Why Planning Is Important? All Facts You Should Know

Both organizations and individuals, such as those looking to change jobs, should plan ahead. An example of an organization would be one that wants to increase its market share. The decisions we make in life require some thought, though some tasks require more planning than others. Keep reading, you will learn more the reasons and guides of planning.

What is Planning?

Knowing what to do and how to do it in advance is planning. It is one of the most important managerial responsibilities. The manager must decide how to handle a particular task before taking any action. Planning therefore has a strong relationship to learning and creativity. However, the manager would need to first set goals. Planning is a crucial step that managers of all levels take. Since choosing from various performance options requires decision-holding, it is necessary.

Why is Planning Important?

Here are ten justifications for why planning is crucial.

Planning Helps You Set Appropriate Goals

You probably have an idea of what you want to achieve before you start planning. Planning enables you to clarify that objective and assess its viability. For instance, you might want to boost sales at work to a certain level. After taking the time to plan, you realize that number was a little too high due to circumstances beyond your control. Based on this fresh information, you modify your goal.

Planning Reveals Weaknesses

You’ll become aware of a plan’s strengths and weaknesses as you work through it and examine it from all sides. This is a crucial component of planning because if you rush to achieve your goal, you risk sabotaging your efforts from the start. You can make changes by critically analyzing the shortcomings of your plan. The idea’s viability is confirmed by noting its advantages.

Planning Increases Certainty and Confidence

Every new project or effort to solve a problem involves some degree of uncertainty. When you take the time to plan thoroughly, you’ll notice a boost in your confidence and an increase in certainty, which reduces fear. Planning gives you a much clearer idea of what lies ahead even though no one can predict the future and there will always be surprises.

Planning Breaks a Problem Or Goal into Smaller Pieces

Your life will have a lot of complex issues and objectives. It’s not a simple matter of tossing a coin because there are frequently more than two possible routes. It might feel very overwhelming. When necessary, task distribution and problem-solving techniques are aided by planning. Even if you’re the only one with this problem, planning breaks down a larger, more abstract thing into manageable tasks. It is comparable to building a road step by step toward a distant resolution.

Planning Increases Efficiency

You have probably heard of projects where poor planning resulted in failure. There is a lot of emphasis on the embarrassment of losing, but it’s important to also recognize how much was wasted. This includes lost resources like cash, time, and talent. Even if a project doesn’t entirely fail, poor planning will result in it requiring more resources than necessary to complete. Effective planning boosts productivity and reduces waste.

Planning Increases Your Credibility

One of the best ways to establish credibility when working with groups of people and teams is to be a good planner. Your capacity to direct the planning process will determine your success and reputation if you hold (or aspire to hold) a leadership position. Planners who do a good job understand how to set goals that are specific, attainable, and what must occur to make those goals a reality.

Planning Encourages Creativity

A great recipe for innovation is to break a large goal down into smaller components, assess the weaknesses, and come up with ways to lower risk. Artists, musicians, and writers are examples of creative thinkers who frequently discuss how the constraints and problem-solving of planning force them to expand their thinking.

Planning Reduces Risk

Every new endeavor carries a certain amount of risk because we cannot predict the future. The degree of risk often dictates whether a project or idea can proceed. The degree of risk can influence whether others are willing to support you if your goal involves them, such as an organization or a team. What can you do to address this issue? By outlining your strategy, you can demonstrate that you’ve considered the potential difficulties and are ready to make any necessary adjustments. You demonstrate that you’ve taken all reasonable precautions to lower risk.

Planning Improves Decision-making

Is it possible to make a wise decision in the absence of sufficient information? Making a thoughtful, well-informed decision requires gathering the necessary data, which is what planning does. You can make better decisions because you are aware of the obstacles and potential issues.

Planning Equals More Peace of Mind

There are many advantages to planning, including improved productivity, decreased risk, and increased creativity, but there is one more advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked: peace of mind. Any project or idea that needs a plan will cause some stress. Planning reduces a significant amount of future uncertainty and increases confidence. All of this has been considered by you. You compared the benefits and drawbacks. Although stress is likely to persist, you now feel less anxious than you did before planning.

