Action Plans: The Work of Successful Plans

The strategic planning document has been written, the vision established and the mission statement agreed upon; now its time for the work to happen. It's easy to understand a vision, objectives and goals, but the real meaning of a strategic plan, the part that determines whether the plan is a success or not, is how it is implemented. And, this is where most plans fall apart.

Research shows that American businesses typically meet one third of their objectives in a strategic plan. Adding in action plans to the strategic planning process increases that accomplishment rate to about 60%; however, if you closely follow the strategic planning process being outlined here and utilize the implementation process being layout out, you should achieve 80% to 90% of your quality, service, financial and strategic objectives.

The action plan should be no longer than two pages in length with fewer than 30 action steps. The heading of the plan should have the full description of the objective, date of last revision and list all parties involved in the action plan. This is mapping out the road to success for this objective. If you have 6 objectives you will have 6 action plans. The worksheet of the action plan should be divided into columns like a spread sheet. Each column should be clearly labeled. Such as, Action number, Priority, Action step description, Who is involved, Estimated time to complete this step, Money, Starting date, and Completion date.

Be sure action steps don't turn into on-going activities. A step has a beginning and an end and moves the objective forward. Be concise. Instead of saying "monitoring drive thru wait time" write "establish drive thru wait time monitoring system."

Everyone has a full plate of work and adding a full set of action plans and a list of action steps can appear to be daunting and they frequently get shuffled down the priority list. By using an action plan system, it is the best way to incorporate this body of work seamlessly into daily activities. Thus, making it more likely items will stay on course and actually get done properly and on time.

-- Russell