Planning for a Calm, Growth-Oriented and Impactful 2024
My New Yearâs resolution this year is to make a recurring âdateâ with myself for planning periods for my organizationâs growth. Iâve found this to be challenging because:
a)Â Â Â Â Â Thereâs always so much to do that I donât know where to start
b)Â Â Â Â It feels like thereâs so much that I want to accomplish, so that actually putting it into a plan is intimidating
c)Â Â Â Â Â I am a victim of imposter syndrome and donât feel qualified to be some ambitious
d)Â Â Â Â Planning doesnât feel urgent â getting things done does. But, if you just get things done without planning, you end up getting a lot less of what you actually need to do done.
e)Â Â Â Â It requires a level of clarity about what I want to accomplish. Thankfully, Iâve spent a lot of 2023 working on that, with the help of some great coaches!
Although itâs challenging, I know itâs probably the single most important thing I can do to help increase my organizational impact. By adding in these planning periods, Iâm expecting the following benefits, which, to me, more than justify the effort. The benefits include:
a)Â Â Â Â Â Growing my organizational impact. When I take the time to strategize and set goals, Iâm looking at things from a hugely different perspective than when Iâm an operator and doing tasks. Taking a step back enables me to create a goal with milestones along the way to make sure Iâm guiding myself properly throughout the rest of my worktime.
b)Â Â Â Â Decrease stress by creating realistic expectations for myself. When I have a plan, Iâm really good at sticking to it. But if I donât have a solid plan, I always feel like Iâm not doing enough, and that creates a lot of unnecessary stress.
c)Â Â Â Â Â Keeping myself focused. I tend to have lots of ideas (I call this shiny object syndrome), but they can often take away from my organizational mission. I donât want to be distracted easily.
So, I developed a âplanning planâ for myself based on my experience working with others and seeing what works for different organizations. I thought Iâd share it with you, as it seems to be a commonly useful technique for keeping organizations on-track and successful.
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Before you start creating your own organizational âplanning plan,â you do need to have a few things in place:
If you donât have these yet, youâll need to develop them in your annual planning period so that the rest of your year will have maximized success.
Thereâs a general structure for organizational planning that I find works pretty much universally. However, although most of the organizations I work with implement planning periods, they all look quite different. You, your organization, and your employees are unique, and youâll need to use your discretion with how you implement the planning structure. This structure can be used for employee performance reviews as well as operational management.
Strategic planning periods: The strategic mission of the organization leads these planning sessions. What are the goals you want to accomplish? Take a step back and look at your organization from the big-picture view.
Detailed planning periods: This comes from the operational perspective â what is the actual plan to get things done?
Iâm sure youâve noticed that these goals go in order of high strategy / less detail to the reverse â thatâs the approach Iâve seen to be most helpful for integrating daily productivity with a strategic plan. You need to create the strategy and revisit it, while balancing the operational details that will implement the strategy youâre envisioning.
Yes, some of these periods will duplicate â youâll need to do your quarterly plan AND your monthly plan AND your weekly plan at the same time. In those scenarios, youâll want to start with the highest level of strategy and then work down to the most detailed.
I just finished my annual, quarterly, and monthly plan, and Iâm planning on sticking to this plan for 2024. Â Join me in this challenge - I hope that by sharing this, it will make your year a little bit easier and more successful.
Here's to a calm, successful, and stress-free 2024!
Employee Benefits Consultant - Finding the right benefit solutions for business owners to attract and retain employees.
9moThanks for this post. I found it helpful.