3.1 Organizational Planning

Welcome back! Thanks for participating in Module number 3. So this is part of UCI’s Career Readiness series, hosted by the Uni, UCI Extension. This is Module number 3 in the Funament, Fundamentals of Management and I am Dave Nagy. So today in this module, I would like to fo, to explore four different concepts. First, we said, if you were with us in, in the last module, we talked about the five functions of management. So let’s look at the first function of management, Planning. What’s that all about? What’s the hierarchy of building a plan? Goal setting is key to a good plan. So, we’re going to look at a technique for goal setting called SMART goals. And, I’d like to expose you, I’d like to introduce you, to what I consider to be a really awesome website. Not only for your, for a business, or leaders, or managers. But for you, you are in transition, early in careers, an awesome website. So let’s look at Planning. So Planning is. The First Function of Management. It occurs before the other four functions. Without a plan, you really don’t need the other four functions. So Planning introduces the organization’s goals. It develops an intended course of action in order to get to the achievement of our goals. It provides a methodology or a medium with which. We develop our vision. And it helps managers to achieve goals by answering 6 really important questions. What is the plan about? When’s it going to happen? Where is it going to be? Who’s going to be involved? How are we going to make it work? What are all the details? And many organizations are really concerned about the last one. So how much is it going to cost? So in Planning, we, it, there, it is a process. So let’s look at the process. So at the very highest level of starting to put a plan together, you need to understand so what. Is the organization’s missions. Mission whether it be a church, whether it be a community, whether it be a for profit, a non profit, an educational organization, or you as a student. so the mission defines the reason for being. What do we want to be when we grow up? What business do we want to be in? Who do we want to serve? What do we want to achieve? It provides the framework that everything else needs to be aligned to. After we have a mission, the highest level, now we have to figure out, so what are the steps to get there. We have a mission, so how do we ge there? What is the Vision? How can we help our members, our, our employees see the steps to achieve the mission? After we have a vision that can be clearly communicated in layman’s language. Now we are ready to get to the actual plan itself. So we start with planning at a strategic level. Strategic planning is by the highest. Levels of the organization, the board of directors, the C Suite executives. And it is looking at how do we compete? How do we determine what our priorities are? How do we allocate resources and what direction do we want to go in. In order to achieve our mission. After we have a strategic plan, then we move it down to the next level in the organization and we have tactical planning, the tactics. So now we start to get into measurable detailed processes. That the focus on activities, and resources, and budgets, over the mid-term. Strategic planning may be three to five years. Tactical Plans may be two to three years. And,. A line to how do we achieve the goals set forth in the strategic plan? After we have the tactical plan in place, thought through, now we move it down to who are the people that really know. How to put all of the details together. So we have an Operational Plan that is moved down in the organization, generally to first level managers, focusing on specific parts of the organization, the supply chain, marketing customer service, manufacturing, narrowly focused specific parts. And to help us you know, figure out how to involve people and resources in order to get our goods and services produced. So this hierarchy really looks from the center out. The core has to be the Mission. The Vision and the Strategic Plan. So that nucleus is really put in place at the very highest levels, the board of directors. The senior executives of the organization. Then we move it out just like a ripple effect, we move it out and the Tactical Plan is developed by Senior Managers, Middle Man, Middle Level Management. And then it flows out, ripples out to the last. Level for the actual Operational Plan to put the specifics, the actual specifics. What does the activities look like? So, and that’s done by the first level of management. So in planning there are four types of planning. So the Strategic Plan, as I said, answers the six questions. It helps us to achieve goals over the long term. And it focuses on absolutely key critical areas to keep our business alive. Tactical Plans, now we start to focus on mid-term. The integration of organizational parts. We have to get buy in and cooperation from our stakeholders, our partners. We have to look at the priorities and the resources and the timelines. that are all needed to be thought through and in place to achieve the Strategic Plan’s goals. Operational Planning is now short term, lower level. Directs behaviors and actions and priorities that are needed to manufacture. Goods or services and