Griffith Feeney
Objective To articulate the existing theory of your organization (national statistical office or other), identifying assumptions about environment, mission, and core competencies, to assess its present adequacy, and to anticipate changes over the next 15 years (roughly the period over which the 2000 round census data will be in use).
Step 1 Draft a one paragraph statement of the specific mission of your organization. In any case, attempt your own statement. The mission needs to be sufficiently specific to guide day to day decisions, actions and behavior. It should provide justification for why you and others in the organization do the things you and they do. It should provide justification for not doing some things. More importantly, it should provide a basis for prioritizing, which at the end of the day means deciding what will not be done in the face of limited resources. Do not underestimate the difficulty of this exercise. Don't expect to get it exactly right the on the first (or second, or third, ...) try.
Step 2 Describe the environment in which your organization works, identifying all features relevant to the accomplishment of the mission. Do not restrict attention to aspects relevant only to population census-taking. Consider such factors as the educational level of the population, telecommunications infrastructure, political and budgetary environment, legal environment, international donors and technical assistance, alternative suppliers of information (public or private, national or international), mass media situation, governmental structure, relations between central government and local governments, restrictions on imported technology, labor market availability of staff with relevant expertise, privacy and confidentiality concerns on the part of government and the public at large. Pay particular attention to types of users and to the types of information they want, need, or think they need. Distinguish national government users, local government users, international users, non-governmental organizations, local, national, and international business users, and other relevant categories of users.
Step 3 List your assumptions about this environment. Assess their validity at present. Should they be revised? If so, why, and how? How might their validity change over the next 15 years? What developments or forces will tend to change their validity? How will you respond to these changes? Do not say how you would like things to be, say how you think they are.
Step 4 List the core competencies necessary to accomplish the mission. What does your organization have to be good at to succeed? What kinds of specialized skills and knowledge are required? Try to distinguish between competencies that are good to have and those that are essential to your mission; those without which you will surely fail.
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