Planning needs to live…. Live in your mind, so that when you have to make a decision, you have a picture of how your decision will impact your business. As a business owner or manager, you make decisions every day. You don’t have time to look up this big planning document to see what impact your decision will have. You must see the picture, clearly and know why you are making the decision.
I see many small businesses and not-for-profits who suffer from this.
They start with a need, but place restrictions on it. They can’t afford to spend a lot of money, so they look for a solution that fits their budget. The problem is, they have not fully defined the problem and what potential solutions might be. So they limp along with short-term solutions that restrict their ability to grow or improve the service that they could provide.
I recently helped a not-for-profit to escape this dilemma. They were suffering from a lack of tools for their organization. Day-to-day problems were common and took up a lot of the Executive Director’s time. They were also at risk of losing their data because of the reliability of the equipment.
We started with an assessment of the situation: What were they trying to accomplish? How was technology helping or hindering their organization? We recommended a renewal of the technology to provide stability, but also identified opportunities for improving business operations by upgrading the software. They couldn’t afford the expenditure that would improve business operations. They couldn’t afford the base hardware upgrades to provide stability either. They went looking for ways that they could fund the upgrades. They found a funding opportunity that provided not only the minimum hardware upgrades, but the business improvement software as well. They submitted and got approval, and are well on their way.
This “opportunity” never would have been found if they had started with what they could afford. They couldn’t afford anything.
While you may say that they were lucky to find this “opportunity”, I disagree. While they had the problem and solution clearly in their minds (the plan), they looked at the “opportunity” from a very different perspective. They were open for it. Planning is just that. Know where you want to go. Know how you can get there. Then let your day-to-day decisions help you get there.
Sometimes you may not know how to create a plan. Let somebody help you. But DON’T let them do it for you. You won’t remember it!
You might say that you don't have time to plan. You are too busy running your business. But you are planning. You are planning to fail!
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3 comments:
Hi Marc. I understand your views on processes. And if you speak with any executive or business owner, he or she will never dispute this. But why do most business still suffer because of lack of good process and good process monitoring? Do we teach this in our business schools and other business programs. You should start a training program and get it sponsored by a large business house or even the govt. I will love to collaborate with you on this.
I think there is a lot of education out there on process planning and improvement. I don't know whether this is the problem. I do know that process thinking is something that takes a long time to learn.
I have made a lot of process improvements over the years and after I left, I found that many of them have reverted, because they weren't understood. Making changes is easy. Having them ingrained takes time and is hard. I'd be happy to interact and get into approaches.
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