The venue may have changed, but the goal remains the same for the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners consisting of Georgia Miller, Rick Hole and Vickie Raines.

The trio, along with County Administrator Sam Kim and Clerk of the Board Wendy Chatham, took part in Phase II of their planned three-phase strategic planning process last Wednesday in the Ortquist 2 conference room at Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma.

Once again under the direction of consultant Thomas O’Connor, the commissioners participated in exercises intended to develop leadership skills and tactics, set goals, and analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

“It was a continuation of Phase I. Phase I was foundational, where we looked at how we communicate with each other, how we treat each other and what kind of aspirations we have for the county,” Kim said. “We have a mission statement, but we didn’t quite finish that because the conversations we had were so deep. So, Day 2 was a continuation of that and we started working on our vision.”

Kim said that he has seen growth during the strategic planning sessions and in practical application when it comes to debate and decision-making.

“We have achieved growth and a sense of teamwork, gelling, we have to trust each other,” Kim said. “We came out of a 2-1 vote where there was dissent and now we’re realizing dissent is actually a good thing and allows us to figure out what could go wrong. What’s so striking is that we moved together. We learn how to discuss and maybe have dissent but decide and then commit to the decision. Things that seem so unreachable for us, things that seem like a dream, now all of a sudden we think we can do this. It is so gratifying to me that we are so quickly moving forward and becoming a cohesive leadership team.”

Kim says his familiarity with O’Connor has established trust in the methodology behind the strategic planning process.

“We are Navy buddies, we worked at Hewlett-Packard together for many years, we go back a long way,” Kim said. “We both studied organizational development and strategic planning so we’re able to bounce things off each other. Tom brings a well-rounded background in the public sector as well as the private sector. I love his facilitation.”

Phase III is tentatively set for May 12.

Kim said, “We love Summit Pacific Medical Center, so we’re asking Josh Martin, the CEO if we can use that facility.”