Operationalizing Goals to Maximize Public Health Planning

April 29, 2026 | Sara Bell, Marta McMillion

Public health plans often include bold goals but can stop short of outlining how those goals will be achieved. Without defined actions, timelines, and responsibilities, plans risk becoming “shelfware,” leaving teams inspired by strategy but unclear on how to move it forward.

This resource provides practical, adaptable tools to help public health agencies move from planning to action with clarity and momentum. Organized into the following sections, it is designed to support teams in translating high-level goals into concrete steps, prioritizing activities, and navigating real-world implementation challenges:

• Translating Strategy into Action: Introduces tools like the Strategic Priority Planning Worksheet and Implementation Plan Template to help teams define goals, identify key players, outline activities, and establish timelines, resources, and measures of success.
• Prioritizing What Matters Most: Uses the Impact and Effort Matrix to help teams assess which actions will generate the greatest impact relative to effort, enabling them to focus on quick wins and high-value projects to build momentum.
• Navigating Barriers and Enablers: Applies Force Field Analysis to identify and assess the driving and restraining forces that influence implementation, helping teams focus their energy on what will move work forward.
• Sustaining Implementation in Practice: Offers facilitation strategies such as 90-day sprint cycles, action ladders, co-creation with implementers, and the use of action libraries to support iterative progress, adaptability, and team engagement over time.

By combining structured tools with practical facilitation strategies, this resource helps teams operationalize their goals, maintain momentum, and build more responsive and effective implementation processes.

Get the Resource (PDF)

Reviewed by Lindsey Myers, MPH, Vice President, Public Health Workforce & Infrastructure; Allen Rakotoniaina, MPH, Senior Director, Business Development Operations; Heidi Westermann, MPH, Director, Public Health Data Modernization & Informatics; Megan DeNubila-Griffin, MPH, Assistant Director, Chronic Disease & Health Improvement.