We’ve seen it all too many times – an exciting vision and a thoughtful plan that fails before it ever gets off the ground. This applies to all sorts of initiatives be it comprehensive community plans, strategic plans, business and/or project plans.
This can happen for many different reasons, ranging from lack of resources (primarily including people, technology and funds) or stretched-out leadership and management, to an inefficient implementation system.
But there’s one common factor that can just about guarantee that even the most well-intentioned plan will crash and burn – and that’s the sheer size and complexity.
We’ve found that when a plan becomes too large and intimidating, it’s common for a team to feel intimidated and overwhelmed – and for both productivity and morale to plummet. It also creates a feeling of being lost for the ultimate beneficiaries of such plan.
The answer is to break such large plans into smaller, more manageable, and actionable steps.
Otherwise, you run the risk of being frustrated and demoralized, while spinning your wheels instead of making real progress.
Understanding the Levels of Plans
Before we go any further, let’s talk about the various planning levels within an organization of any type. Think of these as a hierarchy of goals and objectives that cascade all the way from a grand vision to individual team members’ daily tasks:
Long-term vision: This is the master plan. More commonly known as a community resiliency plan or in some cases comprehensive community plan – it is the vision that stretches far into the future. For some, this could mean 50 to even 100 years ahead. It outlines where an organization ultimately wants to be.
Strategic plan: To bridge the gap between the long-term vision and actionable steps, most communities develop a strategic plan. This type of plan typically outlines the community's goals, objectives and actions for the next three to five years with responsibilities, communication strategies and an implementation schedule. It’s even better if these plans are complemented by multi-year financial plans to determine how the strategy will actually be financed.
Annual plan: Breaking down the strategic plan further, an annual plan outlines specific objectives and initiatives for the immediate year. It provides a roadmap for achieving goals for a given year within the strategic plan and therefore it brings further alignment with the long-term vision. A critical part of an annual plan is a yearly budget which is simply a financial plan that helps an organization achieve its annual goals and objectives.
Short-term plans: These plans further divide annual goals into manageable chunks or activities and objectives. These could be biannual, quarterly, seasonal, monthly, weekly, or even daily, depending on various factors such as the needs of an organization, capacity of its people, demands of the community members, the nature of the project and the necessary tasks. In other words, there is no one-size fits all when it comes to short-term plans. There are several best practices out there when it comes to implementation, management and reporting of a plan. Key is to look at the waterfall of plans on a regular basis and develop a cadence so you don’t feel lost.
Breaking Down the Plan: Practical Steps
Once you have a plan in place, the next step is to break it down into actionable steps and operationalize it. Here's how to do it:
Know the plan you are breaking down: Your first step is to understand the plan that you are supposed to break inside and out. That’s your north star and fully grasping it is the most important thing to be done at the onset of this exercise. Ask yourself, is it a community resiliency plan or a strategic plan you need to break? Is it an annual plan or a project plan? Study this plan carefully, be clear on the goals you are trying to reach, eliminate redundancy and duplication, simplify and consolidate information where possible!
Focus on the implementation schedule: If you developed a plan in the right way, it will have an implementation schedule or some resemblance of it. That’s the thing you need to focus on next as it gives you an idea of the organizational priorities in a given timeframe. Pick the timeframe you are currently working in and list down the initiatives or actions that are to be advanced during this time.
Create work plans and budgets: Next is to focus on the initiatives within the timeframe and putting details around them. For example, if you are breaking down a strategic plan and developing an affordable housing project is listed as a first year initiative, then what exactly needs to be done to advance it. Are you in the feasibility-planning phase or development? Do you need to construct the homes or are you waiting on occupancy and operations? What activities do you need to do for the phase you are in to get to point B from A? What are the priorities? Who will do these activities? When exactly do they need to be done? What will it cost to do it?
Set up a team and meeting cadence: Once you’ve created detailed work plans and budgets for an initiative, next thing to do is to create a team that steers the given initiative in the intended direction and meet regularly to discuss the work plan and budget so that the initiative continues to become a reality from being a vision. Bringing qualified, willing and able people together is a powerful thing which leads to accountability and helps get things done in a focused manner.
Celebrate wins: Every time your team completes a step or milestone, celebrate that! Never underestimate the power of recognizing your team’s accomplishments. Remember – every completed task gets you one step closer to your overall goals, so it’s important to acknowledge that you’re making progress along the way. Don’t save the celebration until you meet your biggest goals – smaller celebrations throughout the process help keep your team motivated and engaged in their collective progress.
When you take the time and effort to break down big plans into smaller, doable steps, you can overcome the inertia that often plagues big, ambitious initiatives. With a clear roadmap in place, you can navigate complex projects more effectively and bring your long-term visions to life – one step at a time.