TURNING PLANS INTO REALITY

By Managing Priorities

Having good plans and executing them well are important to the success of most things that we do. Books have been written on the subject of planning, but here we will limit our treatment to a few short paragraphs that are focused on managing priorities. If our input proves thought provoking to you and stimulates a better, more consistent approach to planning and managing your scarce resources, your time in particular, we will feel successful.

The subject, in large part, deals with different types of plans and their interrelationships. In our discussion, we will identify why some well developed plans are difficult to turn into successful actions that provide expected results. Like peeling an onion, we will encourage you to translate plans at a macro level into components, all the way down to the little plans that we develop each day to plan and manage our day's activities. We will examine how we value the things we do in terms of return on investment, return on assets, or any other ways we define and measure our successes. Finally, meeting our commitments, concentrating on our priorities and maximizing return on investments, often equate to being successful at managing time, usually our own.

We have good intentions and believe that others have the same. When plans are put together, we are optimistic and expect to accomplish great things. Competitive factors are considered; the impact of contributing organizations is accounted for; contingencies are included . . . but something seems to happen, or does not happen, the way we expect it to. Could it be that we tend to forget our plans and merely respond to things going on around us?

Perhaps that is partly to blame, but there seem to be a variety of reasons why we get into trouble. Here are a few.

• We lose sight of objectives.
• "Emergencies" of others arise that get in the way of our own priorities.
• Environmental changes occur and we fail to update our plans.
• It can be difficult to merge different sets of priorities especially when dealing with incomplete information.

The list seems to go on and on. The feeling is entrapment, frustration, failure, . . . but things do not need to be hopeless. Let's look at a few simple tips, all designed to accentuate the positive.

• Begin with a positive "can do" attitude. You have succeeded before. After all, look where you are. So, why should this be any different?
• Write things down. Challenge yourself. Different approaches work for different people, so develop your own style. Use calendars, lists, wall charts, . . . Get help, if necessary, but be sure to stick to it.
• Expand plans down to the level where you can easily relate to meaningful tasks that can be accomplished.
• Consider using a pc-based project management tool if you have difficulty tracking and managing all the details.
• Use a common denominator to relate the values and costs of different project elements. Dollars are usually used.
• Consider resource constraints. Sometimes it is impossible to pursue the most important activities because of some non-cash resource limitation.

Let's return to the subject of why results are less than expected. Often we do in fact forget that we have a plan that needs to be followed. Part of the reason may be that the plan is high level and we do not take the it and translate it into detailed action steps. Making a commitment in our plan that we will do something by a certain date may in fact involve a multitude of separate steps that need to be planned and managed. Hence it is important to have a series of operational and tactical plans to support our strategic planning.

From the point of view of the onion, we need to expand the level of detail to the point where we are able to deal with all of the steps that must be accomplished to really make things happen. At the same time, we need to merge steps from different projects into a series of unrelated activities that are in chronological order thereby allowing us to work on a variety of tasks in parallel rather than having to finish one thing before beginning another.

In a very simplistic way, we can use a To Do List every day. Items on each To Do List should related to operating plans which are in turn related to a strategic plan. The things we do each day should be ordered in a way that, if we cannot accomplish everything, we will be sure to accomplish those things of highest importance, ones that will contribute the most to our return on investment or other indicator of value to the business.

Another thing, sometimes it is necessary to accept an interim result on the way to attaining a more desirable one. Progress is progress. Better to make a little than none at all. We frequently divide our projects into phases for just that reason.

It is difficult to generalize, but this brief treatise should give you a starting point in considering the issues associated with turning your plans into reality. For more personalized, custom assistance, please contact us to take advantage of ROCKWOOD MANAGEMENT SERVICES business planning, analysis and support help. You are encouraged to provide comments and any other feedback on this information. Please reply to:

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