In 2024, the Northern Kentucky Water District (NKWD) kicked-off a Strategic Plan initiative to update its vision, mission, values, and goals. A twenty-two person Strategic Planning committee with internal representatives from all departments, in consultation with an external partner, Hazen & Sawyer, worked under the leadership of the vision and mission set by the NKWD Board of Commissioners. This committee then spent the next eleven months meeting, discussing, and thinking to shape NKWD's Strategic Plan into an actionable plan that will provide guidance and clarity to staff and the community through 2030. The plan is built around six key goals: Regulatory Compliance, Workforce Cultivation, Financial Stewardship, Technology Strategy, Proactive Engagement, and Reliable Infrastructure. Concurrently, NKWD utilized an external employee satisfaction survey to gauge the morale and engagement of the staff prior to the strategic planning process, then measured changes in the identified areas that NKWD was seeking improvement with a pulse survey near the end of the strategic planning process to determine impact. Results of the employee engagement survey showed improvement in: Company Direction, Resources, Training, Recognition, Compensation, Belonging & Influence, and Line of Sight. Further, in the same year, NKWD implemented a more robust onboarding program to foster early engagement and alignment with organizational goals and completed a compensation study to ensure market competitiveness and alignment with strategic goals. The deliverable of the strategic planning process was an actionable spreadsheet to be used by management along with highly visual print materials that can be shared with community members and stakeholders.