Top Tips for Effective Planning

Think about what you need to do before your plan becomes a reality. Break your plan down into its relevant component parts. For example if you are planning for your team's performance reviews, you might need to:

• gather evidence
• schedule the meetings
• book a room
• complete any appropriate paperwork

Once you've identified each step for your plan, look to see if the step can be broken down even further. You can then allocate the necessary resources, e.g. time, money, people required for each stage.

Identify Appropriate Timescales

Consider how long each of the different parts of your plan is likely to take. When considering timescales it may be useful to think about:

• whether the different stages in your plan need to happen in sequence, or if some can run concurrently
• asking any external parties or suppliers involved in your plan to provide you with their own timescales
• how much contingency time you might need to build into your plan

Use SMART Objectives

The best-laid plans have SMART objectives; in other words, they are:

• Specific – you have specified exactly what you want to achieve from your plan and there is no vague or ambiguous language.
• Measurable – you are clear about how you will measure the success of your plan, and how and when you will know if it has been a success.
• Achievable – your plan, while stretching or challenging, is realistic. [1]
• Relevant – there is a clear purpose or benefit to your plan, e.g. the outcome is relevant to you or your team’s work roles or aims. [2]
• Time-bound – your plan needs to have deadlines or it will drift.

Communicate Your Plan

Once you are happy with your plan, it is essential to communicate its contents. You might wish to do this by emailing it round, posting in on your intranet, or sharing its contents during a team or departmental meeting. When considering who to communicate your plan to, consider:

• Who will be involved in putting my plan into action?
• Who will be affected by my plan?
• Who else might need to know about it?

Monitor and Review Your Plan

Once you have started to implement your plan, be prepared to monitor it and amend it in line with any changing circumstances and shifting expectations. Once all the actions in your plan have been completed, it is good practice to look back over your plan and do a proper review. For more complex plans, this is particularly effective if you do this review with everyone else who was involved in the planning process. During your review, consider:

• What aspects of your plan worked well?
• What didn’t work so well?
• Was there anything that you failed to anticipate during the planning process?
• What could you do differently in future to make your plans more effective?

This final step in the planning process is often missed out. However, it is extremely worthwhile. While subsequent plans may differ in nature, you may well be able to apply some of the lessons you have learned to help you plan even better in future.