Putting the Pieces Together
Annual planning usually begins with next year's goals, budgets and priorities. But your business has been giving you information all year: which projects ran long, where your team was stretched, and which processes slowed projects down.
In September, our blog Planning for What's Next focused on ways to use that information as part of your planning process for next year.
This post is the other bookend. It takes that information and refines it into a short, prioritized plan.
Where to start
This post picks up where September left off. If you worked through that post, you should have a one-page overview with two parts.
The first part is your findings for each area:
- This Year's Work: What worked as expected and what did not, how results should influence next year's plan
- Expected Work and Pipeline: Current and future expected workloads
- Project Performance: Where actual results differed from your plans, and which projects cost the most
- Operational Efficiency: Where time, money or capacity is being lost
- Daily Operations: What current practices still serve the business vs. what does not
The second part is a list of what needs to change. If you haven't done this yet, go back to the September blog post and make some notes on what the key issues or opportunities are.
Refine your Plan
Revisit your one-page overview from the September exercise to identify the changes that matter most for your team and your business.
Step 1: Look across for overlap
Read down your one-pager and mark any issue that shows up in more than one place. An approval loop that slows projects and also strains your team's capacity is a good example. Start with those, because one solution can address several issues at once.
Step 2: Narrow to 5 to 7 changes
Turn what you found into a short list of 5 to 7 changes worth making, focusing on the ones that address those repeat issues.
Tip: Try to identify anything you can stop doing, as this immediately frees up capacity, sends a positive signal to your team, and usually requires very low effort to implement.
Step 3: Choose your top 3
Pick the three things that would make the biggest difference, and that your team can realistically take on right now. Everything else goes on a parking lot list, captured for later without using any resources today.
Step 4: Put it on one page
For each of your top three items, capture what needs to change, who owns it, the target date, and how you will measure progress.
Keep it to one page your team can see and easily follow, and check in monthly, adjusting or dropping anything that is not working.
Use what you know
There will always be things you cannot predict: a project that slips or changes direction, or an unexpected challenge. Working through this framework gives you a clear picture of the business you have today, a short list of the changes that matter most, and a monthly check-in to adjust when the year surprises you.