input reports informing the Director’s strategic plan
Colorado Division of Criminal Justice
The Colorado Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Council advises the Governor and the legislature on juvenile justice issues. In fall 2023, the Office of Adult and Juvenile Justice Assistance retained Confluence to facilitate the Council’s annual retreat, guide a three-year strategic planning process, and support creation of the JJDP’s strategic plan.
Confluence led the Council through a multi-day retreat to assess recent work, clarify the Council’s role within the broader juvenile justice ecosystem, and align on priorities and vision. Following the retreat, Confluence has continued to facilitate multiple Council subcommittees and provide strategic advice to OAJJA leaders and the Council on an ongoing basis.
JJDP Three-Year Plan 2024–2026
As the Arapahoe County Board of County Commissioners undertook its fiscal and long-range planning process, Confluence President Berrick Abramson designed and facilitated a two-day workshop for County department heads, budget office leads, and elected officials, including a structured voting process to build consensus on funding priorities.
Building on that work, the County contracted with Abramson to form and facilitate the Long Range Planning Committee, a group of more than 30 diverse community members convened to advise the Board on potential voter-supported funding needs. Their work led to the Board unanimously voting to place a funding measure on the 2019 ballot in a form substantially aligned with the Committee’s recommendations.
Community members on the Long Range
Planning Committee
Unanimous Board vote to place funding measure on 2019 ballot
Courthouse · Jail and justice center · Transportation · Open space
Colorado’s institutions of higher education were under growing pressure to demonstrate their value in preparing students for the workforce. A legislatively created Task Force of 67 members was convened to examine the role and mission of higher education in the state and make recommendations on workforce development. Confluence President Berrick Abramson co-chaired the Task Force.
The Task Force’s report received positive reception across the state and national recognition. State leaders acted on the recommendations, allocating more than $95 million to programs the Task Force identified or recommended. The work also served as the foundation for multiple pieces of subsequent legislation.
Task force members
Allocated to recommended programs by state leaders
Co-chaired by Berrick Abramson
National recognition · Foundation for subsequent legislation
With an executive director and board undergoing succession planning at the same time a new strategic plan was needed, a well-known family foundation engaged Abramson to lead their planning effort. Through surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews with internal staff, grant recipients, community partners, and key leaders, Abramson gathered the input that shaped the foundation’s five-year strategic plan.
Surveys · Focus groups · Individual interviews
Internal staff · Grant recipients · Community
partners · Key leaders
Confidential · Family foundation
A professional association representing dozens of government organizations sought to balance the interests of members with diverse constituencies. With some members feeling marginalized by existing decision-making processes, the association retained Abramson to design and facilitate a strategic planning retreat.
The sessions enabled candid sharing of perspectives, consensus building around shared values, and alignment on decision-making processes from that point. The retreat produced a more fully developed collaboration framework, new protocols for decision-making, and the establishment of a working group to investigate structural changes.
Collaboration framework · Decision-making
protocols · Structural change working group
Confidential · Association of governments
Facing a rapidly evolving market and regulatory environment, a leading cannabis trade association retained Abramson and his team to facilitate a multi-day strategic planning process. The sessions produced a new set of legislative priorities, a strategic communications plan, an updated membership recruitment approach, and a complete set of operating rules and standards aligned with the association’s updated strategic direction.
Legislative priorities · Communications plan ·
Membership approach · Operating standards
Confidential · Industry trade association
The measure of success is not the plan. It is whether the organization is still using it
twelve months later.
Confluence PSG · Strategic Planning practice
State agency leaders, Governor’s offices, county governments, and organizations navigating problems that have resisted every standard approach reach out directly. The engagement starts with a conversation.
CO · NC · FL · National
