There are three or four massive reasons why you need Action plans…

The first is, without a plan, you have no idea where you are going. Without an action plan for your staff, they have not only no idea where they are going, but probably how they are going to get there. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the story, “Oh they know what to do and they just do it”. The bottom line is, as soon as that happens, the next story I hear is,” I don’t understand why these mistakes are made. I don’t understand how this happened”. Without an action plan, you’ve got no way to judge success and/or non-success of your team. 

You need to also understand that all your team, everyone in this world wants to be successful. No one wants to fail. Having an action plan means that you can congratulate them for being successful – praise them – they have achieved every step of the way to get the goal, and that’s great. Conversely, if there’s been challenges along the way, then you can see – this is where we can do some training, help you out. If you are the business owner – how do I make this work better for you? 

The action plan is the roadmap to get the result. 

One of the questions I get asked all the time is “How do I do an action plan?”

 Well, it’s easy. What are the steps you take? Think of the Lego blocks – what are the steps you take to get the task done and to get the result, to get the project finished? 

Think small. The smaller the steps, the clearer the steps, more transparent the steps, the more likely you are to get there. Action plans must be in writing. Write them down, come up with a little format. There is a thing called Google! Download or ask The Auckland Centre of Business Excellence. Email me for a simple Action Plan for your team. It is only about putting in place what you already expect them to do. 

The last thing about action plans is it creates a culture of no surprises. For example, if there are six steps to get this task done, these are the six steps. If it goes wrong and the six steps have been followed, then either you know the sun hasn’t come up in the morning, or there is a problem with the action plans and the steps. It gives you a chance to look at it as well. 

So, make sure that when you are doing your action plans, that you know exactly how to make this work. It’s the steps to success. Five, six, maybe eight steps to success. Action plans – vital to your business success, vital to your staff success. 

Kerry