Why Action Plans Are Very Important?

We often hear individuals talk about the importance of creating and utilizing an action plan, yet few individuals who are leaders of organizations ever fully take advantage of the usefulness of action plans. Action plans not only provide guidelines and guidance, but create a methodology to accomplish ones objectives. This applies NOT ONLY to organizational leaders, BUT to any business leader, or especially, for independent contractors/ self - employed business people, such as Realtors, Lawyers, Physicians, Dentists, etc.

The first thing one must do is create an objective or goal of a particular project or goal. This objective should be broken into long-term, intermediate-term and short-term needs. Once an objective has been decided upon, that objective must be examined to assure that it is in line with an organization's mission. If an organization's mission is in contradiction with a particular project's objective, leadership must examine if this contradiction is acceptable, if it makes it unworkable, or if either the mission or the objective needs updating or adjustment. Leaders must fully examine all ramifications of taking such an action, however, before they decide on any such action.

Once this procedure has been accomplished, it must be determined what the priorities of this plan are. There must be long-term, intermediate-term, and short-term objectives and/or goals, and the plan must be a workable program to accomplish the objectives.

This means that an action plan must list each action that needs to be taken, in a time order. It must also include alternative actions that might be used if a plan needs some "tweaking." Each of these actions must be broken up into sub-categories, and the intermediate steps must be listed, and a timetable placed for each one. The responsible individual for each part of the plan must be noted, as well as a "Need by date." In addition, there must be a strategy for thorough follow-up and examination of the action plan on an ongoing basis, as well as a mechanism for making needed adjustments.

Part of the action plan is also a cost evaluation. These costs include not only the actual expense in terms of both monies and possible lost revenues, as well as the costs in terms of personnel costs and time. Possible costs also include potential ramifications from existing members, who may not favor the changes being proposed.

One must always remember that an action plan has little value if it is either undeveloped, not fully developed, or does not move from the exercise stage to the implementation and action stage. Since many leaders prefer using rhetoric to actually taking action, an effective action plan will only work if leaders are properly trained in all aspects of use.

This discussion is only a beginning in terms of the realities of an action plan. However, my four decades of experience have clearly demonstrated that effective organizations always take advantage of creating and using action plans.