Planning

Working out the steps involved to achieve a defined end result/objective.

Planning, whether it be a long term strategic plan or a short term plan for a one-off event, is a process from which there is much to learn. Planning concentrates the mind in a way nothing else can. It combines looking forward, with all its inevitable uncertainties, and attention to detail; an odd, almost paradoxical, mixture.

Of course, the whole idea of a plan is to have something that can be implemented, but since the acts of planning and implementing are quite separate and distinct, it is possible to generate planning opportunities without applying the ultimate test of implementation. Perhaps this is why Eisenhower said 'plans are nothing. Planning is everything'. If you think of planning as a developmental opportunity, rather than as something that must be implemented, it will open up numerous extra possibilities. You and/or other people can plan:

• a specific event
• a project (see Project work)
• a product or service launch
• the annual budget for your department
• a five year strategic plan for your department
• a business plan for the whole organisation.

The last idea in the above list may strike you as unduly ambitious but it calls for some in-depth analysis of the organisation's past and current performance and gives people an appreciation of the 'big picture'. It has been used successfully as an induction project for graduates entering the world of industry and commerce for the first time.

Whilst there is much to learn from planning as such, undoubtedly the best plans from a learning and development point of view are ones that the planners will have to implement. A comparison between what was planned and what actually happened is often a salutary experience, with many deviations from the plan either because of inadequacies in the plan itself or because of unexpected events that hadn't been anticipated and for which there were no contingencies.

Perhaps the most useful planning/implementing activity you and/or others can undertake is to plan your own development. This has the double attraction of helping you to take responsibility for your own development and, at the same time, generate practice in planning skills. Personal development plans can focus on the acquisition of knowledge or skills or techniques - in fact anything that meets an identified need and will contribute to improved performance. The best development plans are:

• feasible - all things considered it should be possible to implement the plan
• immediate - focus on aspects it is possible and useful to develop now rather than things that might or might not have longer term usefulness
• selective - tackle development needs one by one rather than taking on too much concurrently
• specific - spell out precise actions, with i's dotted and t's crossed, and deadlines.

One of the most telling lessons from any planning activity is the discovery that things rarely go according to plan ('the best laid plans of mice and men...') and that the main purpose of planning is to have something to change. The fact that plans need constant adaption as events unfold does not prove the futility of planning. The real indictment is slavishly sticking to a plan that is screaming out to be modified.

Planning generates lessons galore!