Turning Overlapping Strategies Into Clear Direction Across CISA

As a Senior Strategist supporting CISA’s outreach strategy, I crosswalked six public and internal strategies, annual operating plans, policies, and guidance documents to identify conflicting definitions, measures, and implementation approaches across CISA. I then designed the decision structure for three workshops involving federal leaders and subject-matter experts from all six divisions and mission-enabling offices. Within two quarters, accuracy in connecting new work to approved KPIs, goals, objectives, and strategies improved 35%.

Challenge

CISA programs operated under several related strategies, annual plans, policies, and guidance documents spanning stakeholder engagement, workforce development, international engagement, regional operations, cybersecurity education, communications, and government relations. Those documents did not always use the same definitions, measures, assumptions, or implementation approaches.

Those inconsistencies affected execution. New projects, assignments, and other work needed a clear connection to approved KPIs, goals, objectives, and strategies. When teams connected work to the wrong goals or measures, programs/projects required more revision, and fewer efforts moved directly into implementation.

Approach

I built a comparison framework that separated common direction from conflicting terminology, measures, implementation assumptions, and unresolved questions. I used it to crosswalk six source documents and identify issues requiring leadership decisions rather than additional document review.

I then designed agendas and the decision structure for three senior-level workshops involving federal program leaders, branch chiefs, strategists, policy specialists, and subject-matter experts across CISA. I jointly facilitated the sessions, presented conflicts and decision options, documented decisions and assigned actions, and tracked implementation afterward.

I also reviewed 12 strategic documents and developed four recommendations on goals, objectives, and measures that were incorporated into the final CISA Stakeholder Engagement Strategic Plan. In related workforce-development work, I used research and program feedback to clarify the direction so employees could apply it without prescribing how individual programs carried out their missions.

My Role

I served as a Senior Strategist supporting CISA. For my assigned strategy work, I set the analytical framework, comparison criteria, workshop structure, decision materials, and recommendation format. I identified conflicts requiring resolution, developed options and recommendations, documented leadership decisions, and monitored follow-through.

I also oversaw 12 employees, managing assignments, workload, coaching, and performance reviews. Federal leaders retained final approval over agency policy, strategy, and mission decisions.

Results

The work produced measurable results in strategy implementation and workforce participation:

• Improved accuracy in connecting new tasks, projects, and assignments to approved KPIs, goals, objectives, and strategies by 35% within two quarters through a crosswalk of six governing documents and three senior-level workshops that structured leadership decisions.

• Developed four recommendations on goals, objectives, and measures that were incorporated into the final Stakeholder Engagement Strategic Plan after I assessed and refined 12 strategic documents.

• Supported a 50% increase in workforce-development program participation in 2022 through research and recommendations that made strategic direction easier for programs to apply.