Guiding the strategic plan of the nation’s leading organization focused on care for those with chronic illness and disability.

The National Health Council (NHC) is the leading national organization focused on access to healthcare for those with chronic illness and disability. It provides a united voice for the more than 160 million people with chronic diseases and disabilities and their family caregivers. Members include more than 125 diverse national health-related organizations.

NHC engaged Grayscale to design and facilitate their long-range strategic planning process for its 2019-2021 plan. Getting the plan “right” was especially critical because of the changing health landscape in Washington and a particularly volatile political climate. The plan needed to demonstrate flexibility, nimbleness and resolve in pursuing the NHC mission.

The Grayscale team employed a custom approach that was inclusive and transparent. The team worked closely with the NHC’s strategic planning task force, conducted an extensive SWOT analysis, and several dozen interviews with NHC board, staff and members, surveying broader membership, and scenario planning. Collaborators left no key area of NHC untouched.

The resulting three-year Strategic Plan was unanimously approved by the NHC Board in 2018, and provided a road map to help the organization overcome challenges to access and quality of care for millions of Americans with chronic diseases and disabilities. The Plan also underscored and expanded on NHC’s commitment to their mission-critical public policy work.