Something to Consider as You Plan for 2023 with Your Team

There comes a time when it is not just you working full time in your business and you are not outsourcing everything anymore. You have a team, meaning they have to buy into your vision and plans. When it comes to planning with a team, different businesses will require different approaches depending on structure, size, and culture.

Two common approaches that you can consider as you prepare to plan with your team are the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach. This article will take you through both of them, their advantages and disadvantages, to help you make a decision on how to plan.

Top-down approach

This is when you, as a leader or together with a management team, plan and then let your staff know what you have planned for them to implement. It starts with a larger goal. It then gets broken down as the management team figures out what actions each department and staff member needs to take to attain the goal.

This approach has been found to be consistent and reliable in establishing efficient processes. If the plan is communicated well, the team will know exactly what is expected of them and confusion will be reduced.

Clarity and Accountability?

Larger organizations that have been around for a while will, many times, lean towards using this approach because of the many moving pieces they have to consider. The top-down approach creates clarity in accountability because it is easy to identify and solve problems. Decisions are implemented faster because they come from one central place.

Rigid and disengaged

It can however lead to less creativity in the business because it is rigid. The team does not have the freedom to collaborate and offer fresh perspectives. Everything is already decided by those at the top and any changes in the plan would have to be initiated by the same people. On top of that, sometimes decisions will be made with minimal information because those making the decisions are far from direct implementation. This can lead to disengagement if the team feels their input is not wanted or valued.?

Bottom-up approach

Here, you include all team members in planning. You get input from everyone based on the work they do and then put it together to form the overall plans for the business. It is a more flexible approach that encourages collaboration. It works well for creative teams where innovation is valued.

Collaborative?

This collaborative approach reduces risk because the team closest to the work has a chance to give their perspective. You get buy-in from a highly motivated team because they were involved in making the decisions.

Slow and difficult

However, making decisions can be slow and difficult when there are too many people involved. Decisions made at lower levels can also lack strategic insight. The day-to-day running of your business projects is informed by strategic factors that staff members sometimes do not know.

Which is better?

On the surface, these might look like two opposing approaches. So you might ask yourself which is the better approach to take. In reality, many times, you will use a combination of both of them. Top management can create planning frameworks and set targets based on the forecasts from different departments. Team members at different hierarchy levels then create plans, within the set framework, which get approved by management. This will ensure that the entire team stays engaged while focusing on reaching a common destination.

So which approach will you be taking as your plan for the next year?

Founders Freedom is here if you need help working through your plans, either alone or with your team. Send us a message at [email protected].