Quick Team Planning

Over the few years I have been asked more and more to help many a senior leadership team carry out ‘crisis planning’ more effectively. Using a mixture of military and business thinking I walk teams through the Mission Critical Planning cycle. These ideas were of course born out of my military experience where critical mission planning was crucial to success. I make it less military and more business-like by changing some of the wording but, it is based on the military method of rapid mission planning.

During critical times when quick planning and concise language are vital many teams make the mistake of trying to ‘win the entire war’ and become less effective at the smaller missions (battles) within the war. In business this equates to the smaller situational tasks that feed into the bigger picture of BAU (business as usual).

Here are the steps:

Clarify what the mission is

Establish clarity within the whole team as to what the top challenge/priority is. If this thing does not happen now, there is potentially catastrophic impact further down the line. Then turn this into a mission statement. Our mission is…in order to… (this covers the WHAT and the WHY). It is vital that all team members fully understand the mission and that there is no ambiguity.

Controllables

Look at all aspects within this mission that are within your control. You cannot control some things (like the weather) but you can plan accordingly for different scenarios. Sometimes controllables are missed or mis-understood. It is easy during an after- action review to say, ‘that was outside of our control’. In reality, some of the uncontrollables could have been spotted during the planning phase.?

Capture Ideas

This is the start of the problem-solving part of the planning. Looking at individual weak points of the plan and capture ideas to reduce or negate them. Do not over analyse at this stage.

Take one individual challenge within the bigger challenge/mission at a time.

Condense Ideas

This is the first time that you analyse ideas. As a team, look at all the captured ideas from the previous stage and then clump together those that are the same or similar, so you end up with clear banks of ideas under different headings.

Clarify

Take the time at this stage to ensure that every team member understands each bank of ideas. Do not have any ambiguity as this will lead to plans potentially failing due to misunderstandings of the basics. Use a common language in the team.

During time-critical planning you can condense any tool/process you normally use to be more tactical, agile and quick.

Counter Plan

This is where you start to add meat to the bones and the ideas become more detailed. You now start to link ideas together to form a strategic plan. You can start to use tools like Critical Timeline Right to Left, Left to Right planning to help you funnel down the plan to specifics.

To do this you will need time and space to think without distractions, so trying to do it when things are going mad around you is difficult.

Do not plan with your head in chaos = plan with your head in the end state.

As part of your plan ensure that you have clearly defined and simple processes that can be conducted without the need for in-depth overthinking when the proverbial hits the fan. Make sure that you allocate roles and responsibilities so that it is clear to one and all what each person/team/sub team is going to do. This includes having a rota system of at least one person who keeps an eye on the ‘war’ –? BAU bigger picture, as this may affect your mission.

Do

Put into action your plan(s) and carry out the mission. Actions not just words. Follow the plan but get used to dislocated expectations (no plan survives contact with the enemy) – as soon as the boots hit the ground, things will change. Be agile, learn as you go and adapt as needed to succeed in the mission. Ensure control is diluted to the lowest level.

After Action Review - Learn, Connect, Act

Use a review framework/tool/process to objectively look at what happened. What did you plan that worked well? What was planned but did not work? Why? What could have been done differently? Mistakes can be healthy – strive to learn.

Celebrate Success

When you plan a goal think about how you will celebrate when you are successful. This is a powerful psychological tool as it switches the mindset of team members to the celebration and not the actual task/goal. In other words, the celebration becomes the goal.

Support Each Other

Always be ready to keep going. It is so vital that the team supports each other and factor in enough down time so that people do not burn out. You can only stay at peak performance for so long. Allow your body and mind to rest when possible.

Keep it as simple as possible

Do not try and win the war in one go – it will overwhelm you and the team. Concentrate on the success of each individual mission and overall success is much more likely.

All the best.

Dave

Extracted from www.teamfoundations.co.uk

www.thesuccessfactory.co.uk