Plan Your Success
'A goal without a plan is just a wish.'
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
What is planning?
Planning is identification, formulation and implementation of the objectives and goals to be achieved. It is the process of thinking and organizing activities in a planned and phased manner.
Planning and Organizational Success
A good leader can always understand the benefits of good planning and the consequences of bad planning. Good planning is time challenging, which helps to improve confidence of employees and makes it easier for them to achieve their goals. Planning involves project management and time management techniques. Effective planning and training can save the necessary time and efforts for accomplishing the goals.
According to Bradstreet and Dun, the organization without any proper corporate training failed by 33% within six months, 50% within two years and 75% within three years because they were lacking in planning.
Importance of Planning
Every organization has limited resources but efficient planning can be beneficial and productive. Administrators and managers need powerful corporate training to equip them with the skills for effective planning. This assists organizations to use resources in a way that empower employees to achieve their goals. With the help of planning, profitability is maximized and resources are not wasted on tasks with minimal possibility of progress.
Developing goals and objectives can help to assess everyone in the organization, and make them strive towards betterment that is one of the key components of the planning process. Goals and objectives must be dominant and practical. Organizations are not allowed to become exceptionally happy about their present ongoing status; otherwise they will probably lose ground to opponents. The objective setting procedure can be a reminder call for those managers who are complacent.
- Reduce Risk of Uncertainty
Nowadays, there are too many risks and dangers in business. Successful organizations require essential planning and training for managing risks. Planning is always needed to counter future uncertainty. With the help of good planning, risk for future uncertainty can be minimized.
Planning involves team’s collaboration. When a plan is discussed and tasks are distributed among the team members, every individual knows his/her duties. They know how their contributions can add value to their organization and they can take pride in their achievements.
During planning, managers get opportunities to improve performance of the workforce. Planning is basically decision making which promotes creative minds and thoughts. These creative imaginations can lead to innovative ideas and methods which help organization to develop and prosper.
- Reduce Repetition and Wasteful Activities
With the help of planning, future exercises are planned within a specific goal. Therefore, the problems of when, where, what and why are practically chosen. This puts a conclusion to confusion and doubt. In such circumstances, coordination is established among various departments, reducing repetition and unproductive activities.
- Steps for Effective Planning
The fundamental steps that are always suggested by training institutes for the planning process are the roadmap for every assignment and must be fulfilled to meet all its goals and objectives.
The initial step of the planning process is to know the particular organization’s objectives (quantitative and qualitative). It is a basic component of the planning process to review the purpose of selection and predict results of objectives.
Every goal should be related to finance and human resources. A plan must recognize the amount and the number of people it requires to meet the objectives that have been defined.
- Prioritize Goals and Objectives
Organizing objectives is about prioritizing tasks regarding their significance. Managing the task according to prioritized goals and objectives is a fundamental step towards finishing the tasks and accomplishing the objectives.
Organizations must organize timeline for tasks to complete them without any hindrance. It is a key part of the planning process that highlights the capacities and abilities of individuals
- Establish Evaluation Methods
The planning process includes techniques for assessing the objectives at the end. A monthly progress report helps to assess the performance for individuals while accomplishing objective oriented goals.
- Identify Alternative Action Plans
Sometimes, the best plans can be thrown off by unpredicted occasions; in such situations, planning process calls for alternative action plans. Alternative plans should be carefully designed so they can be fitted in each component of the planning process.