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Planning For Your Business
Definite Goals And The Burning Ambition To Achieve Them:
How To Be A Winner
Did you know that the vast
majority of truly successful people in the world
have clearly stated goals for themselves and the
businesses and organizations for which they are
responsible?
If you are serious about
developing your business or organization, please
spend five minutes reading the rest of this article,
it might be the most worthwhile thing you do today.
I am sure the majority of
you these days have at some time developed business
plans or have set objectives at annual appraisals
and such like. I wonder though how often these goal
plans are revisited once they are written down and
how many planning documents are left to get dusty on
bookshelves or at the bottom of a drawer. So often,
I am sure that in all kinds of organizations,
planning exercises are the end in themselves and not
the means to achieving success they should be.
The reasons for this are
usually quite simple and fall in either one of two
categories or frequently both:
• The goals set have been
inappropriately stated and have not taken on board
the starting point for the organization concerned
• There hasn’t been a
sufficient buy in of the plan by everyone in the
organization and consequently there is no culture of
accountability being nurtured
Does this ring any bells
with you? If it does, I’d like to give you some
ideas how you can create successful plans that will
transform your business or organization. At The
Enfys Acumen, we believe that plans should be tools
that are regularly used to help you achieve what you
want to achieve.
Plans are the most
significant management tools we have
I, personally, have been
involved in supporting people to develop plans for
most of the last twenty-years. Very early on, I
realised that plans will fail unless they are truly
owned by everyone who has responsibility for
achieving the goals set. The best way of ensuring
ownership is to involve people in developing the
plans in the first place.
People need an opportunity
to:
• See it!
• Own it!
• Solve it!
• Do it!
The Enfys Acumen supports
organizations to develop a culture of accountability
and would gladly discuss ways you can do more to
motivate your personnel to achieve your business’ or
organization goals. Why not get in touch for an
informal chat.
Dreaming, values and
grounding in where you are now
The first level of planning,
we at The Enfys Acumen call Development Planning. I
challenge anyone to say that they are in business or
go to work just to make money, so this level
clarifies why you really are in the business you are
in and the dream or vision you are working towards
achieving. We have used this process to support
groups of people with a wide range of skills and
experience and at a pace that was comfortable to
everyone concerned.
During a development
planning session we start by covering a blank wall
with paper and colourfully proceed to fill it with a
definite path to achieve the dream or vision for the
organisation concerned and the people it serves.
Remember, if you don’t have a dream, how can you
make the dream come true and as Einstein said,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
We then look at where the
organisation is today, the external climate in which
it operates and what is currently taking place in
the organisation itself. So many plans fail because
people haven’t truly considered their true starting
point and haven’t taken on board the little things
that need to be addressed before the big things can
be achieved.
In setting the grounding for
the plan, we then look at the real current values of
the people involved in the project, not the written
down values, but those clearly demonstrated in
day-to-day activities. Values are important in any
kind of business and always influence the kind of
customer service or user satisfaction you provide.
"Values truly sculpt our
world and the game we want to play”
When we have done this, we
look at what the values should be. In most cases,
there is a clear overlap, but if there isn’t then
the exercise serves as a wake up call for what
really needs to be addressed by the business or
organization.
The planning exercise moves
on to what you want to achieve. You agree a time in
the future that you want to focus on, possibly two
years, maybe three or even five or more, it all
depends on your organization. We have found however
that it is nearly always better to focus on a time
that is just out of current view, not the point when
a major contract ends or a funding scheme dries up.
We always clarify clear, achievable goals and
transport ourselves in time to think about them in
the present time.
Throughout this planning
process and in order to ensure everything you need
to cover is considered, we use Edward de Bono’s The
Six Thinking Hats as a guide. So often we find
people get really passionate and excited when
setting their long term goals and consequently in
this frame of mind, it is so easy to miss out on
some crucial issues that have to be thought about if
you don’t want to set yourself up to fail.
You complete this exercise
by thinking about some of the things the
organization or business needs to do to gain the
strength to achieve its goals, you list who else can
help and who you can work with to achieve your
goals. We always recognize that no one is a
self-made person, we all need help from other people
to achieve what we want to achieve, so we advise you
always end the session with getting people to commit
to the first steps to take.
When we facilitate a
Development Planning session, it usually takes a
full day. Enthusiasm and momentum are important in
this kind of event and we would encourage you not to
take too much time over the exercise. When we do it,
we ensure everyone can participate full, have fun
and are able to make a 100% commitment. Please ask
us for more information.
“When we are motivated by
goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need
completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then
we truly love life”
The next level of planning
that The Enfys Acumen encourages organizations and
businesses to accomplish is what we call Strategic
Planning. At this stage, you should be thinking in
more depth about your goals and turn them into aims,
objectives and outcomes. We have realized that some
of the greatest challenges in the world today are
challenges of language – especially people saying or
not saying what they really mean. Terms like aims
and objectives often cause some of the greatest
difficulties in communication, so we always
encourage people to accept the following
definitions:
• Aims are the changes you
are trying to achieve
• Objectives describe the
planned activities by which you are going to achieve
your aims
• Outcomes are all the
changes, benefits, learning or other effects that
actually happen as a result of your activities
You will find that you are
more likely to achieve your aims and objectives if
you set in place ways for measurement – Outcome
Indicators. These can be qualitative or quantitative
and are usually described with the following kinds
of phrases:
The extent of…
The level of…
The degree of…
The amount of…
The ability to…
Setting outcome indicators
in this way is far more positive and realistic for
everyone concerned and whatever the outcome, you
will realize that there is no such thing as failure
only feedback or results.
