The Chairperson's Planning Guide

The Chairperson's Planning Guide
by Jim Cathcart
(To be completed in writing)
"If it isn't written, it isn't a plan." Jim Cathcart
"Plans are nothing but planning is everything." Dwight D. Eisenhower
"No plan survives its contact with reality." Leland Russell

1. What is Your Primary Purpose? Describe your desired outcome. What will the successful effect be if you do what you plan to do?
2. Determine the Need. What is it that you plan to do and why does it matter? Who is concerned about it? Who will be affected by it? How urgent is it? How big is the need?
3. Relationship to Other Goals. How does this project fit into the other priorities you are working on? Does it help lead you to another accomplishment or away from it? Are there others who are working on related tasks? How might you combine efforts with them?
4. Establish Priorities. Define the importance of this project in relation to the other interests on your list. Should this come first, second, last? Is your method of setting priority based mostly on hard facts, other people's opinions, your own feelings, relative risks, or what?
5. Set Your Goals. Define specifically what you will do, by when and to what extent. Make sure it is measurable, achievable, challenging, and most of all...desirable. You and others must truly care about whether these goals are reached.
6. Brainstorm possible obstacles and how you will address them. See your problems before they occur.
7. Identify Your Resources. Who can help? What tools will be needed? What information will be needed? What skills will be essential to your success?
8. Define the Steps in the Process. Identify your milestones, checkpoints, and key events. Know every step that has to happen in every aspect of the project.
9. Budget and Schedule. Then Schedule and Budget. Determine the cost of doing what you plan. Specify the revenue that will be generated and when it will arrive. Also specify the costs you will incur and when you will incur them. Lay out a detailed time-line of the steps and budgetary effects, then revise and improve the schedule and budget to achieve the optimum plan.
10. Do It Now! Get started today. Stop planning and start doing. Call people, take action, get moving, produce measurable progress now.
11. Watch Yourself and Improve. Do an after-action review as each part is completed. Ask what worked and didn't. Determine why. Avoid blame, just analyze and learn from it. Ask the WIN question, "What's Important Now?" Revise your plan constantly to reflect the best approach now. When in doubt...stick to the plan! Follow your plan until shown concrete reasons to do things differently. The success of most endeavors is found in the persistent actions and daily improvements.
12. Celebrate! Take time to enjoy your success...but not too much time. There is more to be done and more people who need what you can do.

copyright 2006 Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA, USA