Project Planning

Focused action with tangible results.

Regardless of your project’s size, scope or complexity, it is important to move your team quickly to focused action. The Strategy and Leadership planning process promotes highly successful project launches by clarifying directions, aligning resources, designating leadership roles and responsibilities, all the while building team trust and commitment.

The SAL project planning process consists of several steps that can be completed in as little as 4 hours.

– Elise L. Lev, Ed.D., RN, Professor,
College of Nursing, Rutgers University

 Scope

The first thing in planning a successful project is to understand the project’s scope. Every project has a beginning and an end, which needs to be identified up front. Other known parameters including budget, personnel, and expected results need to be clarified as early in the planning process as possible.

Identifying Success

In identifying success, your team will push the envelope as to what they think they can achieve. This creates energy around the project and focuses the group on a shared picture of success.

Recognizing the Current Reality

Here your team assesses its strengths and weaknesses against its “no limits” vision of victory and talks through the benefits and dangers that would result from achieving everything in their vision of success. This keeps you grounded and identifies arenas of concern to be addressed throughout the planning.

Commitment

Now fully aware of its resources and having identified potential future issues, your team develops a clear, compelling articulation of what they are completely committed to accomplishing.

Key Actions

Your team will brainstorm individually, then in small groups and finally the whole group will determine the actions that will accomplish your goals. The actions are organized into arenas of work to be done by a committee or task force and individuals are assigned or volunteer to work in their area of interest.

Calendaring and Coordination

Your team, now broken out into subgroups by area of responsibility, will create timelines for major tactics and actions and share their proposed plan with the whole team. This ensures that timelines mesh and resources are available to support progress.

RESULT:

A written action plan with broad support and commitment, clarity of individual and group’s expectations and a realistic timeline.

Testimonial:

“The outcome of the planning sessions you conducted exceeded my expectations. As a result, the plan we submitted was rated excellent and was funded.”
Sidney Rogers, Nashville State Community College