What Do You Use Planning and Evaluation For?

Organizations must prioritize planning and evaluation. Making an advance decision regarding our destination (our goal) and our mode of transportation is the process of planning. Evaluation enables us to gauge our progress and draw lessons from it.

This manual was created for nonprofit organizations that perform service- or development-related tasks. Planning and evaluation are particularly important for these organisations because they exist to make a significant contribution to society:

• We can determine what that contribution should be and how to make it with the aid of planning.
• We can determine whether or not we succeeded in achieving our goal by evaluating whether or not we had the impact we intended, contributed to changing the circumstance we wanted to change, and the outcomes we wanted to achieve.

How to Ensure Planning is Useful and Contributes to Effective Results?

In order to properly plan, it is crucial to keep in mind six key points. These will assist you in ensuring that your planning addresses the difficulties mentioned above, stays clear of common issues, and results in useful and effective plans.

If you want to read more about the subject, click on the heading of part 3 or any of the subheadings in this section. This contains illustrations, doable suggestions, and additional guidance. You will find an example of the approach using an organisation we have called Molayezo at the end of this guide.

1. Participatory planning and evaluation are required. It is important to include everyone who will be essential to the organization’s work. This is due to two main factors. In order to make wiser decisions, it firstly enables you to draw from a variety of perspectives and experiences. By involving everyone who will need to contribute to the effective implementation of the planning decisions, it also enables you to strengthen commitment to those decisions. Participation will guarantee that everyone is committed to implementing the decisions made and fully understands the strategy and plans. You must determine whether and how to include all relevant stakeholders after identifying and analyzing how they might affect your ability to accomplish your goal.
2. Systematic planning and evaluation are required. Before taking the next step, you must make sure that all important issues have been considered and are in agreement. Before deciding what course of action to take, for instance, you must be certain of the results you hope to achieve. Nonprofit organizations exist to improve society, not just to carry out tasks. Everything you do must be pertinent to the outcomes you want to get. Additionally, if subsequent planning indicates that you need to reconsider some earlier choices, you might occasionally need to go back to earlier planning steps. As an illustration, you might come to the realization that the action you would need to be able to take is not practical. You may come to the conclusion that you need to change your expectations for the outcomes you can reasonably expect. Even though effective planning rarely proceeds in a straight line, systematic planning is still recommended.

1. Every planning process should be strategic. This means that you should use your planning procedures to identify the most effective means of making a difference and the most effective method for doing so. Not just the ones we are comfortable with, but all potential alternatives, should be looked at. Effective planning lays the groundwork for ongoing strategic consideration and action from everyone who will help your organization achieve its goals. Every choice you make, every course of action you take, and every resource you use must be strategically oriented toward achieving the goal you have set.
2. Plans must specify how and when to assess your progress and accomplishments. You will need to decide how you will know if you are succeeding or if your goal has been accomplished. You must also come to an understanding regarding the sources of your information, the timing of your evaluation, the method, and the participants.
3. Everyone in the organization must make a significant effort to plan effectively. The process of planning can be time-consuming, confusing, and messy. However, research indicates that one of the most important aspects of successful planning is how dedicated an organization and its employees are to the process. Another important aspect of this is that planning well should be done ahead of time because it will save you time later.
4. Planning and evaluation must be thought of as a cycle of learning and improvement, not a straight line from A to B. We must continually assess our progress and build on our knowledge to create new, more efficient means of achieving our objectives.

What Should Be Included in a Business Plan?

A business plan is a written statement that expresses your company’s vision, goals, and core values. The executive summary is the most crucial and first part of the business plan. Investors will review this before deciding whether or not to fund your company.

To get where you want to go, there are some important things to consider:

• First, how does your company or idea fit into the world?
• What business concept is it?
• What distinguishes it as unique and special?
• What about your clients or customers?
• What issues do they have for which your solution or product can be used?
• Check out the competition to see who else is making the same move.
• How is your company superior to theirs?

