The Planning Process

There is a process to planning, and it is a continuous process, as your plan will be constantly changing in response to your changing business situation. Fixing regular review dates, in your corporate calendar, is critical to the success of this planning process. If you commit to this discipline, you will find, after a couple of quarters, these regularly scheduled review meetings will

• Create a planning habit in the company
• Demonstrate your commitment to the plan, (which, is the #1 reason most plans fail) and
• Build in accountability for the execution. (You will see how this accountability works later in the workbook in the Action Plans section.)

Good planning is a collaborative process. This workbook is designed to allow the company leaders to set the overall direction for the business and also engage appropriate level of employee participation. Your plan gains momentum when employees are involved in creating the action plans – and are held accountable for it’s execution. It’s interesting to watch the behaviour at the reporting out at the first quarterly review meeting, and then observe the changes as the team gets into motion in the following months. As employees gain a clearer understanding of where you are, where you are going and how you intend to get there, they will align their efforts with yours to accelerate your growth.