Strategic planning efforts have failed in the past to create any meaningful changes in Yolo County. Three primary reasons are identified to account for this failure. In turn, Yolo County proceeded to create and implement three innovative solutions to address the past shortcomings of their strategic planning efforts. While the County’s experience is not yet sufficient to yield discernible outcomes concerning citizens and external stakeholders, satisfaction is being shown in a key preliminary achievement of the critical and live linkage between long-term planning and the annual budget.