How to Use the Relevancy Roadmap

The first step is to decide on a starting point

The Fish and Wildlife Relevancy Roadmap is intended to help agencies plan a course of action, set priorities, and monitor progress to engage broader constituencies. The Relevancy Roadmap is not intended to be prescriptive. Each user will need to select their own starting point, path, and speed based on their unique social-ecological setting, political constraints, readiness, and capacity for change. Increasing relevance is best thought of as a journey rather than a destination. Engaging and serving broader constituencies will take time, energy, a long-term commitment, and human and financial resources.

Every journey, however long, begins with a single step. The first step for using the Relevancy Roadmap is to decide on a starting point. The Relevancy Roadmap is organized around 19 barriers to engaging and serving broader constituencies. Not every barrier will apply to an agency and it is not likely an agency can address all barriers at once so priorities will need to be set and work sequenced. An agency’s capacity for change and its socio-political environment may determine which barrier(s) can be worked on and when, and the order in which they are addressed. The experience gained, and progress made in the early stages of implementation, will benefit subsequent efforts to address other barriers

Implementation of the Relevancy Roadmap should begin by reviewing the full list of barriers, strategies, and tactics and considering which barrier(s) should be taken on first. An agency may want to begin with only one or a few barriers that may be relatively easy to overcome in order to gain experience, establish momentum, test a proof of concept, and to ease the overburden on busy staff. Alternatively, there may be a barrier that has to be addressed first because it will impede progress on other barriers. Readers of the Roadmap will note redundancy of steps or tactics across the barriers. This was deliberate so practitioners can focus on a single barrier with a complete suite of steps and tactics without having to refer back to other parts of the Roadmap.

Once the initial barrier(s) is identified, the agency should prioritize the applicable strategies if more than one strategy exists. As with selecting the initial barrier(s), choosing which strategy or strategies to pursue may require consideration of other factors such as staff capacity. The decision on which barrier(s) and strategy(ies) to take on first should be made by agency leadership, in consultation with staff that will be leading implementation. Agency leadership may also choose to reach out to affected constituents to help identify opportunities or limitations that are not readily apparent. Interactions among agency leadership, staff, and constituents may also build support for the change process. Support from staff and key stakeholders will be essential for the success of Roadmap implementation. Principles from Adaptive Leadership (Linsky and Heifetz 2002) and Leading Change (Kotter 2006) can serve as a guide for transformative change.

Once agency leadership has reached a decision on which barrier(s) and strategy(ies) to take on, staff responsible for implementation should review and discuss the strategies, steps, and tactics listed in the Roadmap. The strategies provide general direction, but the implementation team will need to consider how that direction relates to its agency’s unique circumstances. The tactics are more specific, but the manner in which each agency implements them may need to be customized. There may be tactics not listed in the Roadmap that will need to be identified.

While the Relevancy Roadmap is intended to be nonprescriptive, moving sequentially through the steps for each strategy is important since they follow a theory of change. A great deal of thought went into the logical order through which each strategy should be pursued, and each step is an intermediate result that must be achieved in a sequence of results needed to bring about the ultimate change of engaging and serving broader constituencies.

As with any adaptive management process, it is important to measure progress and incorporate regular “feedback loops” into implementation of the Roadmap. Conditions or key influencers can change, leading to new opportunities or the need for new approaches. It is important to set clear objectives and monitor how the implementation process is proceeding. Before moving to the next step, results should be carefully reviewed and adjusted as necessary (see “Staying on Track: Evaluating Relevancy Efforts”).

Some Helpful Road Signs

When driving across unfamiliar territory, in addition to having a Roadmap to guide your route, it helps to have the signs along the road to inform the journey. Similarly, there are other sources of information that can supplement the Relevancy Roadmap.

One key source that can provide guidance is the Wildlife Governance Principles developed by Decker et al. (2016). These principles offer a strategic approach to addressing contemporary social values relative to wildlife and changing landscapes and ecological conditions. The principles encompass the roles and responsibilities of all players in the wildlife management institution including trustees (elected and appointed officials), trust managers (conservation professionals in government and nongovernment entities), and the public. The principles combine key components of public trust thinking and good governance and address the need for agencies to do the following:

• think strategically and be adaptive,

• make evidence-based and broadly informed decisions,

• be inclusive and diverse in thinking,

• be transparent and accountable to all members of the public,

• increase capacity through collaboration.

The Wildlife Governance Principles emphasize the need for wildlife trustees and trust managers to be cognizant of the many values and benefits people associate with wildlife. They provide a framework for considering multiple perspectives and adopting processes that enable agencies to address conservation challenges that span social and ecological boundaries. These are essential components of any effort to engage and serve broader constituencies.

There is a wealth of literature that may help an agency with implementation of the Roadmap. Much of this literature can be found in the other resources section.

© Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Support from agency staff and key stakeholders will be essential for the success of Roadmap implementation