How to Plan?

This section outlines a basic planning process that may be used for many different kinds of planning – developing strategy, or programme and project planning. Section 3 above has outlined an approach, based on the You can make sure that your planning process is efficient by using the logical framework approach. This section adopts this strategy to offer helpful fundamental planning steps and advice on how to complete each step successfully. You should be able to adapt the fundamental planning steps from the previous section to various planning scenarios, such as creating organizational strategy, program plans, or project plans.

If you click on the overall heading, you can find more in-depth guidance on each step. By clicking on the heading for any particular step, you can also access advice on that step. You may need to go back and review some of the specific instructions associated with the approach mentioned in Section 3 above if the approach or some of the terms used are not clear to you.

The basic planning steps

These fundamental steps can be applied to almost any kind of planning process. This procedure ought to be applied as a component of the planning cycle that promotes continuous learning and development.

Below, each step is described in more detail.

click on the heading of this section to get the complete guide for how to use the basic planning steps. On the strategy described in the section before, this is based. If you only want more information on a specific step, you can click on the heading for that step to see suggestions for how to approach it.

These procedures can be customized to be used for particular planning objectives. The type of planning process you choose will determine how much time must be set aside, who should be involved, how, and when. (See the guidelines on how to plan strategically for some ideas on different kinds of planning.)

Step 1 – Preparing to Plan – Ensuring Commitment

For any planning process, it is crucial to be well-prepared. As we noted in the detailed guidelines on the approach to planning in the section above, planning should not be seen as something you do before you start on the real work, but as part of ” the real work” itself. Time, energy, and other resources are consumed. It is essential for creating the framework for ongoing effective thinking, action, and accomplishment. Additionally, we noted the critical role that involvement and participation play in planning processes. To ensure we receive the necessary level of participation and involvement, we must effectively prepare for planning. So that people are willing to invest the time, effort, and resources necessary for successful planning, we must actively foster commitment to the planning process. A common error made by non-profit organizations is underestimating the time and effort required for efficient planning. Staff members and any other interested parties whose involvement we deem necessary for successful implementation and results will need to demonstrate this commitment.

• The kinds of issues you need to discuss and decide here are:
• What kind of planning is required?
• How long should we spend on each step?
• How long will it take us to complete the planning process? What other resources will we need?
• Before we begin the planning process, do we need more details about previous experience, accomplishments, or the situation we hope to influence? If so, how will we get those details, who will provide them, where, and how will they get them?
• Who are our main stakeholders—not forgetting the employees of your own company?
• How crucial is their participation to our plans being carried out successfully? How critical is it that all key stakeholders comprehend and accept the planning decisions?
• How significant or powerful is each major stakeholder group? In the planning process, whose needs, interests, and concerns should take precedence?
• At each stage of the planning process, how valuable or necessary would their participation be?
• What level of participation is appropriate for each important stakeholder at each stage of the process?
• How will we secure the support of each important stakeholder for the planning process that we require?
• What kind of preparation is necessary for each stakeholder to engage in meaningful participation? What background data are they going to require?
• To make sure the procedure goes smoothly, do we need a planning committee or group?
• When will the planning start, and what deadlines should be set for each step’s completion?
• Who will lead every session? Who will record and disseminate a copy of our conversations? How quickly after each action must the record be distributed?
• What additional tasks (organizing venues, food, transportation, etc.) are required, who should complete them by when, and when?
• What additional materials (flip charts, overhead projectors, kokis, pens and paper, inputs, presstick, administrative support for getting in touch with people and disseminating discussion notes, etc.) will we require?

You are prepared to begin the actual planning process once you have made these decisions, developed a commitment to participate, and trained everyone who must participate to do so effectively.

Step 2 – Analyse the Situation and Needs

This step involves collecting and analysing information you will need to decide on a goal and a purpose that is:

• Relevant to your target community;
• Realistic in terms of what is possible and likely to make a difference; and
• The most useful and appropriate contribution in light of the current circumstance you’d like to change.

