Lecture 3 - Planning What is planning? Planning - the process of setting objectives and determining how to accomplish them. Planning involves deciding exactly what you want to accomplish and the best way to go about it. Objectives - specific results usually expressed in measurable indices that someone wishes to achieve and may relate to the individual, a group or the whole organisation. Importance of planning: · Provides direction · Reduces uncertainty · Minimises waste and redundancy · Establishes the goals or standards that are used in controlling · Provides starting point for further managerial actions Who makes plans? · A formal planning department takes sole responsibility for planning in a traditional approach · Participatory planning includes people who will be affected by plans and whose help is needed to implement them · To create and implement the best plans, proper attention must be given to genuinely involving others during the planning steps · This process may mean that planning takes more time, it can improve results by improving implementation There are five action steps in the planning process: 1. Define your objectives 2. Determine where you stand in relation to objectives 3. 3. Develop premises regarding future conditions 4. Analyse and chose among alternative actions 5. Implement the plan and evaluate results Types of plans: Breadth: · Strategic · Operational Time frame: · Long term · Short term
Specificity: · Directional (give objective, but not specific steps, for employees that you trust) · Specific (give people step by step instructions) Frequency of use: · Single use · Standing Contingency planning: · Identify alternative courses of action that can be implemented if and when an original plan proves inadequate due to changing circumstances · 'Trigger points' that indicate that an existing plan is no longer desirable must be preselected and monitored Scenario planning: · The long-term, strategic version of contingency planning · Scenarios help 'condition the organisation to think' and remain better prepared than its competitors · The issues for scenario planning today are geopolitical change, terrorism, human rights Benefits of contingency and scenario planning: This planning improves: · Flexibility · Places organisations in state of readiness · Coordination · Control Planning tools and techniques: · Traditional goal setting · Management by objectives · Gannt Chart · Critical path model Management by objectives: Three types of objective may be specified in an MBO contract: 1. Improvement objectives document intentions for improving performance in a specific way 2. Personal development objectives pertain to personal growth activities, those resulting in expanded job knowledge or skills 3. Some MBO contracts also include maintenance objectives that formally express intentions to maintain performance at an existing level Strategic planning tools and techniques: Environmental scanning: · Screening large amounts of info to anticipate and interpret changes in the environment
Benchmarking/competitor intelligence: · A technique that makes use of external comparisons to better evaluate an organisations current performance and identify possible future actions Forecasting: · A technique that uses quantitative or qualitative info to predict outcomes