How to Write an Action Plan that will Produce Results

Many teams are very good at visualizing ideas for improvement. The skill that distinguishes true performers is the ability execute on that vision and good execution begins with an effective action plan.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A consensus view on the goals or future state
• Paper, excel, or other tool to document action plan

1. Enumerate the goals of the action plan. - Teams often get caught up "doing things" and forget the end result that actions are intended to deliver. Be sure to have Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based (SMART) goals in mind when developing an action plan.

2. List the high-level activities that will be necessary to achieve each goal. - Ensure that the sum of the activities are both necessary and sufficient to achieve each goal.

3. Assign an owner for each activity. - Each major activity should have an individual person accountable for it's accomplishment. This person does not necessarily have to be the person who does the work, but is the person that will make sure that the work gets done. DO NOT list a function, or team as the owner, this must be an individual, single name.

4. Develop completion dates and timelines for implementation. - Be sure that you have not assigned more to any person than that person will be able to accomplish. Figure out how to provide more resources, extend the timeline, or reduce the activities, but do not create an action plan that cannot be accomplished from the get go.

5. Create a regular review schedule. - Meet regularly to review the progress on the action plan. The meetings should be frequent enough to be able to catch problems and correct them before they become to large. These meetings should be brief and exception based - if an item is on time and going well, skip it. Only discuss problem items, and develop countermeasures for those problems.

Tips & Warnings

• The action plan should be developed together by the whole team, as should the implementation goals. Without consensus buy-in for the future state and the implementation plan, failure is likely.