Planning Processes

 Introduction

Planning is good but knowing the processes that makes a good plan is much better. Any planning that can be accepted and identified
as a good one must follow certain processes. It is vital to review and practice these processes in order to make outstanding result in all that one does. Some administrators are not performing great in their areas because they do not go with proper planning processes. They may be very happy that they have made some plans without taken some factors into consideration.

This topic centres on planning processes to assist organizations and individuals that want to make plans that will guide them in their daily functions. Before your plan for a particular business establishment, you have to look round and ask yourself certain questions. The question may come in the form of the amount of capitals you have in your disposal for starting of the business. Another thing that may arise is your objectives for starting the business, and others. These are few of the processes that must be considered in planning for anything. When these processes are not taken into consideration, it is as good as to say that you are just wasting your precious time. So, to avoid wasting of those precious times of yours, there are processes that are to be considered before engaging in any activity.

The Planning Processes

Failing to plan is planning to fail. In the same way, failing to follow the main planning processes is planning to fail. It is of no need to plan when the processes of planning is not considered by any management or administrator. The basic planning processes are determining the objectives or goals, assessment of the present situation, determining aids and barriers, developing a plan for reaching the goals, and implementation.  

Determining the objectives or goals. The first step in any organization’s plan is determining the goals of the organization which many strategies are applied to achieve them. It involves determining what the organization needs. All planning is centred on the objectives to be achieved. These objectives propel organizations to work hard and meet up with their goals.

If you are want to establish a supermarket in your location, one of the planning processes that must be taken into consideration is the objectives and your goals for the establishment. How much will you like to make as gain at the end of each month? Why are you establishing the supermarket? What strategy will you apply to achieve these goals? How many workers will you employ to run the organization with you? All these and many more are some of the goals and objectives that you may consider before establishing the supermarket.

Assessment of the present situation. In education, before stating guidelines for future plans, the educational administrator must review the present situation in order to determine over-all strength and weaknesses of that administration. When the weaknesses are determined, it will help the administrator to work and make some amendments to see there are no lapses in the system. Identifying the weakness of the administration will go a long way in determining how to solve it.

Analysing the current situation of any organization is very important. When an administrator who owns a secondary school wants to build a university, he must assess the present situation he is into to see if he can achieve his plan. The assessment of the present situation can be assessing to see if he has enough funds to build the university and bring it to the expected standard. Without making this assessment, he can start the building of the university without finishing it before his death. But when he makes good assessment, he will start and finish the building he had in his plan at the initial stage.

There are many administrators that have been imprisoned some time ago because of poor assessment when they engaged in some activities. They went and borrowed money from bank and promised to pay back maybe in the next two years. Some of them did not meet up with their promise and the banks after visiting for many months in return of their money got nothing from the administrator. The next step that the bank took was to arrest the administrators to see that they got their money. It is very important to assess present situation whenever an administrator makes any plan.    

 Determining aids and barriers: This implies forecasting the future, that is, the future of any administration or organization. It is looking ahead to anticipate opportunities and barriers that any establishment may incur in the future time. Once administrator of any educational institution or organization has selected his goal, he must determine what factors will aid or hinder him in the pursuit of the goal.

There is a common saying: as you eat and enjoy your food, be mindful of the bone that may hook on your throat. The bone in the statement is the possible barrier that any organization may meet in running their activities. To prevent barriers from affecting any organization very negatively, how to tackle them must be included in the planning process of any organization. The organization can decide to open a private bank account for solving of any issue which may arise in the course of carrying out the organizational functions. It is really difficult to predict the future accurately. Therefore, assumptions must be made also about the future and effectiveness of plans is related to the accuracy of such assumptions.

Developing a plan for reaching the goals. One thing is setting goals for organizations and another is developing strategies to make sure that these goals are accomplished. Many organizations have set goals which can fill a big reservoir but at the end find themselves achieving little out of many of the goals they initially set. What is the cause of the failure in accomplishing the goals? Could it be because of the laziness or carelessness of the managers or administrators of such organizations? 

Out of the questions asked in the above paragraph, the reasons why many organizations were unable to achieve their goals can be because of the weakness of the managers and their laziness also. It can also be because of the workers and other factors. Reaching organizational goals involves developing alternatives, evaluating the alternatives, and choosing from among them the one that is most suitable alternative for reaching the goals.

For instance, if a university as an organization wants to erect a new building to ensure good and comfortable study environment for the students, the administrator has to adopt some strategies or alternatives to make sure that the dream comes through. He may decide to call his co-workers in the institution and decide to open new bookshops where both students within and from other schools will come and buy the books they need. With this strategy, the university will make some money which will assist in building of the structure they have in their plan. Again, the possible alternative that the school may adopt is visiting the government for their assistance.    

Implementation: This is the final and the most crucial step in planning process. To implement a plan is simply to put the plan into action. One of the reasons why citizens of some countries are angry with the governments is because the plans made by the governments lack good implementation. The government promises to build “heaven” in the states of many citizens but the building of the “heaven” in such states is not implemented.

In the same way, there are many organizational plans that are not implemented. During implementation, the administrator controls progress very closely and is ready to react quickly if it deviates from the initial expectation. A good administrator does not play with the implementation of the organizational plans. He works hard with the co-workers to ensure that things are carried out as planned.          

Conclusion

Discussed are the planning processes. Any organization or administration that wants to run their organizations properly without having any loopholes should work with these processes. The planning processes as entailed on this page are determining the objectives or goals, assessment of the present situation, determining aids and barriers, developing a plan for reaching the goals, and implementation.