Why people fail in planning

There are many reasons people fail in planning other than the obvious one that planning requires commitments to be made today for an uncertain future, and events often do not turn out as we expect. The most common reasons for ineffective planning can be summarized as follows: 1. Lack of commitment to planning. Despite the interest in planning, there is too often a lack of real commitment to planning by managers from the very top down to the lowest level supervisor. There is a natural tendency to let todays problems push aside planning for tomorrows opportunities. Confusing planning studies with plans. Nothing is a plan unless it includes a decision of some kind. Yet many organizations and individuals believe that they have planning when all they have are planning studies. Failure to develop and implement sound strategies. Strategies give unified direction to the enterprises planning effort. Without a sound strategy, plans go in the wrong direction. Unless a strategy is implemented by action plans it becomes only an ineffective statement of wishes and hopes. Lack of meaningful objectives or goals. Planning cannot be effective unless goals are clear (do people understand them?), attainable (can they be accomplished?), actionable (can action be developed to achieve them?), and verifiable (will we know we have accomplished them?). Tendency to underestimate the importance of planning premises. If plans and decisions within a business are to be consistent, i.e. to fit one another, they must be made in the light of uniform planning premises. Failure to see the scope of plans. Some managers get so involved in developing day to day programs that they fail to see that there are other types of plans: objectives, programs, budgets, strategies, policies, rules etc. All must involve analysis and decision making and must be implemented if a system of planning is to be complete. Failing to see planning as a rational process. Planning is a rational process. It requires clear goals, knowledge of alternatives, and an ability to analyze alternatives in the light of goals sought, information and a desire to come up with the best possible answer. Too much reliance on experience. Experience may be a dangerous teacher simply because what happened in the past may not likely fit the future. Failure to use the principle of the limiting factor. This principle requires mangers to search out the factors in a problem situation which make the most difference to the solution and deal primarily with them, since in most problem situations there are so many variables that no one can solve all of them.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. Lack of top management support. Planning is not likely to be effective if top management do not believe in it, encourage it and make the necessary decisions that allow their subordinates to make their plans. Subordinates should be encouraged to communicate upwards. 11. Lack of clear delegation. It is very difficult for people to plan if they do not know what their job is, if they are unaware how their job relates to the organization, and if they do not have the clear authority to make decisions. 12. Lack of adequate control techniques and information. Since the task of managerial control is to follow up on plans and to assure that plans are actually succeeding, planning can hardly be effective unless people responcible for them know how well they are working. 13. The fact that people resist change. Planning implies something new. It means change. It is well known that people resist change.

Richard Jones Business Plans Ltd Ph 07 8536642 Email jonesrk@vodafone.co.nz