To meet this mission, we partner with organizations and communities across the state to tackle the challenges our economy faces, focusing on investments that catalyze equitable economic growth. We are Minnesota's primary economic development and workforce development agency. We work to attract, retain, and expand businesses and create jobs for all Minnesotans. We connect workers to jobs, prepare individuals for careers in high-demand industries, help grow family-sustainable career pathways and help people who face barriers to employment find success and enjoy financial independence.
Over the last four years of the Walz-Flanagan administration, DEED teams have traveled across Minnesota and engaged with businesses, state legislators, local elected officials, workforce boards, nonprofits and countless other community leaders to better listen and understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in Minnesota's fast-changing economy. Rooted in the priorities of the One Minnesota Plan, DEED engages in an annual strategic planning process just after each legislative session.
Our annual plan uses a framework called OKRs or Objectives and Key Results. Used by businesses and organizations around the world, this system sets aspirational objectives and tracks success against those objectives using measurable, data-driven key results. Aligning to the One Minnesota Strategic Plan, we set annual OKRs that stretch our performance using outcome-focused benchmarks.
We do this because we want to set a clear vision for where we are headed, and to stretch ourselves by setting ambitious goals for success. The key results in our annual plan are not meant to be easy – they are meant to enhance our performance to better serve the people of Minnesota. That means we will not achieve every single one of them. But if we are achieving success on more goals than we are not, we know we are making progress.
As a large state department, DEED does far more than you'll see reflected in this plan. And like any plan, it doesn't cover every activity of every division. The point of these agency-wide goals is to sharpen the focus of DEED and help us to achieve our mission to empower the growth of the Minnesota economy, for everyone. You can review our OKRs and related scorecards below.
