Planning is a key aspect of managing for results.

Planning involves deciding on a course of

action, ensuring that the resources required to implement the action will be available, and
scheduling and prioritizing the work required to achieve a defi ned end result.
The aim of planning is to enable managers to complete tasks on time by making the best use
of the resources available to them. They need to avoid crises and the high costs that they cause;
to have fewer ‘drop everything and rush this’ problems. Contingency or fall-back plans are prepared
if there is any reason to believe that the initial plan may fail for reasons beyond the manager’s
control.
When managers plan, they may choose certain courses of action and rule out others; that is to
say, they lose fl exibility. This will be a disadvantage if the future turns out differently from what
was expected – which is only too likely. Managers should try to make plans that can be changed
without undue diffi culty. It is a bad plan that admits no change.
Planning ingredients
Most of the planning managers carry out is simply a matter of thinking systematically and
using common sense. Every plan contains four key ingredients:
1. The objective – what is to be achieved.
2. The action programme – the specifi c steps required to achieve the objective.
3. Resource requirements – what resources, in the shape of money, people, facilities and
time, will be required.
4. Impact assessment – determining the impact made on the organization by achieving the
plan (assessed in terms of costs and benefi ts).
Planning activities
There are 10 planning activities:
1. Defi ning goals – what has to be achieved through the plan.
2. Organizing – deciding how the work and the people who carry it out should be organized.
3. Forecasting what sort of work has to be done, how much and by when, and how the workload
might change.
4. Prioritizing – deciding the sequence and timescale of operations.
5. Programming the activities and events required to produce results on time.
Managing for Results 45
6. Workforce planning – deciding how many and what type of people are needed and considering
the feasibility of absorbing peak loads by means of overtime, temporary staff,
subcontracting or outsourcing.
7. Establishing detailed performance requirements – for output, sales, times, quality, costs or
for any other aspect of the work where performance should be planned, measured and
controlled.
8. Procedure planning – deciding how the work should be done and planning the actual
operations by defi ning the systems and processes required.
9. Materials planning – deciding what materials, bought-in parts or subcontracted work are
required and ensuring that they are made available in the right quantity at the right time.
10. Facilities planning – deciding on the plant, equipment, tools and space required.
Setting objectives and targets
One of the most important tasks carried out by managers as leaders is to manage expectations.
Each individual and the team as a whole must know what they have to do and achieve. The task
is to ensure that performance requirements developed in the planning stage are expressed as
objectives or goals.
What are objectives?
An objective describes something that has to be accomplished – a point to be aimed at.
Objectives or goals (the terms are interchangeable) defi ne what organizations, functions,
departments, teams and individuals are expected to achieve. There are two main types of
objectives: work and personal.
Work objectives
Work or operational objectives refer to the results to be achieved or the contribution to be
made to the accomplishment of team, departmental and corporate objectives. At corporate
level they are related to the organization’s mission, core values and strategic plans. At departmental
or functional level they are related to corporate objectives, spelling out the specifi c
mission, targets and purposes to be achieved by a function or department. At team level they
will again be related specifi cally to the purpose of the team and the contribution it is expected
to make to achieving departmental and corporate goals. At individual level they are rolerelated,
referring to the principal accountabilities, main activity areas or key tasks that constitute
the individual’s role. They focus on the results individuals are expected to achieve and how
they contribute to the attainment of team, departmental and corporate goals and to upholding
the organization’s core values.
46 Approaches to Management
Personal objectives
Personal or learning objectives are concerned with what individuals should do and learn to
improve their performance (performance improvement plans) and/or their knowledge, skills
and overall level of competency (learning and personal development plans).
How are individual work objectives expressed?
Individual objectives defi ne the results to be achieved and the basis upon which performance
in attaining these results can be measured by the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) or
measures. They can take the form of targets, standing objectives or project objectives.
Targets
Individual objectives can be expressed as quantifi ed output or improvement targets (open 24
new accounts by 30 November, reduce cost per unit of output by 2.5 per cent by 30 June), or
in terms of projects to be completed (open distribution depot in Northampton by 31 October).
Targets may be reset regularly, say once a year or every six months, or be subject to frequent
amendments to meet new requirements or changed circumstances.
Standing objectives
Objectives for some aspects of a role (or for all aspects of some roles) can be what might be
described as ‘standing objectives’. These are concerned with the permanent or continuing features
of a role and may be incorporated in a role profi le, which specifi es what has to be achieved
in terms of key result areas. They can lead to defi ned standards of performance.
Qualitative standing objectives may also be defi ned for behaviour that will contribute to
