Action Planning Better For Your Team?

We’re all familiar with that old saying, You don’t plan to fail, you just fail to plan. And planning isn’t a whole lot of fun. It just doesn’t feel like you’re doing anything. But action planning is a critical component for success in achieving your team’s goals. It’s not difficult, it just takes time. The major components in action planning are:

• Actions
• Time
• Cost
• Resources

The action planning process has five major steps:

1. Identify And Sequence Major Activities
2. Identify And Sequence Tasks
3. Identify Time And Cost Elements
4. Identify And Assign Resources
5. Control And Follow Up

1. Identify And Sequence Major Activities
First, identify all of the major actions required to reach your goal. Write each action on an index card or sticky note. Place a number on each card according to the order of execution (e.g., 1,2 3, 4, etc.). Take the cards and tack them to a wall in the appropriate sequence.

2. Identify And Sequence Tasks
Next, identify all tasks for each action. These will be your plan deliverables. Write each task on an index card or sticky note. Place a number on each card which identifies the major activity and the order of the task within that activity (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc.). Tack the cards to the wall in the appropriate sequence within each activity. Move the cards around as necessary. (Don’t forget to renumber if you do this.) You may have tasks within one activity that can be performed at the same time as tasks within another activity.

3. Identify Time And Cost Elements
As you look at your planning wall estimate how much time each task will take to complete. This could be reflected in days or hours. It’s okay to use either one, just decide which one and stick with it for each task. Write the number of hours (or days) each task will take on the card you originally created for that task. Total the hours (or days) for each task within an action and write the total on the activity card. Review each task to determine if a cost element will be associated with its completion. If so, post the estimated amount on the card.

4. Identify And Assign Resources
Review skills and work load of your team. Assign responsibility for task completion based on these dimensions. Look for any related task areas that would be easily completed by the same person. Post assigned team member names on the appropriate cards.

5. Control And Follow Up
You’re almost done. Identify the person that will a) Capture the information from the wall into a format which will allow all team members access, b) Track the progress of each deliverable, c) Conduct status meetings.

That’s all it takes. Using this action plan you can track your progress as you move closer to success. Go plan some action.

Denise O’Berry (aka ‘Team Doc’) provides tools, tips and advice to help organizations build better teams. Find out more at http://www.teambuildingtips.com

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