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    Lights, Camera, Aging: A Local Companion to Aging Our Way, PA

    Act Five: Showtime

    It's time to work with your implementation leaders and partners to bring your Local MPA to life and make real, tangible improvements in your community.

    Introduction to Act Five

    You have put a tremendous amount of work into the development of your Local MPA. Now, the work of implementation begins. By the time you finish this Act, you will have:

    • A plan, structure, and timeline for implementing the Local MPA and each of its tactics
    • An Implementation Workgroup with a good understanding of the importance of the Local MPA and their role in its implementation
    • A detailed breakdown of the process to implement each tactic, including key milestones, project deliverables, and metrics for success

    Step 1: Establish and Orient Your Implementation Team

    The first step in implementing your Local MPA is to confirm and onboard the multisector team that will move the work forward. In Act IV, you began the work of establishing your implementation team when you refined your Local MPA tactics with the implementation leaders and partners. In this step, you will return to the Network Development Spreadsheet as you establish and orient your implementation team. Use the tips below to guide your work.

    Establish a multisector implementation structure. Create a structure for cross-sector collaboration that uses existing organizational structures to streamline the implementation process.

    • Implementation Team: Small team who coordinates with the implementation workgroup to provide support and gather information on the Plan’s progress.
    • Implementation Workgroup: High-level staff from each organization with assigned tactics in the Local MPA who oversee tactic leaders.
    • Tactic Leaders: Leaders working to implement specific tactics.
    Organizational Chart showing structure of Implementation Team, Workgroup and Tactic Leaders

    Understand the tactic implementation tools. The Tactic Action Plan Template helps tactic leaders take implementation from concept to execution by identifying specific roles, action steps, challenges, opportunities, and metrics for success. The Tactic Progress Report Template helps tactic leaders produce simple, straightforward, standardized progress narratives that take qualitative and quantitative success metrics into account. Review the tools carefully so that you can clearly explain them to your Implementation Workgroup and Tactic Leaders.

    Identify and recruit an effective Implementation Workgroup. Your implementation workgroup should have at least one staff-person from every organization that will lead or support the implementation of the tactics in the Local MPA. In Act IV, you built a preliminary list of implementation partners in your Network Development Spreadsheet. Use this list to identify candidates for your implementation workgroup, or ask them for appropriate referrals.

    Thoroughly orient your implementation workgroup. Your implementation workgroup will directly oversee their organization’s contributions to the Local MPA, including implementation, reporting, and evaluation. It is essential that they understand their role and responsibilities; the tools available to guide their process; and how the Implementation Team will support them. Convene your implementation workgroup for an in-person meeting. Refer to the process and tips in Act III for convening and facilitating effective meetings.

    • Before the meeting: Provide each member with a copy of the Local MPA, their organization’s list of tactics, and the Tactic Action Plan Template and Tactic Progress Report Template.
    • During the meeting: Provide an overview of the Implementation Workgroup’s structure, process, and roles. Set a regular cadence for Workgroup meetings.
    • After the meeting: As a take-away task, ask each member to identify names and contact information for tactic leaders for their organization.

    Step 2: Establish and Orient your Tactic Leaders

    For each organization on the implementation team, schedule a meeting with the Implementation Workgroup member and all tactic leaders. During the meeting, be sure to:

    • Review the Tactic Action Plan Template. Go over each section of the Tactic Action Plan Template to ensure that the tactic leaders know what is expected. Work together to set a deadline for submission to the Implementation Workgroup member.
    • Review the Tactic Progress Report Template. Make sure the tactic leaders understand what information they should plan to collect, how often they will be expected to report out, and what level of detail they should share.
    • Emphasize availability. Following orientation, tactic leaders will mainly interface with their Implementation Workgroup member for oversight and support. However, you should emphasize that you and your Implementation Team are available to help with any issues that Implementation Workgroup members and/or tactic leaders may have.

    Step 3: Set Timeline and Track Implementation

    Not every tactic in your Local MPA will happen at once. Setting an implementation timeline will help your Implementation Team and Workgroup break down the implementation of your Local MPA into manageable steps. The Tactic Tracker Spreadsheet is designed to help your Implementation Team track each tactic’s progress from start to finish. Use it to guide your work.

    Rely on your Implementation Workgroup. Your tactic leaders will provide information on timeline, budget, and other relevant information in their Tactic Action Plans. Ask your Implementation Workgroup members to use this information to sort their organization’s tactics into the following categories:

    • Quick Wins: Tactics with a 1-3 year timeline that can be completed with existing resources
    • Mid-Level: Tactics with a 2-5 year timeline that require some additional funding and/or legislative or regulatory action to implement
    • Transformative: Tactics with at least a 5 year timeline that require substantial funding and/or legislative or regulatory action to implement

    Be strategic to build momentum. Use “quick win” tactics to build early momentum, gradually integrate mid-level tactics, and strategically build toward ambitious, transformative tactics over the 10-year period of the Plan.

    Update the Tactic Tracker regularly. Convene your Implementation Team at least once per year to evaluate and update your tactic implementation timeline. Be sure to collaborate regularly with Implementation Workgroup members to ensure that tracker data is up to date, and use it to track successes and opportunities for course-correction.

    Step 4: Report your progress

    One of the most exciting things about implementing your plan is sharing its impact. Use the tools and tips below to guide your work.

    • Collect Progress Reports. Collaborate with your Implementation Workgroup members to collect regular Tactic Progress Reports from tactic leaders. Progress reports will help you collect qualitative and quantitative impacts of your Local MPA that you can share with your community, keep the project on track, and contribute to the dataset you use for evaluation.
    • Share statistics, but also stories. Numbers and data are important to many key stakeholders, especially when it comes to budgets. Be sure to track returns on investment to make a strong case to fund your Local MPA. Most people, however, respond most strongly to stories. Gather compelling qualitative examples of your Local MPA’s impact to share with public audiences.
    • Maintain transparency to build momentum. You will need the ongoing support of your Local MPA Coalition, key partners, and community members to sustain investment in the Local MPA over time. Establish regularly-scheduled meetings with your Local MPA Coalition to keep them updated on the progress of the Local MPA, and invite Implementation Workgroup members to attend. Update your community through newsletters, social media, press events, and cross-promotional partnerships. Keep using the Network Development Spreadsheet to build your network. Make sure that your community has a way to contact the Implementation Team, and be responsive to inquiries and feedback.

    Tool Spotlight: Tactic Action Plan Template

    The Tactic Action Plan Template helps tactic leaders take implementation from concept to execution by identifying specific roles, action steps, challenges, opportunities, and metrics for success. 

    Tool Spotlight: Tactic Tracker Spreadsheet

    The Tactic Tracker Spreadsheet helps your Implementation Team capture, track, and organize progress on all policy tactics in the Local MPA.

    Tool Spotlight: Tactic Progress Report Template

    The Tactic Progress Report Template helps tactic leaders produce simple, straightforward, standardized progress narratives that take qualitative and quantitative success metrics into account.