What's the plan?
Six principles for making your plans more effective
Effective plans are easy-to-understand, easily-communicated, purposeful guides that inspire and instruct the people who have to implement them. Easier said than done, of course.
Organizations create plans to shape both strategic and tactical efforts, to launch products or technologies, drive adoption of new processes, roll-out education, and manage many other types of initiatives. Whatever your purpose, we've identified six basic principles that you can use to help articulate, communicate, and hone your plans.
Your plan will be more effective if you...
1. Write it down.
Key for two reasons: 1) Few activities clarify thinking as well as writing, and 2) few things are as unreliable as mind-reading. If you want your team to execute your plan, it’s rarely sufficient to talk them through it, even if your plan was generated in team meetings. Show me someone who insists on keeping the plan in their head and I’ll show you someone who is either a control freak or is afraid of other perspectives, or both.
2. Draw a picture of it.
Drawing is a tool that takes your thinking out of your head and makes it tangible so that you (and others) can see, assess, and refine it. We’ve heard it said - and our experience bears this out - that if you can’t draw it, you can’t solve it. A visual also gives you something tangible to build conversations around.
Relax, it doesn’t matter how well you draw. Whether you create a rough napkin sketch, flow chart, detailed schematic, or full-blown artistic rendering, visualizing your strategy will help you clarify and communicate your ideas.
3. Make it easy to find and follow.
Your strategy should exist in a format and location that people can easily access, read, and use. Whether it’s a document in a binder, a PDF on your intranet, a PowerPoint presentation, or a web site, be sure that the content is clear and easy to use. If possible, work with a graphic designer or information designer to create a highly structured, intuitive presentation. If you have the resources, making it visual, attractive, and emotionally engaging can improve buy-in and execution.
4. Attach names and dates.
Successful execution of your plan probably requires that real people do actual work by a certain time. Accountability and responsibility go hand in hand, so make sure that stakeholders understand the tasks they own, and how their work integrates with the work of others.
Be honest and realistic about how much work people can handle and the time frame in which they can accomplish their work. There is nothing to be gained by obscuring that fact, but it is still a common mistake.
5. Use your plan to make decisions.
Remember to review your plan when making decisions. As you work to solve logistical problems, it's important that each decision continues to drive toward the outcomes you are trying to achieve. View each decision in light of your organization's strategy and objectives. This habit ensures that you make intentional decisions looking forward toward long-term goals. Decisions made for expediency tend to erode potential results.
6. Change your plan to reflect evolving conditions.
Under most circumstances, you will be faced with changing conditions as you execute a plan. Whether change comes in the form of new information, shifting circumstances, or a specific event, be sure to evaluate whether your plan still makes sense. You may need to make small or large adjustments, and will likely make different decisions depending on where you are in the development or implementation. In any case, be sure to document what happened, describe the rationale for any change, and make all stakeholders aware of the revised plan.