upholding the core values of the organization. For example, if one of the core values relates to
the development of the skills and competencies of employees, a performance standard for
employee development could be one of the objectives agreed for all managers and team
leaders.
Project objectives
Project objectives defi ne what has to be achieved by an individual who is managing or contributing
to a project. They will defi ne the purpose of the project and the success criteria – how the
conduct and impact of the project will be measured.
What is a good work objective?
Good work or operational objectives are:
Managing for Results 47
• Consistent with the values of the organization and departmental and organizational
objectives.
• Precise: clear and well defi ned, using positive words.
• Challenging: to stimulate high standards of performance and to encourage progress.
• Measurable: they can be related to quantifi ed or qualitative performance measures.
• Achievable within the capabilities of the individual. Account should be taken of any
constraints that might affect the individual’s capacity to achieve the objectives; these
could include lack of resources (money, time, equipment, support from other people),
lack of experience or training, external factors beyond the individual’s control, etc.
• Agreed by the manager and the individual concerned. The aim is to provide for the
ownership, not the imposition, of objectives, although there may be situations where
individuals have to be persuaded to accept a higher standard than they believe themselves
capable of attaining.
• Time-related – achievable within a defi ned timescale (this would not be applicable to a
standing objective).
• Teamwork orientated – emphasize teamwork as well as individual achievement.
• The acronym SMART is often used to defi ne a good objective: S = stretching;
M = measurable; A = agreed; R = realistic; T = time-related.
Defi ning work objectives
The process of agreeing objectives need not be unduly complicated. It starts with the agreement
of the key result areas, which defi ne broadly what role holders are expected to achieve in
each of the main elements of their role (these are sometimes called principal accountabilities
or main tasks). For example, a key result area for the head of a distribution centre may be to
ensure that agreed levels of service delivery are achieved. It is then a matter of jointly examining
each area and agreeing targets and standards of performance as appropriate. In the case of
a head of distribution, a service-level agreement might be set out that specifi es standards in
such areas as turning round dispatch orders, delivery within a time limit and number of customer
complaints. Agreement can also be reached on any projects to be undertaken that might
be linked to a specifi c accountability, or maybe more general projects that fall broadly within
the remit of the role holder. Defi ning objectives involves agreeing targets and standards of
performance.
Defi ning targets
Targets are quantifi ed and time based – they always defi ne specifi c and measurable outputs
and when they have to be reached. The target may be to achieve a specifi ed level of output or
48 Approaches to Management
to improve performance in some way. Targets may be expressed in fi nancial terms such as
profi ts to be made, income to be generated, costs to be reduced or budgets to be worked within.
Or they may be expressed in numerical terms as a specifi ed number of units to be processed,
sales volume to be achieved, responses to be obtained or clients or customers to be contacted
over a period of time.
Output targets are expressed in fi nancial or unitary terms, for example:
• Achieve sales of £1.6 million by 30 June.
• Maintain inventory levels at no more than £12 million.
• Maintain throughput at the rate of 800 units a day.
Performance improvement targets may be expressed in terms such as:
• Increase sales turnover for the year by 8 per cent in real terms.
• Reduce the overhead to sales ratio from 22.6 to 20 per cent over the next 12 months.
• Increase the ratio of successful conversions (enquiry to sales) from 40 to 50 per cent
within six months.
• Reduce the number of customer complaints to 0.5 per cent of deliveries made.
Defi ning performance standards
A performance standard defi nition should take the form of a statement that performance will
be up to standard if a desirable specifi ed and observable result happens. Performance standards
are broadly defi ned in outcome terms in the key result area defi nitions contained in a role
profi le. But the broad defi nition should be expanded and as far as possible quantifi ed, by reference
to levels of service or speed of response, for example. Where the standard cannot be quantifi
ed, a more qualitative approach may have to be adopted, in which case the standard of
performance defi nition would in effect state: ‘This job or task will have been well done if…
[these things happen]’. Junior or more routine jobs are likely to have a higher proportion of
standing objectives to which performance standards are attached than senior and more fl exible
or output-orientated jobs. A qualitative standard could be expressed as: ‘Performance will
be up to standard if requests for information are dealt with promptly and helpfully on a can
do/will do basis and are delivered in the form required by the user’.
It is often assumed that qualitative performance standards are diffi cult to defi ne. But all managers
make judgements about the standards of performance they expect and obtain from their
staff, and most people have some idea of whether or not they are doing a good job. The problem
is that these views are often subjective and are seldom articulated. Even if, as often happens, the
fi nal defi nition of a performance standard is somewhat unspecifi c, the discipline of working
through the requirements in itself will lead to greater mutual understanding of performance
expectations.

Michael Armstrong 2005