Shout It Loud

In this installment of our guide to organizational management we look at organizational planning…

Planning is essential for an organization to achieve its desired objectives, and must be undertaken at each and every step of its development. Its necessary to first plan on a broad organization-wide scale and then to drill down through the different levels of the organization so that everyone within it knows what is required of them.

It begins with the highest authorities in the organization assessing where the organization currently is, where it needs to be and what work, programs, and organizational growth (over a period of time (six months, a year, a five years, etc.) are necessary to achieve where it wants to be.

Each division within an organization (e.g. sales, finance, human resources, etc.) is then looked at separately and split into sub-divisions if appropriate (e.g. international sales, payroll, recruitment, etc.). Clear goals are set for each, based on past performance, natural growth, external trends, and comparisons with other, similar organizations. For example, Increase sales by 15%, Reduce 4th quarter costs, Improve employee retention, etc.

After goals have been decided on, the tasks that need to be done to achieve those goals are set, along with the order in which theyll be carried out, and a schedule for when they need to be started on and completed by. Departments, teams or people are then assigned the tasks and made responsible for their completion, dates are set for review, and performance management procedures and put in place.

If properly and thoroughly completed, organizational planning will result in providing employees with a clear-cut expectations and an understanding of how their individual contributions can directly and indirectly affect the achievement of system-wide goals. Taking care to provide employees with enough work to keep them challenged is important, as is not giving them such an overwhelming workload that they become discouraged.  Success never comes with a guarantee, but proper planning can increase the odds of success and decrease the chances of an organizations failure.