In management projects a team of managers works together to lead the whole organization to a key goal - such as breakthrough goal, strategy execution or the resolution of a systemic constraint of the business system.

Operational planning is the management task which delivers the operational plan.

IS OPERATIONAL PLANNING DIFFICULT? AND WHY?<TOP>

You bet. Many sources quote failure rates of >50% of management projects. THE ECONOMIST in the article of “Overdue and over budget, over and over again” (June 11, 2005) offers even more pessimistic estimates.

Delta Institute has conducted "management project defect tracking" studies on management projects over a period of several years. (1) This research revealed three key reasons for failure of management projects:

WRONG COMMITMENTS: the plan's commitments are delivered, but we miss the goal
WEAK COMMITMENTS: the commitments are not well defined
BROKEN COMMITMENTS: the commitments are not delivered.

With RIGHT COMMITMENTS, STRONG COMMITMENTS and ALL COMMITMENTS DELIVERED the operational plan will be successful.

DEFINING THE RIGHT COMMITMENTS <TOP>

The "right" commitments deliver those "vital few" results required to bring the management project to the goal.

Managers often build their operational plans using the “BVI Methodology” (brainstorm, vote, implement). In result, these plans are more expressions of the organization's politics rather than high quality management tools. Unfortunately when dealing with system change this approach has little to no chance to delivers the lines of action actually required for system change.

Instead, systematic methodologies must be rigorously applied to arrive at the "right commitments". Successful operational planning is based on

deep understanding of the business system which management wants to lead to the goal of the operational plan,
deep research for all obstacles to be overcome on the way to the goal,
rigorous logical testing of the operational plan before it is released for implementation,

DEFINING STRONG COMMITMENTS <TOP>

Well defined commitments consist of five elements - each of which must be defined correctly:

the owner: who commits to deliver,
the deliverable: what will be delivered,
the purpose: why that commitment is vital for the goal,
the due date: by when the delivery is required,
the acceptable effort: with which budget.

DELIVERING ALL COMMITMENTS <TOP>

Making sure that all commitments in an operational plan are the right ones, are strong and are delivered is top management responsibility. Therefore, top managers of successful management projects do not fall into the "delegation trap" ("My job is to write the strategy - your job is to execute it. My job is NOT to control if you execute").

They own every element in the operational plan and don't delegate responsibility for the operational plan for a second.

TEMPLATE AND EXAMPLE OF AN OPERATIONAL PLAN

See this page for a template and example of an operational plan.

OUR OFFER: WE HELP TO BUILD AND LEAD YOUR OPERATIONAL PLAN <TOP>

Delta Institute offers assistance to design the operational plan and to lead it to success. With the help of Delta Institute top management will build the operational plan quickly, for quick implementation and for achieving its results. Five steps are required:

Step 1: LAUNCH

2 to 5 days of hard work defining the operational goal, the key areas of commitment and start of detailed commitment planning.

Step 2: BUILD COMMITMENT PLAN (HOMEWORK)

In a period of 3 to 6 weeks several days of detailed commitment planning. Frequent checks with and coaching by Delta Institute, by email and phone.

Step 3: FINALIZE THE PLAN

2 to 5 days of hard work. Result is the final operational plan including all documentation and execution dashboard.

Step 4: CHECKPOINTS

Three months after finalization of plan. Rigorous review of progress. Decisions. Repeated each quarter.

Step 5: CELEBRATE

Goal achieved – within deadline and budget. Joy and pleasure. Rewards. Celebration.

INTERESTED TO LEARN MORE? Please contact Delta Institute here. <TOP>

(1) Engineering Defect Tracking is a methodology aiming at reducing errors in engineering projects. It observes defects during execution of such projects, relates them back to where they could have been prevented, and adds a rule at that “point of prevention” into the engineering process instructions. Delta Institute applied the same approach for several years to management projects, whose purpose we consider to be “to engineer a better company”.