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THIS WEEK
Planning - A 2:1 Return on Investment?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Planning - A 2:1 Return on Investment? |
Let me take you back a few years to my government days, when I was head of the Corporate Development team within Treasury. One of the areas my team looked after was Strategic and Business Planning for the department and all of the little units within the department.
Now at that time Treasury was renowned for its planning. They loved having other departments take time to plan their strategies, projects and priorities. They created massive guideline manuals that made the Yellow Pages look like a weekly women's magazine so people knew EXACTLY how to plan. They had whole teams of people scrutinizing the details in each department's plans.
Why did they do all of that? Quite simply they did it because it worked.
The trouble was when it came to doing their own business planning it wasn't as simple as you would think. They knew it was good for them, they knew it had to be done and they had told everyone else they needed to do it and they knew it had to be done regularly.
... But every year it was hard to get them motivated to actually set the date to plan, let alone allocate time for it. I mean it was really pulling out fingernails sort of hard at times.
Dates would be set, and then changed ... and changed some more as pressing business came up. There would be fights over in-house (my team and I) or external facilitators – which was the best solution? (The funny thing was most of my team ended up becoming external consultants so are now "external facilitators")
 People would RSVP and then cancel at the last moment. They would allocate two full days which would gradually get whittled down to a few minutes over a cup of coffee in between meetings.
"Hey – why hold it at all – why can't we just dust off last year's plan, change a couple of words around and put new pictures on it. It is not as if it really has changed that much" I heard a few of the managers say out of earshot of the Under-Treasurer.
But the funny thing is that whatever the facilitator, whatever the time that finally was allocated, as I would give them their final draft of the strategic or business plan for the year, I would universally hear "we really needed to do this – no matter how hard we complain".
Why am I telling you this? If the guys who know that planning really works find it hard – how much harder is it for small business who may not be so sure about planning to actually take time out to plan?
So what happens when you plan – and do it properly and seriously? Well funny things happen.
First you get a horrible realisation that what you thought everyone knew about your business was only you talking in your head late at night and that no-one else has the same understanding. This is a real wake-up call for most managers. Many managers just don't get that people can't share their understanding or vision unless they take time to communicate, communicate and then communicate some more.
By a process of face to face conversation – yes the old fashioned form of social networking, you start to gain a shared understanding of where the business is now. For many people in a team this is the first time they get to understand what Mary over there really does and how "the business is travelling".
Assumptions about where the business is going and what is happening next are crashed on the rocks of "are you serious – I thought we were doing xyz". From the wreckage a new boat is built that everyone has a hand in making and sailing. (That was a very nautical analogy – but hey with all the floods around lately I have water on the brain).
But the best bits are the hidden bits – the bits that don't make it onto paper. This is where you start to see the team actually work together as a team. Joking and having fun – enjoying each other's company for a while. You see bonds form, bridges built and tensions ease.
That is precisely the purpose of those horrible games you are made to play, or ropes courses you go through or laps at Mt Cotton driver training centre – they are all designed to get the team actually functioning as a team so they can plan as a team.
You see an up swell in morale, energy to go forward and a map to get you to your destination. You also see greater productivity as for a time everyone is actually heading in the same direction rather than spending time at cross purposes.
Now, all of these results don't come if you are just cramming in a few minutes over coffee and cake Gloria Jeans. They only come if you take some serious time out to plan where you are going.
The New Year is a great time to plan – as mentally most of your team work on calendar not financial years (if you have a mob of rabid accountants in your team they probably don't share this view).
So ... even though it is hard, take the time to plan. Physically close the place down for half a day or even a day. Go somewhere away from your normal workspace if you can (it doesn't have to be an expensive suite – your local library, PCYC or community centre often has rooms to hire for nominal cost).
Stop and look back at the following questions:
- What are we most proud of achieving in the past year and why
- What didn't go so well. What did we learn from that?
- What would we each personally like to achieve from the year?
- What about the company - where should we focus given everything going on?
- How will we know when we have "got there"
- How do we tell our customers what we are doing and get more customers in the process?
- Where do we start?
If you can, get a facilitator to make the day flow smoothly and so you can actually participate as an equal rather than run the show for a change.
Yes – here comes a plug. I love being a business planning facilitator! I get such a buzz seeing the difference that happens before, during and after. So give me a call and we will book in a time for you and your team 07 3351 8844.
Go on – you know it makes a massive difference to your business! Even Treasury does it (eventually).
| Business Tip of the Week - Twitter your way to success |
Hands up if you know what Twitter is. Unless you are less than 25 you probably think Twitter is something a bird does - WRONG!
Twitter is a free web based application that helps people stay in touch - very very quickly and simply. OK - you only get one short line to chat.
Kids use it to say what they are thinking - or post one line stories. But business can use it for much better things.
Businesses can use it to keep track of where everyone is - no more ringing the admin girl to say you would be in at one and hoping she passed the message on!
I use it to share great websites and cool ideas with people. So if you look at my blog (as I am sure you do each day), you will see a post each day called Todays Tweets - which is a list of all the best bits I have checked out. You can also see my current Twitter on my Facebook page (and those geek minded Twitter is great for your website rankings!)
So - don't leave Twitter to the kids. Check out what it can do for your business.
| Small Business Idea of the Week - Tomboy Trades |
I love niche businesses (as you all know). This one is really great. Tomboy Tradesa Canadian start-up company worked out there are now a lot of women tradespeople. ... And they didn't necessarily want to have black steel capped boots or boring brown tool belts. Enter pink, aqua and other great colours.
Yes - a very simple tweak by someone who noticed. I predict it will catch on.
 The first of the Heart Harmony "Tips, Templates and Tactics" series of books hit the market this week.
Check out the Employee Performance Reviews - Tips, Templates and Tactics if you are even thinking about implementing or improving your performance review process in your work (and at only $24.97 it is a real bargain!).
What the heck is a 360?
warm regards
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: Remember to visit my small business ideas blog and add in your comments to recent postings about Valentines Day promotions amongst other things
-http://www.heartharmony.com.au/IngridCliffBlog.html
PPS: While you are looking around the site also check out my updated products pages - for some great products by both Heart Harmony and other great businesses.
PPS: You can also try and find the black sheep we have hidden on one of the pages of our site. A prize of our new Performance Review kit for the first person to find him and drop me a note using the form on his page!
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