Developing an Action Plan

 

Developing an action plan to achieve the objectives and goals you have set is the third step in developing your business strategy. Action plans show the steps you will take to reach your goals. Without a detailed plan of action, objectives are just good ideas, unlikely to become a reality.

Action plans detail the tasks that need to be accomplished for each goal, the resources that are required, who will be responsible for the implementation, the time frame for the plan, and anything else needed to ensure the goal is reached.

Action plans are like the football plays called by the quarterback in the huddle. A play, when performed correctly, will move your team up the field, ultimately resulting in a touchdown — a major goal toward reaching your objective of winning the game. Like the quarterback, you will allocate resources and assign tasks to accomplish your goals.

By defining your mission statement, objectives, and goals, you’ve made attainment of your vision possible. The essence of strategic planning is defining where you want to go and then laying out a plan to take you there. Each step of the process gives a little more detail, making success possible by breaking it down into manageable pieces, forcing you to focus and act.

Your strategic process starts with the broader, more conceptual ideas and works down to the finer level of detail needed to support and implement the entire plan.

 

 

Tasks

Tasks are the specific steps that need to be taken to accomplish each goals. You may want to do a brainstorming session with key employees to help you identify tasks needed for each goal.

For example, if your goal is to reduce your return rate, your tasks might include:

• Monitor and analyze reasons for returns.
• Follow up by phone or email with each customer who returns product.
• Revise how-to-use instructions to increase customer understanding of proper use.

If your goal is to upgrade your current product to create a commercial unit, your tasks might include:

• Identify commercial market and conduct market research to see what features are important to commercial users.
• Determine which features must be upgraded to withstand commercial use.
• Choose new design to distinguish product from consumer product.
• Determine manufacturing costs and set price.
• Prepare new marketing literature.
• Test-market product prior to introduction.

 

Analyzing Resources and Assigning Tasks

 

The fourth step of developing your business strategy is to look at what resources you need to accomplish each task. Resources usually include time, people, and money. Your action plan should define who each task will be assigned to, the deadline date for completion of the task, and any other resources required for completion.

People

Your people are another resource you will use to help you accomplish tasks. Personnel decisions are based on availability, skills, and your budget. You need to ask questions like:

• What skills are necessary to accomplish this task?
• Who is available who has these skills?
• Does this employee have time to accomplish the task?
• How much time should be spent training an employee to successfully accomplish the task?
• Should a temporary employee, contractor, or consultant who already possesses the necessary skills be hired?

When assigning tasks, be sure and ask yourself whether the person you are assigning the task to is competent to complete the task. If part of the action plan requires a budget to be developed, make sure the person developing the budget has the necessary skills. If you don’t have the qualified personnel, you will need either to train someone in your organization or to hire someone who already possesses the skills.

Once you have selected an individual to perform a task, ask yourself:

• How do I focus the person on implementing the task?
• How do I support the implementation?
• Does the person performing the task have all the necessary information and resources to carry it out?

Time

When you look at time, there are two areas to consider. First, determine how many hours a task will take to complete. Second, determine what date the task should be completed by. Time places emphasis on getting the task done. You want to allow enough time to do the task correctly, but you also need a due date so the task doesn’t end up “on the back burner.”

Some questions to ask yourself regarding time include:

• How do I maximize the use of time?
• How much time do I need to accomplish each task?
• How are my time-management skills?

One of the advantage of strategic planning is that it enables you to make sure your daily activities are focused on accomplishing your mission. Managing your time to make sure it isn’t squandered away on unproductive activities is discussed in more detail in the Systems for Success course on workflow and organization. For now, be sure to spend your time on activities that support your mission and the strategies you have developed to achieve your objectives.

Money

When people think about resources they tend to think about money. “How much will it cost?” is the first question you’re likely to ask. Some tasks will require more money than others. For example, the resources required for a large advertising campaign would vary depending on the strategy applied. If you chose to hire an external consultant, money may be the primary resource required. If you decided to keep the project in-house, time and people resources might take priority.

Some questions to ask yourself regarding money include:

• What is the budget required to accomplish each task?
• Are there any budget constraints?
• What other resources are needed to accomplish each task?
• What are the internal and external options for each task?

Forecasting and budgeting are covered in detail in the Systems for Success course on financial management.

 

Action Plan Tips

Go slow at first. Make sure there aren’t any snags when implementing the action plans. Be careful not to tackle more than your resources can handle. Concentrate resources on high-priority tasks. Don’t let your vision hamper your day-to-day operation. Balance the need to take action on your future vision with the need to take care of the customer.

 

Tracking and Reviewing Your Progress

 

The last step of developing your business strategy is tracking and reviewing your progress. Strategic planning is not a precise process. You do research, envision the future, and devise a plan, but there are external variables that are beyond your control — like economic downturns, rising taxes, or changing market trends. Tracking and periodically reviewing your progress allows you to adapt to the unexpected or unforeseen. Having a plan in place to measure progress gives you the information you need to make course corrections if necessary.