delivered the re, the required output on time to achieve the organizational goals. There are two types of Operational Plan. One is a Single Use Plans. Pretty much self-explanatory. We’re going to use it once, one time. We’re going to move our headquarters from Irvine, California to Dallas, Texas. We are going to build a new house that we are going to retire in. And we put that in place, I think I only want it done once. And so we want to put this single use plan together. You’re going to get married, I hope you want that to be a Single Use Plan. Standing Plan. So Standing Plans are a type of Operational Plan that is there ready to be used. It’s like a guard at the gate. Always there ready to be used. It’s like turning on your computer and you wanting to use word as a program application. Microsoft. Has developed a plan on what word looks like. You click on the word application, and it is ready to be used. Somebody has already put that plan in place and made the decision to make it work. So a Standing Plan is a static course of action developed to handle on-going problems. In the workplace, the workers have to be, paid every week, or every two weeks. Someone made then decision, and you do it every week. You repeat that plan. Filing expense reports, processing new hire paperwork, orienting people to, you know, to your organization. St, you know Standing Plans, over and over and over. So let me ask you a question. Buying stocks. Is that a Single Use Plan or is that a Standing Plan? Well, it depends. If you’re going to buy stocks only once, this is your first time, you’ve just inherited a, you just won the lottery, and so, you said, wow. Now, I’m going to get into the stock market. And you put all this research together, and you spend all your allocated money, and you buy the stocks, and you’re going to let it sit in and invest and grow, and make you a Billionaire. Well Stan, that’s a single use plan. But what if you are saying okay, so every month I’m going to take a portion of my income, set aside, and I am going to buy stocks. And you say, okay, so I developed this process and these steps, and. Every month I am going to follow these same steps in order to buy stocks. Then it becomes a Standing Plan ready to be used over, and over, and over. The fourth type of planning is Contingency Planning. Contingency Planning is often referred to as Plan B. In case the primary plan is deemed to be unacceptable or it won’t work for one reason or another, so you have to go to Plan B. We want to move our headquarters to Irvine, to, from Irvine to Dallas, Texas. We have this building and we have this building. Both can serve the purposes and through negotiations and we say okay Plan A building A won’t work so we move into Plan B. Another type of Contingency Planning is Emergency Planning. Just-in-Case. I hope we don’t ever have to use it. But Just-in-Case, here is the plan. In many universities in many classrooms, you will see placards that are posted pretty much by the fire alarm, and at U, at UCI there are blue placards that are posted in most of the classrooms, and there are plans for, for for a suspicious package. For a medical emergency, for a earthquake. There are plans, contingency plans laid out and ready to be used. So, four types of planning. So manager has responsibilities in making sure this plan comes together. First, as we said, somebody has to establish the mission and vision. After we have a mission and vision, then you have to conduct research. So where, how, what is it going to look like. Who’s going to be involved? How much is it going to cost? What are the different options? You have to analyze that research. And then you have to establish the goal. So; we are going to open a. I don’t know, restaurant here. We establish the goals of the plan. Now you have to put the details of that plan together, and you have to figure out what are the resources that I need. And we have to then figure out, so. Do I have any waste in this plan, how do I eliminate this waste? We need collaboration form our partners, our stakeholders, maybe our investors in order to make this work, we have to then execute the plan. It’s not over yet. Now we have executed the plan, it’s out on, you know, it’s ready to be used, we’ve opened the doors. Now we have to monitor and make adjustments as appropriate. And then we have to establish controls. Make sure everything is aligned to the goal and the plan, and our actions are on track. And lastly, we have to analyze and evaluate and ask ourselves, did we achieve the goals? Did we achieve customer satisfaction?. Here is the planning hierarchy the sequence, as a student. Mission. I want to be a life long learner. That is what I want to be. My reason for being. My Vision. I want to live this commitment. And I want to be a lifelong learner and to use my education so that I can get an awesome, rewarding career. Strategically, let’s say I need to get a BS degree in bussiness in four years. My strategic goal, a longer term. Tactically,. I need to align that in order to get there to achieve the strategic goal, so I need to take 15 credit hours each quarter. Operationally, I need to enroll in the UCI Extension’s Essentials of Management class. This is an example of how a student’s planning process might work.