Everyone knows planning in advance is a good thing. (Well, is there any other time and place to plan!) However, inertia is common and getting started requires an act of calamity. When the need to plan is recognized (at which point it moves from 'planning' to 'damage control'), everyone complains they are "behind."
It is not a matter of skill. Though planning skills are not hard to acquire, its important to learn the planning process in advance and not struggle with the process in the course of planning. Fed up with the ad hoc nature of doing business, organizations institute an annual planning process. However, the need to plan is not a once-a-year effort. It is required at the start of every initiative, program and project.
What is the sense of urgency that will get teams to plan? It often comes down to strong leadership. If the boss asks for a plan, the wheels begin to move.
Planning is the starting point to building a playbook for executing strategy. If planning does not occur, then the playbook is build tacitly, this will work for only the smallest endeavors, if at all. Organizational learning will remain 'tribal knowledge'. This means the organization will not scale as communication requires close human contact to teach and learn.
The planning process is not a game changer, getting the team to start planning is.
No comments:
Post a Comment