Benchmarks

One tracking and reviewing strategy is to build benchmarks, or “checkpoints” into your action plan. Benchmarks can be a schedule of projected completion dates or parts of the overall project. Benchmarks provide a structured tracking process that allows you to stay abreast of work in-progress.

A planning or tracking worksheet is a good way to keep track of activities. Is the marketplace responding to your actions? If so, how? Are the people responsible for each task staying on target? Would periodic evaluations let you know? Have you set times or dates for tasks to be completed? Can you measure the progress of each task against the expected outcome?

Accountability

Accountability is also critical to accomplish your goals. For each goal, someone needs to be responsible for completing it correctly and on time, and for monitoring its progress.

When you assign tasks, clearly communicate the assignment and the scope of responsibility. Assigning accountability ensures all participants know what they are responsible for and provides a source of information if problems arise.

But your action plans should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. It is vital for you and anyone involved in executing the action plans to have a routine forum to give updates on the actions they have taken since the last update and to declare the actions they will take before the next scheduled update. Determine whether it is necessary to schedule these updates daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly depending on the difficulty or complexity of the goals or the degree of communication and coordination needed to insure appropriate progress. Make sure that each update includes clear and simple documentation of progress and next steps. This documentation could be done before or during a brief meeting during which you would review the action planning worksheet you’ve created to track progress on goals. These action plan update meetings are great opportunities to celebrate progress, discuss learnings, brainstorm on overcoming obstacles and coordinate and communicate about next steps. This is a valuable discipline that will help insure consistent progress in executing specific actions that will help you accomplish your goals and objectives.

 

Example of Strategic Action Plan

Objective: Introduce two new products
Goal 1: Upgrade current product to create a commercial unit
Task 1: Conduct market research to see what	Assigned To: Sue
features are important to commercial users.	Completion Date: 3/15/xx
Resources Required: Budget for focus groups of commercial users.
Benchmarks: Commercial market identified Focus group participants recruited Focus group discussion agenda completed Focus group conducted Summary and recommendations completed	Target Dates: 2/1/xx 2/15/xx 2/20/xx 3/5/xx 3/15/xx
Task 2: Determine which features must be	Assigned To: Jim
upgraded to withstand commercial use.	Completion Date: 3/30/xx

 

TAKE ACTION!

Complete Your Action Plan

Communicating Your Plan

 

An important part of your action plan is to make sure everyone involved is committed to its success. The more you involve your employees in the planning process, the greater their support will be. When your people are involved and support your vision, the more likely you are to achieve your objectives. Involve your people in creating your plan. Make sure they understand why they are an important part of achieving the vision for the company. Commitment from your entire team can often compensate for a lack of resources.

Communicate throughout the strategic planning process. To make sure your plan doesn’t end up filed away and ignored, you should “sell” the plan to your employees through every step of the process. When it’s completed, refer to it often as the reason for company decisions and actions. Let employees know how you’re progressing toward your goals. Make sure they know what still needs to be done. Communication helps drive commitment. The plan is only of value with the energy of committed people behind it.

Writing Your Strategic Operating Plan

Once you have completed your research, listed your goals, and compiled your budgets, you are ready to take this information and write your strategic operating plan. By this point you will have a good understanding of what steps need to be taken to accomplish your mission, but it needs to be recorded and communicated to others through a written document. The written operating plan acts as a reference and ensures that everyone in your organization is unified and committed to the same vision.

Presenting Your Plan

Once your plan is written, communicate it to everyone involved in your business. Not only is everyone’s commitment to the same vision important, but you want to get feedback on the plan as well.

Presenting your plan involves more than producing a written document for everyone to read. It’s a sales job. When you present your plan, explain what you see for the future of the business. Tell employees how they will benefit if you are successful at achieving your vision. At the minimum you should present your company’s mission statement, business philosophy, objectives, and goals to the entire company.

To make your business grow and last, you need help. If you haven’t involved your employees in the process prior to this point, use the time when you present your plan to enlist their help. Getting commitment from others will make it easier to obtain your vision. Try to present your plan to employees at least twice — once when you have a first draft prepared and again when the final draft is complete.

When you present the plan, encourage feedback. Asking for feedback lets employees know they are an important part of your company and your vision for success. Their input will strengthen your final plan. Make sure your employees know that what they say counts. They are far more likely to care about your business if you care about them. Enthusiasm builds along the way as you seek employee involvement.

Your strategic operating plan begins the process of aligning all aspects of your business to the achievement of your mission and strategic objectives. You will learn to recognize when the existing systems in your business help or hinder your plan. You will know when to make changes to get every aspect of your business moving in the same direction.