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Detailed Planning
Evaluating Your Plan and its Implications
Elements of a Good Plan
A good plan will:
- Have a clear statement of the current situation
- Have a clear aim
- Reflect the resources available
- Detail the tasks to be carried out, whose responsibility they are, their priorities and deadlines.
- Explain control mechanisms that will alert the manager to difficulties in achieving the plan.
- Plan for contingencies, so that a rapid and effective response may be made to crises, perhaps at a time when you are at a low ebb or are confused following a set-back.
Making Effective Plans
The following points will help to make your plans effective:
- Involve people affected by the plan to gain their support
- Explain why the plan is being carried out
- Sell & resell the benefits to everyone involved
- Ensure that the required resources are available and remain available
- As far as possible keep to existing ways of doing things. This avoids unnecessary disruption.
- Build in milestones and review progress. This helps to keep a sense of movement in the plan, and allows achievement to be rewarded
- Use KISS (Keep It Simple and Straightforward)
- Keep the plan flexible
- Consider transitional arrangements - how will you keep things going while you implement the plan?
Detailed Planning
Evaluating Your Plan and its Implications
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