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Essentials to Effective Planning By: Sky John S. Gutierrez, MBA Student - Camarines Norte State College, Philippines

Drawing up a good plan is crucial, it is the hardest part on management. Alan Lakin said ‘’ Planning is bringing the future into present so that you can do something about it now ‘’. This is the essence why proper plan matters. Just like the saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’’. Without plan, business managers miss out on being able to ensure business profitability and its future direction. Every day, managers are tasked the people who work under them. This includes planning for team success, and fulfilling what it takes run a business. According to Tim Berry, an entrepreneur and a business planner, “Planning is about managing resources and prioritized in an organized way”. Management is related to leadership, and it is related to productivity. Henry Fayol called “the planning the most difficult to achieve!” How can we ensure that when we develop a new strategic plan for organization, it succeeds?

According to Kamran Akbarzadeh, PhD, the founders of Dream Achievers Academy, he pointed out the six reasons why planning ahead matters. These are:

1.	Assessing risks and opportunities – planning ahead gives us confidence to take the risks that others may not take and so it moves us ahead without worrying about competition. By planning ahead, we can identify the associated risks, weigh and categorize them, prioritize and create response plan. Managers who are not willing to take risks may never fullfill their vision and their success may be short lived.

2.	Becoming proactive – without planning we would not be ready to respond challenges. Hence we become reactive. By becoming proactive, you will be able to take the right action in the face of challenge and adversity.

3.	Improving performance – planning ahead helps to improve your performance and that of your organization. By improving your performance through good planning and preparation, you will be clearer what to do next.

4.	Enough time to develop teams – team development is vital success, projects, and the organization as a whole. Teams suffer without a plan. When the right plan is designed for the right team, assigning tasks to the team members can be done quickly and confidently.

5.	Time for revising and updating the plan – effective plan are revised and updated regularly. In fact, original plans can and should evolve over time so we can stay on the right track and get to the destination.

6.	Rewarding – by planning ahead we plan for success. Remarkable plans lead to remarkable performances, which lead to remarkable rewards. Therefore, spending enough time in making remarkable plans and preparing for a remarkable performance will pay off with extraordinary rewards.

Planning is an intellectual activity that doesn’t always require a lot of visible labour and effort, as much of its about thinking creatively about the issues at hand. When you need to come engage in planning, you should focus on the following steps;

1.	Gain knowledge of the issues – you need to understand the organizational objectives, the different components they involve, and the available resources the team have. You also need to be knowledgeable of the at hand.

2.	Look into the future – planning is about understanding the short term and long term objectives the organization wants to achieve. You need to consider not just these different elements, but also be able to make predictions about the future conditions for achieving these.

3.	Determine the objectives – once you are aware of the organizational objective, the resources available, and the future outlook to achieving the objectives, you need to identify the specific processes and detailed goals that are required to achieve bigger goals.

4.	Create a flexible structures – however, you’re planning needs to be flexible and take into account things don’t always go according to plan. Your management plan must take into account the other departments and their specific goals.

As you might realize, planning is on on-going function. Management will regularly have to plan the future tasks and adjust the plans based on the organizational situation and the achievement of previous goals. Furthermore, it requires the whole organization to work together as the different teams plans need to link each other and align with the organizational objective. A key part of planning is also the vital role it plays in reducing risks. When management plans for the tasks ahead, they are looking at the situation and detailing the possible pitfalls ahead. You need a lot of knowledge and flexibility in order to plan activities effectively.

References:

https://www.dreamachieversacademy.com/planning/

https://www.managementstudyhq.com/what-importance-of-planning-function-management.html

http://ispatguru.com/planning-a-management-function/