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Do you ever think about high-performing CEOs and wonder where they get the time to do it all? Do you marvel at high-profile actors who juggle multiple projects with ease? Have you ever wanted to do more in the same 24 hours?
The secret to productivity is simple: planning. Read on to understand what is planning, its importance and its significance in management.
The Meaning And Significance Of Planning
Planning is a basic component of project management. It is the process of creating a roadmap to decide which actions need to be taken to achieve a specific goal. Planning is fact-based and it increases our chances of success.
To create a successful plan, one must apply logical reasoning to factually analyze the steps that need to be taken. One must also account for any unforeseen situations. One’s ability to make good plans increases with practice. Those who are in the habit of making plans are aware of previously experienced circumstances that are likely to be encountered during the execution of the plan.
Let’s take a detailed look at five key points that explain the importance of planning:
Importance Of Planning In Management
The importance of planning in management can hardly be overstated. It is a critical function of project management. The success of any business endeavor greatly depends on the effectiveness of the plan.
Let’s look at five major points on the importance of planning in management:
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Resource Optimization:
Whether a company is an enterprise worth several billions of dollars or a bootstrapped start-up, it will always have finite resources. A business can’t spend beyond certain limits. Even corporate giants tend to utilize their resources carefully.
Hence, the management at most organizations emphasizes the importance of planning.
Ask yourself the following questions to understand how you can utilize resources better:
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What are the resources that need to be allocated to different departments to enable them to achieve their target?
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How can you maximize productivity and avoid wastage of resources?
All such questions are answered by planning.
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Goal Setting:
Setting SMART goals is critical to an organization’s success. The goals should push everyone out of their comfort zones and inspire them to work hard. However, they should not be impossible to reach or else they will lead to failure.
Organizations grow by setting higher targets and planning how they will meet them. A well-made plan can enable a team to improve its productivity tremendously.
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Risk Management:
One of the most important functions of planning is that it helps in managing risk. The ability to predict, prevent, or manage risks and contingencies is an essential need of any business. For instance, the government could bring regulatory changes during the current pandemic to mitigate damage. Or the financial markets could be unpredictable as a result of disruptions due to the pandemic.
Planning empowers businesses to overcome such unforeseen challenges. While you can’t predict when the next such disruption will happen, you can plan how the business will run in each eventuality and which processes, technology, or investments will be needed in such scenarios.
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Fostering Corporate Culture And Team Spirit:
Organizations that understand the importance of planning take steps to improve their human resource management and work culture as well.
An organization’s work culture is a key factor in determining employee performance. By planning work efficiently and thoughtfully managers can create well-knit and self-sufficient teams that have the necessary resources and knowledge to carry out their responsibilities. Such workforce planning leads to the success of the team and the organization as a whole.
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Gaining An Edge Over Competitors:
Strategic planning helps companies identify their core competencies as well as the areas they need to do better to hold on to their market position. Research-based planning can be used by organizations to spot competitor weaknesses and turn them into opportunities for growth.
The importance of planning in management is evident from these various functions that are instrumental in driving an organization’s growth and success.
Successful Implementation Strategies
What is planning without successful implementation? If you want to manage the performance of your organization, you need to be able to execute your strategy as well. There is a lot of work that goes into it, such as:
- Having an implementation schedule that considers both short-term as well as long-term goals. Having a plan also means that you are prepared for what’s to come. Sometimes, it even helps you make adjustments if and when the action items need changes. You can roll out your plan successfully by creating a calendar.
- After you’ve devised a schedule, your priority should be to track your goals and action items. Weekly or monthly strategy meetings are necessary for bringing everyone on the same page and making sure that they are headed in the right direction. Having a checklist helps in such situations.
- While tracking is essential for your plan, it’s equally important to keep revisiting and making necessary revisions and changes. Getting feedback from your team is instrumental in ensuring that every need is met and the plan has been reviewed from multiple perspectives. For example, long-term plans often meet unanticipated changes (can be internal or external). By being flexible and willing to adapt you can make adjustments on the go and keep pace with changing trends.
Conclusion
The significance of planning can be gauged by the fact that it is considered the nucleus of management activities. You can now learn about the importance of planning in Harappa’s Leading Self course. This personal leadership course helps you learn how to plan and execute your work optimally.
The tools and concepts in the course will help you face challenges and plan your professional growth. The course teaches you the balcony and dance floor framework which helps increase awareness and understand the significance of planning. Enroll in the course today to improve your overall performance and empower yourself to become a great manager!
Explore topics such as Career Development, Career Planning, the Iceberg Model, Career Pathing, Taking Ownership at Work from our Harappa Diaries section and lead on a path of self-development.
