Vision into Action Part 2 - Planning
So, you’ve created your Vision, set clear goals at every level by involving everyone in the creation process and they are highly motivated. Many will be chomping at the bit to get into action, so it’s time to let them get on with it, isn’t it?
Then there’s that nagging voice that says “hold on, maybe we need some sort of plan.” But that will take time and probably involve a lot of work. By the time we’ve done that we’ll have lost all the energy we’ve created.
Is it really worth it?
Surely everyone’s pointing in the right direction, so shouldn’t we just move forward and tap into all that energy?
After all, Sir John Harvey-Jones, a well-known business leader and TV personality during my early career was quoted as saying:
“Planning is an unnatural process.
It is much more fun to do something.
He understood our natural inclination.
However, he also understood something else:
“The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes
as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by
a period of worry and depression.”Sir John Harvey-Jones, business leader and TV personality
Having clear goals is one thing. Taking action that will achieve them is quite another. Without a clear planning process, it is easy to lose any sense of how action is being taken and whether or not it is delivering the intended results.
“A goal without a plan is just a wish!”
Antoine de St. Exupery, author, pioneering aviator and explorer
A system for translating goals into a well-structured and robust action plan then establishing a regular review of progress will improve the chances of success, give visibility and identify the need for support where it is required.
The goal sets the destination. Now you need a route to get there. And not just any route, but one that is appropriate for the organisation’s culture, capability, capacity and so on. You need to work out who’s going on the journey, what equipment they’ll need and so on.
So let’s look at a structured approach for creating a robust action plan. We have identified five key perspectives to consider.
1. Where are you starting from?
Understanding the current situation in respect of the goal area is key.
For each goal you should already have success criteria identified, so how are you currently doing against those? Are there indicators already in place, or do you need to start observing and measuring? Without a clear baseline, it will be hard to know whether the actions are being effective or if the goal is being achieved.
It’s also helpful to take stock of what resources you have available to you.
What strengths does the team have, what knowledge, skill, or experience?
What is already going well that can be used to build on?
Who else do you know outside the team that you could call on for help?
2. Where do you want to get to?
You might imagine that the goal already gives you all you need to be clear about the destination.
However, in the same way as we discussed when talking about Vision, it’s important to imagine what things will be like when you have achieved the goal — in effect creating a “mini-vision” using the same methods as we presented in the previous article.
A great question to consider is “what conditions do we need to create for the goal to be achieved?”
For example, let’s say you decided to create a system for all employees to raise any concerns they had. Conditions you might need to create would be:
Ensuring that people felt safe to say what they think, confident that there would be no “comeback”.
Ensuring that the leadership were prepared for whatever might be said and would not react inappropriately.
Creating a process not just to collect the feedback but also for reviewing, deciding what action to take and communicating that back to the person that raised it.
Communicating the system to everyone to encourage participation in a positive way.
3. What got you here won’t get you there!
“Breakthrough goals” imply doing something new, so it seems reasonable to expect that it will be necessary to learn some new things on the way. Yet often teams set off without considering this important aspect.
“If you want to go somewhere you’ve never been,
you need to do something you’ve never done!”
Imagine for a moment that you were setting off to climb Mount Everest, yet you had never done any high-altitude mountain climbing before. How would you get on?
Using the skills you’ve got, you could probably manage to get yourself to base camp – map the journey, book flights, trains etc and - travel restrictions permitting – make your way there.
Then you’d be stuck. All that would be of very little value in getting you to the summit of Everest.
You’d need a whole range of new knowledge and skills — both about high-altitude climbing in general and the specific challenges associated with Everest — or you’d probably get into trouble before you’d gone very far.
The same is true for your team’s breakthrough goals. There will be new things to learn on the way to achieving them. Typically, these might be:
a different mindset
a different leadership style
some new practical methods and skills
a new set of routines and practices
Considering what these might be and incorporating them into your planning is a key step in maximising you chances of success.
4. Who are the other stakeholders?
There will also be other stakeholders with an interest in your plan. Not all will be in your team, yet they will have an interest in the outcome. Some will be positive about what you are planning and want to help, some will be opposed. Some will have a lot of power and influence, some will have none. The plan may have a big impact on some areas, very little in others.
Considering all of these will add a further set of actions to take. Do we need to involve some others or simply inform them what we are planning? Do we need to anticipate and manage potential resistance?
5. Expect the unexpected!
Of course, you can’t anticipate everything. After all, you’re heading off into unfamiliar territory, so it’s unreasonable to expect that we cover every eventuality.
However, that said, it’s amazing how many potential obstacles can be anticipated simply by asking the right questions and allowing some time.
One method I often use is to invite the team to imagine they have already achieved the goal (use the Vision exercise again), then turn back and look at the journey they have made and identify all of the obstacles that they have overcome to get there.
It never ceases to amaze me how much more powerful this is than imagining themselves at the start of the journey looking towards the destination. From that perspective, potential obstacles can look like barriers and ideas dry up remarkably quickly.
For each obstacle identified, possible mitigation can be defined to ensure that the team is well-prepared.
“We don't rise to the level of our expectations;
we fall to the level of our training.”Archilochus, ancient Greek poet
Even with this, some obstacles will still be missed. So, one further step here is to identify how you will react to the unexpected. As the ancient Greek poet Archilochus said, “we don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training,” so defining and practising a method for dealing with these situations will help to ensure that the team is not deflected from achieving the goal.
Now you can plan!
Once all of the above have been identified, it is possible to construct a really robust plan. All too often teams jump straight from defining the goal to creating the plan, which I hope you can now see is likely to miss out all sorts of important elements.
From all of the above, you can now define actions steps; what will be done, who by and when. Hopefully it goes without saying that all actions need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed).
After all the hard work above, this step can be remarkably simple.
However, even at this stage it is worth asking “what might happen to prevent this action step?” and “How will we make sure that it doesn’t?”
Then finally you can define the resources required – people, equipment, facilities, time and so on.
So is it all worth it?
For those not used to such a rigorous planning process, it may seem like way too much work. Is it really worth it?
Experience of high performing organisations like Toyota and BMW suggests strongly that the answer is “yes” – taking time to plan and build consensus means that plans are then executed quickly and with minimal disruption. And even when disruption happens – which it will – it is handled in a well-controlled and predictable manner to ensure that the plan is adjusted to take account of the new circumstances.
In this way the chances of the goal being achieved and in the desired timescale are hugely improved.
Success is almost guaranteed.
And only almost! There’s still the small matter of executing the plan. Even with the most rigorous plan, there will be much to learn on the way. After all, improvement is an experiment and, as with all experiments, not everything will turn out the way you hoped.
Success comes from how you react to these apparent failures. And that’s for next time!
In Part 3 of this article we’ll cover what’s needed for successful execution of the plan.