What To Do

Determine appropriate stakeholders and partners that should be included in the process of further conceptualizing and describing the problem.

Consider representatives from:

• government agencies
• health care systems
• professional organizations
• third party payers
• academic institutions
• voluntary health agencies
• organizations representing priority populations
• community-based organizations
• media
  

Once you have identified appropriate partners for participation in the planning process, you should outline their responsibilities and determine how decisions will be made.

How To Do It

Identify key individuals within your organization who have responsibility for the problem and who bring to the planning process important technical skills:

• Surveillance
• Data collection and analysis
• Expertise in interventions or best practices related to the problem
• Program development and management
• Health communication and social marketing
• Evaluation

Consider involving in the planning process decision-makers who can help you with important financial and political considerations. However, recognize that program level staff, not decision-makers, will generally do the work identified in the planning process. Also, strive to create adequate technical assistance without making the planning process too cumbersome by involving too many participants.

Identify key external partners who have an interest in addressing the problem and who have the authority to represent their organizations. These partners will enrich your planning efforts with diversity of thought and resources and create allies rather than competitors.

Consider these potential external partners:

• State health departments
  
• Local health departments
  
• Voluntary health agencies
  
• Hospitals
  
• Managed care organizations
  
• Schools
  
• Colleges and universities
  
• Private organizations that can provide resources such as funding or access to target audiences

Identify appropriate community members who can represent the target audiences and provide consumer input throughout the planning process. Ideally, these individuals will have a good sense of community needs and values and also understand key issues related to the problem. Be sure that these community members know what to expect. This can be a long or tedious planning process.

Identify clear and appropriate responsibilities for all members of the planning team and determine and communicate how decisions will be made. A basic organizational structure should be developed for the planning team.

Have a "roles and responsibilities" meeting in which the group decides:

• on clear and appropriate responsibilities for all members of the planning team,
  
• determines and communicates how decisions will be made,
• agrees on a plan of action with a timeline,
• develops a basic organizational structure.

Consider these options for organization of the planning team:

• One planning team that meets together all the way through the planning process. Decisions are made as a group either by everyone agreeing or by most people agreeing.
  
  
• Two or more planning teams that represent specific geographic or demographic characteristics (for example: urban versus rural populations). Each team decides on the people who will make the decisions.
  
  
• Two or more planning teams that divide the planning process by task. (for example: one planning team may do data collection and analysis, and the other team may develop and manage the programs.)
  
  
• A group of various planning teams that have designated members to make decisions.
  
  
• One main group that makes decisions and plans broad goals and another group that is more technical and does research. (for example: collects and organizes data, investigates possible interventions, conducts research on target populations, and performs pilot testing).

When this step is completed, you should have a planning team identified, as well as the roles and responsibilities for that team.