Aims and objectives should
always be stated well and a tool you might find
useful is the CREATE mnemonic:
C Clear and Concise
R Realistic
E Ecological
A As now
T Towards what you want and
Timed
E End step and Evidence
procedure
We would be delighted to
have an opportunity to clarify this tool in more
detail and encourage you to get in touch. Strategic
Planning does require more time and as you work
through the model, you will find that certain aims
and objectives will need reviewing so that more
meaningful outcomes can be stated. We found that the
most relevant people to involve in this exercise are
the managers involved in strategic issues and need
to have a strong overview of what the business or
organisation is set up to achieve.
"Success isn’t about
resources but about resourcefulness"
The third level of planning
in The Enfys Acumen model focuses on how you can
achieve your aims and make the best use of the
resources you have available or need to acquire. We
call it Business Planning and have developed a
matrix to turn the plan into a tool that you can use
as both for marketing and for monitoring how far
down the road you are travelling to meet your aims.
This matrix has been
developed over many years with inputs from many
skilled planners and theorists and provides an
opportunity to clarify the rationale for objectives,
to identify opportunities and barriers to
achievement, to resource needs and costs. As I
mentioned at the start of this ebrief, it is
essential that everyone concerned buys into the
planning process and this tool encourages naming
responsible personnel and deadlines for completion
in the process.
As in all of the planning
levels in The Enfys Acumen model, the Business
Planning Matrix builds on the Development and
Strategic Planning models, it does take some time to
complete, but is truly an investment to help you
improve your business and quality of service.
Contact us to find out how you can use this model in
your organisation.
"The map is not the
territory"
Having clearly stated goals
is the primary purpose of any planning exercise, but
unless you go out and achieve the goals the effort
is pointless. You wouldn’t go to a restaurant and
eat the menu now, would you?
Walt Disney once said:
“You can have the greatest
dream in the world, but you need people to build
it.”
This is very true of course,
but often not given the level of priority it truly
needs.
The Enfys Acumen can support
you to enthuse, encourage and enable your people to
achieve aims and objectives in several ways:
• Individual planning and
appraisal systems
For many years and in a
variety of management roles, I have been developing
and refining a system to ensure individual people
have personal goals that slot in clearly with the
business and organisation aims. I am convinced that
in a culture of accountability we need to support
people not to just do their jobs but rather to take
action to achieve overarching aims and objectives.
People need support and resources to do this and
that is what individual planning is all about. Why
not get in touch to find out more?
• Directors and trustees
road maps
I wonder how many of you are
responsible for or work in organisations where there
is a governance board that meets regularly, people
turn up religiously for meetings, but are rarely
seen or heard from in the weeks in between. I
suspect this is a scenario common to many of you.
Company directors and
charity trustees are the key ambassadors of any
organisation, they have legal responsibilities for
accountability and ensuring resources are in place
and appropriately used. Yet often do little more
than rubber stamp other people’s decisions and are
wheeled out when extra bodies are required. Am I
right? The Enfys Acumen is committed to the belief
that everyone has a gift they can contribute to a
situation and should be encourage to develop and use
this gift. When you have agreed your business or
organisations aims and objectives, why not enable
your directors and trustees to complete a road map
to commit to doing something in between meetings to
help achieve overall aims. In my experience, people
are very willing to do something extra, if only they
knew what to do that would be most useful. Talk to
us about introducing roadmaps into your organisation.
• Mentoring for managers and
lone workers
I have written before about
the benefits of mentoring and wish that I’d had the
experience of a mentor at various stages in my
career. With almost twenty years experience of
managing and developing organisations, often
learning the hard way, I have a wealth of
information I can share with you.
• Life and executive
coaching
Coaching differs from
mentoring, in that the latter is very much about
bringing someone else’s experience, knowledge and
skills to the party, being able to sound out your
ideas against someone who has been there before.
Coaching on the other hand is more about helping you
to decide your priorities in life, to achieve your
goals and quite simply to help you move from
dreaming to action. The planning skills that The
Enfys Acumen has developed are equally relevant to
individual people as they are to businesses and
organisations. However, in our constant quest to
learn new skills and develop service quality, I am
currently following a coaching diploma course with
Europe’s top Coaching Academy. If you would like to
explore the benefits of coaching to your life and
career, please do not hesitate in getting in touch.
Have a look at our website
www.enfysacumen.com to find out some of the ways
we might be able to help. If what you need isn’t
listed, but think we might be able to help in some
way, please get in touch.
Nigel Griffiths is the Founder of The Enfys
Acumen. He has been coaching organisations and
people for most of the last 20 years, but only quite
recently found out that that is what it is called!
So convinced is he of the value of coaching,he
regularly receives coaching himself.
He was born and bred in Holyhead, North Wales
and is semi-fluent in Welsh. He has lived in
Newport, South Wales since 1984 (except for 2 years
“missionary work” in Shropshire, England in the late
1980s). He qualified initially with a BEd in Special
Education and after two years in the classroom,
became a manager and developer of organisations.
Starting from quite humble beginnings he went on to
be the Chief Executive of an all-Wales charity,
doubling the staff team and increasing the financial
resources available from approximately £100k to over
£4.5m. Nigel is a member of the Coaching Academy,
the largest organisation of its kind in Europe and
has an MSc in Interprofessional Studies. He was
recently awarded an advanced diploma in marketing
for coaches.
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