Section 8: Assessing Achievement

CANSOFCOM’s ability to deliver on its Mission and Vision rests upon the successful implementation of a number of Key Initiatives that are identified in the Command’s Strategic Implementation Framework – the implementing mechanism for this Strategy. These initiatives range from the fulfillment of specific prescribed activities articulated in the Defence Policy to building an integrated Targeting Enterprise, and from launching the Special Operations Capabilities and Recapitalization Project pilot to finalizing the CANSOFCOM Airpower Integration Concept. Each initiative serves a distinct purpose in moving the Command towards its strategic objectives, and each is evaluated throughout the implementation process in relation to both progress and value. Indeed, while progress is a necessary requirement in implementing the Key Initiatives, such progress must also create tangible value.

Measuring Progress

Implementation progress is evaluated through specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timebound indicators that are monitored on an ongoing basis through a Key Initiatives Dashboard. This formal approach to tracking progress will continue to be underpinned by a Command culture wherein every member, as a stakeholder in the future of the enterprise, is empowered to play a role in implementation.

Measuring Value

CANSOFCOM’s enduring strategic relevance rests on the ability to realize value through concrete actions, in other words by linking means and ways to ends. As a high-energy organization, continually challenged to remain aligned with a dynamic and unpredictable operating environment, CANSOFCOM uses several methods to assess this interconnected system and to determine the degree to which each initiative is satisfying the needs and benefits for which it was undertaken. These include the “Measures of Effectiveness” evaluation process and the Commander’s regular Strategy Implementation Sessions. This model for measuring value leads to ongoing synchronization and a shared understanding of where to focus efforts, which in turn allows the Command to also determine whether certain initiatives should evolve, change, merge or even be abandoned.

Evaluating Outcomes

Ultimately, the only way to understand the relationship between means, ways and ends – and in turn to establish whether their interplay has contributed to realizing the Strategic Vision – is by analyzing them holistically. Within CANSOFCOM, this will be done through the Pan-Command Portfolio Management Analysis Tool (PMAT), a Command-specific tool built upon the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Outcome Management Framework. The PMAT aligns data on progress with assessments of value, while taking into account related risk, in order to make a determination of overarching benefit.