Do you have an organizational plan? Everything starts with planning. Whether you want to start a business, grow the business, or simply perform the necessary tasks to keep the business profitable. Without proper planning, all you have is an unfruitful idea.
All business plans require Organizational Planning. It is an integral part of defining your business module and your objectives. For business owners It is extremely important to have an organizational plan in place in order to navigate the daily progress efficiently. It should delineate not only your organizational structure of departments, managers, and staff but also the functions, tasks, and processes they regularly execute.
Your organizational plan should flow from your strategic plan. The strategic plan defines your long-term goals for the business, which can only be accomplished by achieving your organizational plan’s benchmarks.
These concepts may seem highly cumbersome, but let’s take a look at why you need Organizational Planning and how best to manipulate it for your business’s success.
What Is Organizational Planning?
Organizational planning is a process of defining goals for an organization, developing strategies for achieving those goals, and identifying the resources needed to carry out those strategies. It allows organizations to have direction in pursuing their mission and vision. It also assists in identifying risks, setting priorities, and using available resources effectively.
At the same time, organizational planning is an important part of the strategic management process. In this way, it helps organizations make decisions and allocate resources to ensure that they meet their goals. The organizational plan typically includes goals, objectives, strategies, action plans, budgets, and performance measures. It should also include a timeline for completing tasks and a system for monitoring and evaluating progress.
How Effective Organizational Planning?
Organizational planning can become more effective when it is done collaboratively with stakeholders from all levels of the organization. Ensuring that everyone understands the organization’s goals and strategies is important for achieving success. Additionally, different perspectives and insights can be shared to promote a productive dialogue about how everyone can contribute to achieving the desired results.
When done effectively, organizational planning can help organizations become more efficient and effective in achieving their goals. It is a necessary tool for any organization seeking to thrive and grow in the long term.
Types Of Organizational Plans
Organizational plans come in a variety of forms. The most common types are as follows:
- Strategic Plan: A strategic plan is an overall long-term plan for the organization, usually covering multiple years. It sets forth the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives and outlines how those goals will be achieved. It is typically developed at the top level of management, with input from all departments.
- Operational Plan: An operational plan focuses on day-to-day operations and activities necessary to achieve the strategic goals of the organization. It provides details about how resources will be allocated to support specific tasks and initiatives, as well as timelines for completion and performance metrics to measure progress.
- Tactical Plan: A tactical plan is a highly specific and short-term guide to activities that need to be completed to reach an organization’s goals. Usually, department or team leaders create it and lay out how their resources will support the more general strategy.
- Budget Plan: A budget plan is a financial document that details how the money will be spent in order to achieve the goals of the organization. It includes both short-term (e.g., monthly or quarterly) and long-term expectations, such as capital investments.
Organizational plans can also include plans for marketing, human resources, risk management, and other areas. An organization’s success depends on its ability to create and adhere to a regularly updated plan. This helps the company stay on track while also being able to anticipate and overcome any issues.
Importance of an Organizational Plan
A comprehensive organizational plan is crucial for the success of any small business. This plan lists all duties, functions, and objectives for a department or area and assigns a responsible person to each task. Additionally, formalizing power structures with designated supervisors creates accountability and clarifies relationships between employees.
Besides, a well-crafted plan is the best way to clearly and concisely communicate what needs to be done by each individual and how it will benefit the company.
Here Are A Few Things You Can Accomplish With A Well-Defined Organizational Plan
Clarifies The Role And Function Of Each Staff Member
A clear Organizational Plan helps ensure that every team member understands their precise roles and responsibilities. Having crystal clear roles ensures clarity and understanding about specific tasks. This helps you work more efficiently to finish projects or achieve goals sooner and more effectively.
Shows How The Staff Is Contributing To The Goals Of Your Business
By tracking your employees’ progress, you can better understand how they fit into and contribute to your organization as a whole. This is especially helpful during annual performance reviews or if you ever need to let someone go.
Displays Managerial And Team Relationships
An organizational plan is beneficial for figuring out the relationship between management and teams. Each manager can see how every team member contributes to the business, which then helps with knowing who needs more training or support. Additionally, this method is good for revealing employees that can take on a bigger workload.
Can Reveal Gaps, Issues, And Liabilities
The incredible opportunity to track the progress of each task, team, project, and target actually provides insight into any shortcomings as well. Organizational planning helps identify any inadequacies or limitations that may be hindering the growth of your business.
Clarifies The When’s, How’s, And Who’s In Your Processes.
Each member of your business has a strength, unlike others, and can handle specific types of tasks. With proper organizational planning, you can delegate the appropriate tasks at the right time to the most efficient member of the team for elevated output.
It Makes It Quick Work To Know Whom To Turn To When There Is A Problem.
Organizational planning invariably provides a detailed account of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, when you are faced with a difficult situation, you know exactly which member of your team can effectively solve the problem.
Everyone working with you needs to be aware of this information. Define the roles and expectations of your employees, whether entry-level or in management, by posting these responsibilities in a place where everyone will see them, like a bulletin board or internal website. Each team member will be on the same page with the company vision.
Six Steps to Create Your Organizational Plan
If you already have an organizational plan, then it is good to verify and update all the necessary information. However, if you don’t already have an organizational strategy, it is not too late to start one now.
Following are the steps for creating your own organizational plan.
- Pick Your Team – Choose an efficient team based on their skills, strengths, and determination for success.
- Draw a Chart Showing Your Organizational Structure – Share your company’s progress and the targets you have set for short-term and long-term goals.
- Drive Out Goals & Objectives – Define the company’s goals and objectives in detail to help them understand the vitality of their roles.
- List All Tasks and Functions – Predefine team member roles and focus on their tasks and functions so they know what is expected of them.
