Planning

The increasing emphasis, in today’s organisations, is being placed on pro-actively planning for a better tomorrow. Since resources are limited, they must be allocated carefully to return the maximum value for the organisation. To achieve maximum value, supervisors and team members need skills in setting realistic goals, organizing for action, developing tactical plans and reinforcing good performance.

Usually, beginning a project means thinking before doing. You would not want to build a garage, for instance, without considering the size of your car. Blueprints and essays both require a "plan".

The plan, though, can begin at several different points. People approach tasks in different ways, depending on their personalities, their purposes, and the time they must complete the task. In the ideal world, or in someone's ideal world, planning might begin by deciding on a topic and then move on to organizing the ideas before the first exercise.

Defining Planning

Planning encompasses defining your departmental/team objectives or goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. It is concerned, then, with ends (what is to be done) as well as with means

The Importance of Planning

Planning is very important if we are to develop a clear sense of what we wish to achieve and how we hope to get there. We must plan to ensure that we have the necessary resources (people, finance, time, etc.) and that they will be available when needed. Planning something thoroughly does not guarantee its success but it certainly increases the chances that it will be successful.

Some of the benefits of planning are:

Direction and Teamwork: People need clear goals and guidance on how to achieve these goals. They need to know their roles within the organisation.

Preventing Problems: A major benefit of planning is that potential problems can be anticipated, and steps are taken.

Better Decision-Making: Knowing where you are going, and what you need to do to get there, will help you to make the best decision!

Efficiency: Planning establishes coordinated efforts. It reduces overlapping and wasteful activities. Quite simply, the better you plan, the more efficient you will be.

Control: Planning establishes objectives or standards that facilitate control. Through planning, we can compare actual performance against the objectives, identify any significant deviations and take the necessary corrective action. It is easier to implement control measures if each step of the way has been planned beforehand.

Reduces Uncertainty: Planning reduces uncertainty by forcing managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change, and develop appropriate responses, It also clarifies the consequences of the actions that managers might take in response to change.

Click here to learn more about the benefits of planning.