Accelerated Planning

Selected notes:

Rebecca Jones, Dysart & Jones Associates

Project planning elements:

• Clarity

• Preparation – the power of 2:

o 2 minutes to respond to a question
o 2 hours for a meeting
o 2 months to start a new service initiative
o 2 years to get a new project completed

• Competence

• Balance

• Follow through – has to be built right into the plan

Eat complexity one bite at a time – eat the elephant one bite at a time

Identify stakeholders; think of them as individual people, not by their position or as a group. They can make or break your project, and are not the same as your clients.

Environmental scan – becomes a goal within the plan. Get together what we’ve got
see if there are any gaps or holes and SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities.

**Drafting the document as you go along. As soon as people see things in print it helps get their ideas together. Get your draft out ASAP to refine our thoughts. Feedback/push-back is essential and tells you where you need to focus your attention. No more than 3 to 5 goals; any more then you cannot remember them.

Core team – accelerating the process
• Everybody plays by the same rules
• No hidden agendas
• If you are off-setting stress with humour, make sure it is funny to everyone

By writing out the draft document, it starts to give a vision – position for discussion throughout the organization. You start to have a conversation around the strategy. If we do this and not something else, what are the consequences? Can we live with the consequences?

Balance:
Dealing with reality – figure out first what you want to happen. Figure out what barriers will stand in your way so you can deal with them. Pay attention to what barriers you are going to influence and deal with them. Then figure out critical success factors. Focus on steps that are critical. Relationships are key- you all have to work together.

Follow-through:

In one day (one long day) – close the library and bring all people together
Prior to the meeting:
• Have draft SWOT
• Have draft mission
At the meeting:
• Have a stakeholder help set the tone of the meeting; or a highly respected person from outside the organization, explaining the importance to show the alignment of what you are doing
• Review SWOT & environmental scan
• You want to create a draft vision for the future
• Draft segmented market, offerings, capabilities & strategies
• Identify what the next steps are – emailed to them
After the meeting
• Documentation
• Development tactics

You will not please everyone. Acknowledge you will not know everything to make the decisions.