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Criticism on Interactive Planning

Interactive communication in interactive planning at times can have subjective formation of the structure for policy making or redevelopment of organizational system. Such subjective process for drawing new format for organizational key decisions may lead to unsubstantial structure and affect the quality of decision being made. When the management personalities are mixed with ordinary employees, intimidation may happen and the voice of the employees or workers who are members of the committee may not amplify much, thus weakening the goal of achieving concrete solutions for present problems in the organization or company (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.5).

The policy making or redevelopment of an existing policy or system in the organization or company must be based on research by experts on specified topics or department. Interactive planning with the mix of Subject-Matter-Experts and other employees from different departments may result to formulating popular decision, not necessarily thoroughly processed decisions, which are backed up with data, research, and recommendation from experts (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.8).

The interactive planning may not be suitable for decision making that involves technical subject. If interactive planning be implemented in matters that involve public policy, the research and technical recommendation from the experts must be conducted first, and the leaders may convene about the recommendations stated in the research so as to arrive at a more sound policy (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.9).

Also, in the interactive planning process, technical experts may lower down their efforts to address issues as they are mixed with other employees, the dialogue may lead to explaining issues rather than focusing on solving complex problems and giving in-depth research on the topic. The time is not maximized to seek more quality solutions, rather it is spent to harmonize the understanding of concepts and arriving at a more popular consensus (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.9).

The interactive planning process or steps can be revised by considering segregating the participants into their respective field of expertise and have them research on a given topic and have their recommendations presented in the big group. Doing this will let the big group have more in-depth knowledge about specified area of concern and will give more substantial basis for making decision on policies (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.9).

Also, the quality of content presented during the interactive planning becomes secondary to the degree of communication skill during the discussion. Ability to persuade members of the committee can influence the decision being made by the rest of the committee members. To balance this, presenters of their recommendation must show tangible data that can back up their statements and arguments so as to produce a more informed body of decision makers. On the other hand, lack of communication skills may bring the substantial data and recommendation into silence. With this, quality research and good communication skills are both important in the interactive planning process (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.9-10).

However, it is the duty of the presenters to consider their audience, their level of understanding about the technical subject, and to use terms that can be understood generally by the members of the committee. The communication aspect must complement the quality of information or knowledge presented, without overruling the persuasion over truthfulness and accuracy of information (de Jong and Geerlings, 2003, p.10).

One caution in using Interactive Planning approach for redeveloping the system in the organization or for policy making is the probability of producing bias comments from the same employees who have been part of the previous creation of policy in the organization or company. One way to remedy this is to include new members of the organization and have them prepare well for the convention so as to gain confidence in presenting their recommendations (Haftor, 2011).

Another criticism on Interactive Planning is its tendency to duplicate some old policies and may not fully offer a breakthrough developmental plan or public policy. Also, selection of the participants in the convention determines the quality of information to be delivered and the amount of contribution to be given to the Interactive planning project (Haftor, 2011).

An important criticism on Interactive planning also is the uneven commitment level of the team members. Also the degree of involvement of top-level management is a factor in which the decisions made by the team can be fully implemented. To remedy this, the facilitator of the Interactive planning project must secure the full commitment of the members as well as the top-level managers (Leemann, 2002).

References:

Ackoff, Russell (2001). A Brief Guide to Interactive Planning and Idealized Design. Canada: IDA Linkoping      University. Retrieved from https://www.ida.liu.se/department/index.en.shtml

de Jong, Martin and Harry Geerlings (2003). Exposing weaknesses in interactive planning: the remarkable return of comprehensive policy analysis in The Netherlands. Transport infrastructure. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal. Vol. 21 Number 4. United Kingdom: Beech Tree Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3152/147154603781766149

Frago, Rufran (2017). Guide to Gate 1 Interactive Planning. Planning Planet. Retrieved from http://www.planningplanet.com/blog/guide-gate-1-interactive-planning

Haftor, Darek (2011). An Evaluation of R.L. Ackoff's Interactive Planning: A Case-based Approach. Systemic Practice and Action Research. Springer Link. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11213-010-9188-y

Jaafari, Ali. Criticism of CPM for Project Planning. ASCE Library. Retrieved from https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9364%281984%29110%3A2%28222%29

Leemann, James (2002). Applying Interactive Planning at DuPont: The Case of Transforming a Safety, Health, and Environmental Function to Deliver Business Value. Systemic Practice and Action Research. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1015236423688

Mansfield, Jim (2018). The Benefits of Interactive Planning. Faith Technologies. Retrieved from https://blog.faithtechnologies.com/blog_entries/the-benefits-of-interactive-planning/