- Review Current Business Processes – Go over the business’s current situation so everyone is aware of the current state and how they can contribute to the company’s growth.
- Compile Findings into Organizational Plan – Invite their input and design an effective organizational plan.
Let us take a detailed look at these steps to create an Organizational Plan.
#1: Drive Out Goals & Objectives
All organizational plans need to include what the business wants to accomplish and how to get there. Clearly, state what you want your business to become – which drives out your goal/destination and the objectives/measurements for reaching it.
Common goals include:
- internal stability> reducing staff turnover, promoting consistency
- creativity> inspiring innovation, ingenuity, and improvements
- uniformity> consistent delivery of goods and services; branding
- security> protecting data of customers, vendors, and the business
- quality control> focusing on excellence
- accountability > identifying who’s responsible
- integrity > transparency, honesty, fairness
- rapid delivery of goods > improving turnaround
- excellent customer service> exceeding expectations
- efficiency > refinements that lead to optimum operations
#2: Pick Your Team
While you may prefer to do everything yourself, it is imperative to engage with others when creating a plan for their knowledge, ideas, and perspectives. Every member of your team has strengths, unlike others. Some may be talented with development, while others have an innate sense of design.
You must ensure that each member has a vision for the company and their personal progress that aligns with your drive.
Look at your team and select your key players – that is, those staff members:
- who understand the current systems, processes, values, and goals
- who can offer worthwhile suggestions for improvements
- who can visualize and evaluate the effects that changes may have within the business (as changes typically occur during this process)
This team can lend a helping hand in the future as you work to implement plans for business growth and development.
Note that while most small business owners develop the organizational plan on their own, there may be time, staffing, or deadline constraints that make hiring an outside consultant a better choice.
#3: Review Current Business Processes
Write out each of your processes in detail. Look at what it does and how it does it. Then, list all the functions and tasks it performs as well as who does what.
An often surprising result of this step is you will most likely realize there are differences in how the processes actually work versus how you thought they worked.
This step can be extremely time-consuming and, therefore, is why many small businesses hire a business consultant or business coach. It helps them realize a clear vision of what to expect instead of nurturing a delusion.
Thus a business consultant can actually help you formulate a more substantial and realistic organizational plan and make the necessary changes to accomplish your targets.
#4: List Tasks and Functions
Capture all the tasks and functions that your business is and should be performing. Include those things in your vision that you want the organization to do.
This process should drive out the gaps. You’ll see what is missing: perhaps where your company is lacking key pieces such as documentation, training, or analysis. It can also reveal issues and vulnerabilities (ex. insufficient safety practices or improper workarounds).
Once you have identified the factors hindering the company’s growth, you can look for viable solutions to address them. You can discuss these problems with your team and get their input.
This step can be easily combined with brainstorming to solve any existing problems before moving forward with your organizational plan.
#5: Draw Out Your Organizational Structure
Now would be a good time to draft an organizational structure chart. Map the current progress, your vision, the targets, all the shortcomings, and the viable solutions. Visual aids can help you, and your team determines exactly what needs to be done.
Include all the departments, roles, staff, and reporting structure. Define each section with clarity so each team, and the members consisting of them, are well aware of their responsibilities and their roles.
Simplicity and precision are the keys to defining an effective organizational plan. So you must pay attention to the details without complicating the plan.
#6: Compile Findings into Organizational Plan
The last step is to gather the collected information into one document. To do this, you create designated folders of the collected documents or use some best free personal document organizer.
Everything you have discussed and planned with your selective team should be compiled for posterity. This helps you track the progress of your organizational plan and make necessary updates or changes along the way.
Remember that your organizational plan is a part of your strategic plan for the company. It will be affected by external factors and subjected to change as per current business standards. Therefore you must prepare for such contingencies and leave room for errors or fallbacks.
Share the organizational plan with your entire staff. This might be an excellent opportunity to call a “town hall” or all-staff meeting.
Organizational Planning Examples
Organizational planning is a process in which organizations set out the goals, objectives and strategies that they need to achieve their business objectives. This includes identifying key operational areas, setting performance metrics and developing plans to ensure success.
Some Common Examples Of Organizational Planning Include:
- Setting financial targets: Organizations will identify what their revenue and expenses should be and set a budget to stay on track.
- Developing workforce plans: Organizations need to identify the roles they require in order to meet their objectives and then develop training programs or recruitment strategies to fill those roles.
- Establishing operational procedures: Companies need to establish processes for how tasks will get done so that it will ensure that performance remains consistent and efficient.
- Establishing organizational structures: Similarly, organizations need to determine the structure of their teams and divisions, including who is responsible for each area.
- Crafting marketing strategies: Companies need to create a plan for how they will reach customers and promote their products or services.
- Planning for growth and expansion: Lastly, Organizations need to have an idea of where they would like to be in the future, and develop plans for reaching those goals.
Once the organizational plan is in place, it’s important to review it periodically to ensure that strategies are updated as necessary. Companies need to assess progress against goals, identify areas of improvement and adjust plans accordingly.
Conclusion
The grave importance of an effective organizational plan cannot and should not be ignored.
If you are a new business owner, you can consult professional business consultants to devise a beneficial operational plan for your company. Even if you are a freelancer or a small business owner, an organizational plan goes a long way to help you establish your trade as a force to be reckoned with.
If you have an established business, but you know that there is room to grow and expand, you can start making an organizational plan now. You can use the steps that we have defined and seek professional help from business consultants to expand your company and increase your profits in multifold.
It is never too late to make an efficient and effective organizational plan to elevate and expand your business for betterment.
We hope you find this blog helpful in designing an organizational plan for your business.
Have you implemented an organizational plan in your business? If so, share with us what worked for you. Here’s an article on developing a Strategic Plan.
