Planning

Glossary of Terms for Planning, Leading and Managing

From Belief to Vision, with Driver, Delegation, Outcome, Output, Strategic Thinking and 36 other useful definitions in between. This is designed to provide a basis for informed development, and help parties to initiatives avoid unsafe assumptions by finding common ground in their terminology.

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Problem-Solving Development Plan (Template & Illustration)

Well-planned plans to resolve well-defined and well-clarified problems provide the best return on investment of effort for dealing with challenges, short of miraculous guesswork or extraordinary luck. They are a combination of practices every manager should possess and help others learn, as an alternative to "throwing solutions" at problems. This (MS Word) template helps organise development planning for problem resolution, and to answer the question "Where should I start?"

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Planning and Managing Improvement Initiatives

Before launching an improvement initiative, work with your colleagues to identify the underlying assumptions you hold about continuous improvement. It's an uncommon approach, but one that can significantly limit the number of initiatives that end up in the organisational swamp. I've constructed a list of useful generic assumptions for this purpose, to help you start the process. In this article I also discuss other often-overlooked considerations for saving time and heartache with improvement (change) projects.

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Learning from Change Initiatives

Organisational change initiatives led and managed well, inspire the commitment of those who are subject to change, and help reduce stress usually associated with unwelcome change. But very many change initiatives are led and managed improvisationally, by re-inventing the wheel each time. The organisational memory of constructive change process is lost because it's not methodically passed on or held in readily-accessible resources. Here's an approach to reversing that trend.

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Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking

There are very many ways of approaching strategic planning, a process designed to focus an organisation and engage the hearts and minds of those who are to implement its intentions. This document outlines the stages and practical steps of a process I have used and continually improved over 25 years in my work with client groups. The guidelines can be modified to suit both Big Picture planning for the whole organisation, and smaller strategic initiatives.

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Methodical Planning and Plan Management

It is common for organisations, leaders, managers, groups and teams to behave as though planning is a matter of tossing ideas around, arguing about them under the misconception that they are ‘problem-solving”, “brainstorming” and “reaching consensus”, and then somehow prioritising them as a lightly-sketched list of actions. Although this sort of improvisation may succeed, its progress is frequently marked by the eventual need to revisit the issues from scratch or by having to undo things already done. Here’s a straightforward guide to a methodical planning process and fit-for-purpose practices.

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