Opportunity Creation
Action Orientation
"Words may inspire but only action creates change"
- Simon Sinek -
Many proposed ideas and solutions fail to be deployed or implemented, due to lack of action planning. That does not mean that the proposed ideas or solutions were poor, often on the contrary, it means that the organization was not well prepared for the proposed ideas or solutions to land. Quoting Benjamin Franklin: “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
When producing an idea or a solution, you often consider how the solution can benefit yourself or your team and you might overlook the implications or consequences for other people or teams. Deliberately considering the implications of proposed solutions helps you to be prepared for the responses of the people – the ones impacted by the solution – around you and your team.
Considering the implications first – do not jump to action to soon – and then identifying a course of action helps you to forward think on how your recommended solutions can be successfully deployed.
HOW TO DEVELOP IT
As a reference, you will find an outline on how to create an action plan later in this document.
Apart from the practical steps to create action plans, there are a few pieces of awareness that are important to pay attention to.
Your own resistance
Creating an action plan for an idea or solution you are so attached to is not easy. When creating the plan, you might feel resistance as you start to feel the challenges lying ahead. It is worth though to break through your own resistance. You might conclude that your proposed idea or solution is not feasible. Well, that saves you from a lot of frustration later. More realistically, the effort to create an action plan will make your proposed idea or solution come to life. The feeling of that success will outweigh your effort for or resistance against creating an action plan.
Tough and demanding work
Creating action plans is tough and demanding work. Especially if you come from an intuitive place, it is hard to turn your vision into tangible output and action. A way to deal with that is to keep your intuitive vision on top of mind. Imagine the outcome and it will happen.
Do not use yourself as a reference
Your recommended solutions can be obvious for you and you might not always understand why other people do not see that. It is important to realize though that you have a substantial advantage compared to the other people; you feel the discomfort of the current situation, you have considered solutions and you have the image of a better future in front of you. That is in most cases not the case for the people surrounding you. They might not feel the discomfort and the solution comes as a surprise while they also face some unintended consequences of the solution. The action plan helps to take them on the journey you have gone through and to reach the point of where you are right now.
ACTION PLANNING
Step 1: Define Current State
Step 2: Define Desired Outcome
Step 3: Create a Gap Analysis
Step 4: Find an Action Plan Sponsor
Step 5: Action Planning
There are a few important steps you need to follow with caution to get the best out of your action plan.
Step 1: Define Current State
The reason for you to consider and propose an idea or solution in the first place, is either that the current state is not good enough for you or that it is impacting your work. Describing the current state and rationale for changing the current state will not only help you, but also other people, including the ones who are willing to support your or can decide on resources, to embrace the need for change.
Step 2: Define Desired Outcome
Describing the desired outcome helps you to make your – intuitive – thoughts more tangible. It will also help in engaging others and create buy-in for your proposed idea or solution. When describing the desired outcome, force yourself to be as descriptive and specific as possible. Make sure that someone else can almost see, feel, or touch what you want to achieve.
Step 3: Create a Gap Analysis
Describe the gap between current state and desired outcome, in terms of tangible features. What needs to change to move from current state to desired outcome? This step is essential for defining the actions later in the process.
Step 4: Find an Action Plan Sponsor
Given the resources you might need or the resistance or blockers you will have to overcome, moving ahead without an action plan sponsor is not an option. So consider who will be the main sponsor for your idea or solution. That person must have both the power and willingness to support you and provide resources to make it happen.
Step 5: Action Planning
In this approach, the real action planning only starts after finalizing the first 4 steps we identified earlier. Many people start their action plans with step 5, but without the first 4 steps, defining and carrying out the actions are doomed to fail. So before you start step 5, please assess how complete and accurate the first 4 steps are. This might be a good moment to engage your action plan sponsor and ask feedback and agreement on the first 4 steps. Without agreement, continuing with step 5 is a waste of time and energy.
In step 5, you identify the actions that need to be taken to bridge the gap between current state and desired outcome. The gap analysis is your main resource. Apart from identifying the action owners and timing, it is important to assess which resources you need and have these resources confirmed by the action plan sponsor. In this phase, you also start to identify potential resistance or blockers, in or outside your organization, that might impact your outcome. It is important to also define actions to mitigate the potential resistance or blockers.