June 2005
ACTION PLANS: HOW TO GET IT DONE
By Tony Mulkern
A client recently requested assistance in designing and implementing an action plan for a comprehensive strategy. Though experienced in doing this, I decided to do a little research on the latest available advice. The findings? There is a great deal written about setting grand visions and meaningful objectives. It is also easy to find great advice on questions to ask, while setting priorities. Managers are also counseled to align objectives and to obtain the necessary resources. But there is little practical advice available on how to create an action plan and make the objective a reality.
This lack of guidance may account for the fact that so many objectives become like New Year's resolutions, quickly forgotten and rarely achieved. Often they are not even looked at again until a year later, when everyone shares in the collective guilt of not having hit those long forgotten targets. Besides, writing detailed action plans is not nearly as much fun as writing exciting objectives.
Yet an objective without a plan is just a dream or fantasy . To literally help make your dreams come true, the 11 guidelines below are offered on creating and implementing action plans that work.
To define what we are talking about, an action plan is a comprehensive set of steps that are sufficient for the accomplishment of an objective, listed in their intended order of accomplishment. Each step has a target date and someone specified as responsible for its accomplishment. The guidelines assume the objective has been well designed, meaning it is measurable, time-bound, important, and realistic but challenging.
Process for Designing an Action Plan
- Brainstorm the advantageous and opposing factors that will affect the accomplishment of the objective. All good planning is based on "facing the brutal facts." What are the favorable winds, and where are you likely to hit the "perfect storm?"
- Decide whether to plan forwards or backwards. In other words, planning can start with the first thing that needs to be done, up through the last, or it can start with the last thing that needs to be done, back up to the first step.
- Brainstorm for all the actions and resources needed for accomplishment, without worrying too much about the perfect order. Use the "Five Ws and H method"-asking What, Why, Where, When, Who, and How?
- Remember, too much detail is probably better than too little. A prime reason for the failure of Action Plans is lack of foresight-or underestimation--of all that is needed for achieving the objective. One critical resource that is typically underestimated is TIME. And the more positive or optimistic you are by nature, as most entrepreneurs are, the more likely you are to over commit.
- When all the steps are outlined, decide which ones can be done simultaneously, and which ones need to precede which others.
- Decide who will be responsible for each step. Establish clarity and commitment with those who are assigned to each step, as well as their suggestions. Team member update meetings need to be among the steps and scheduled as such.
- Decide how much time it will realistically take to accomplish each step, taking into account all other responsibilities. Do not forget holidays, planned vacations, etc.
- The most skilled planners include a "Plan B." If you get off schedule, what steps can you take to still accomplish the target date for the objective? To pretend that everything will go according to schedule indicates a low level of commitment to the objective's target date. As the saying goes, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."
- Prepare a final schedule or spreadsheet of action steps, indicating the appropriate order, resources needed, timelines, and person(s) responsible. Ask, "what have we left out?"
- Consider using project planning software, such as Microsoft Project 2003. Their website www.microsoft.com has a demo video. (Sad to say, I get no commission or perks from Microsoft.) Complex projects involving many persons and extending over many months or more are extraordinarily difficult to manage without this kind of tool. Used routinely by scientific and research institutions, these tools have just as much applicability in planning marketing, sales, or customer satisfaction programs, rebranding, training, IT development, compliance, etc.
- Give ownership of the implementation process to someone of proven leadership to oversee, yourself or someone else. Publicize the project plan as widely known as possible, within limits of confidentiality. Provide, expect, or require frequent updates. And don't let timelines slip without explanations. In other words, effective implementation is rarely a solitary enterprise. Create accountability and a team to support it.
Finally, if you think your objective is too simple to need all this planning, then it is likely not challenging enough to be considered an objective at all. However important the idea may be, it is likely a routine part of your job or a smaller step in a broader objective. Then you need to start over and ask, "what stretch goals do I want to set that are both important to the growth and health of my business and are also realistic?" But that is another story.
Copyright, Mulkern Associates 2005
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