The Council & Municipality Transformation Reference Group – NA Chapter, powered by PRIME BPM, hosted its September 2026 Live Meetup, bringing together local government professionals to explore how councils can connect long-term vision, business planning, and performance measurement into one integrated management system.
The virtual meetup featured Stephanie Venimore, Manager of Corporate Strategy and Business Improvement at the City of Burlington, who shared how Burlington has moved beyond running plans, budgets, and improvement work in isolation to operating as a single enterprise system that links long-term direction to day-to-day delivery.
Drawing on more than three decades with the City, including over 15 years in the CAO’s office, Stephanie outlined how Burlington’s 25-year Horizon 2050 vision, five-year corporate strategy, and annual business planning and budgeting work together. She explained how service management, continuous improvement, and change leadership help keep strategy from becoming static, and why each level of the organisation needs its own measures of performance.
“The point is not to predict 2050, but to maintain a durable direction for all to be moving towards that North Star,” Stephanie said.
Key Discussion Highlights Included
- Why councils rarely lack plans, but often struggle with an execution gap when strategies, budgets, and processes operate independently.
- Burlington’s 25-5-1 model, connecting a 25-year vision, a five-year corporate strategy, and annual business plans and budgets.
- Using enterprise business planning to decide what to do now, do next, defer, or stop, with community impact as a key evaluation lens.
- Combining departmental accountability with a service management lens to show taxpayers the value of the services they fund.
- Measuring performance at the right level, from corporate outcomes and service KPIs to process performance and organisational health, without measuring everything.
- Applying Prosci change management, Lean Six Sigma, and design thinking so that improvement is a trusted, “invite me in” partnership rather than an audit.
- Keeping divisions aligned with the corporate North Star through enterprise-wide intake, risk management, and prioritisation.
- Practical first steps for councils: take stock of the planning, performance, and improvement processes already in place, then connect them and close the gaps.
The session generated valuable discussion among council and government leaders and transformation professionals, particularly around service-based and multi-year budgeting, keeping divisions aligned to corporate strategy, how to get started, and balancing long-term plans with short-term political and financial pressures.
About the Council and Municipality Transformation Reference Group
Join this dynamic group to connect, exchange insights, and engage in discussions with peers from fellow councils and municipalities. Whether you’re working on a process mapping and improvement, digital transformation, system implementation, compliance and risk management, or continuous improvement project, this community offers a platform to access best practices, seek out advice, and explore real-life success stories to accelerate your transformation journey.