You will need enough information to enable you to answer the following questions through careful analysis:

• What are the main issues that the community we are targeting is facing?
• Which of these is the main issue, problem, or problem?
• How did this issue start, and what are its effects?
• Can we actually expect to contribute significantly to solving this issue?
• How does this issue or problem impact our key stakeholders? What are their concerns and interests in relation to the issue or problem, in their eyes?
• Are there any benefits or drawbacks to us addressing this issue or problem for key stakeholders? How does this impact our work and planning?
• What prior knowledge do we have that is pertinent to this issue or problem, and what can we draw from it?
• What can our organization reasonably hope to accomplish? What capabilities and resources are available to us both inside and outside of our organization? In what ways does this affect our planning?

The foundation for the remaining planning steps is set during this stage of the planning process. It’s crucial for both your organization’s staff and your target community to develop a deeper understanding of the issue, the context, and your organization. It establishes the groundwork for consensus, more sensible choices, and a dedication to taking strategic action. As the foundation for your decisions in all the following steps, you will use the considerations made at this step.

In the next steps, you will make important decisions when you choose:

1. Your goal – a clear statement of the long term change you would like to see. The lives of your target community will be improved by this significant change, which is typically not something you can accomplish alone. This is the overarching objective that your company decides it must help achieve. Clarifying this overarching objective aids in keeping the rest of your planning on what will actually contribute to change, even if it only constitutes a small portion of a larger and longer-term change.
2. Your purpose – your organisation’s contribution to the goal – this should be a clear statement of what your organisation commits itself to achieve. This must be something that will significantly aid in achieving the desired outcome. However, it must also be a realistic goal for your organization to achieve independently.
3. Your objectives – specific statements of what has to be achieved [results] by your organisation to reach the organisation’s purpose.
4. Your activities – clear decisions about who will do what and by when in order to achieve each objective.

Each of these choices builds on the previous ones you made, but they all hinge on how well you conducted the analysis. You can use the analysis to make sure that your goal, purpose, objectives, and activities are pertinent, practical, and realistic.

The next step is to choose a goal and purpose that speaks to the requirements of your target audience while also being realistic given the surrounding circumstances. The needs analysis will help you to make sure that your choice regarding the future scenario is founded on a deeper comprehension of the issue and its causes and effects.

Step 3 – Prioritise and Select the Goal and Purpose

Choosing a goal is crucial because it clarifies the change in people’s lives that you hope to help bring about. A goal is a concise description of the situation in the future that you hope to achieve. Goals are typically longer-term objectives that your organization will significantly contribute to but cannot hope to achieve on its own. They enlighten us as to our motivations. The ultimate yardstick by which you judge your accomplishments is a set of goals. This is an extremely significant strategic choice to make when creating a strategy for your company. Everything you do will be guided by the picture of the world you would like to see. The planning of any additional projects or programs must be pertinent to achieving this.

Once we know what your goal is, you need to decide on the organization’s purpose: why are we here and what contribution will we make to achieving the goal? What you set out to accomplish is made clear and explicit in your purpose. The goal should be something that, with hard work, you can actually accomplish. The act of deciding on a goal entails a firm commitment to achieving it.

[If you are creating an organizational strategy, the purpose explains the mission of your organization and why it was founded. The purpose of a program or project must be stated in its plans, along with what it hopes to accomplish. Based on the organization’s overall strategic goal and purpose as stated in its strategy, this should be done.]

In this step you will use your needs analysis to decide:

• What is the scenario you will help create in the future? The most important objective, what is it? What phrase best expresses this objective in a clear and concise manner?
• What can you accomplish (as a company, program, or project) that will have the biggest impact and be the most beneficial in helping you reach the objective you have set? What goal (for our organization, program, or project) is the most pertinent while also being the most feasible?
• What outside circumstances must exist for you to accomplish your purpose and goal? How crucial are these to your achievement. Are you able to influence them, and if so, how (you must plan for this later)? Does it imply that the goal and purpose are unrealistic if they are significant, unlikely to occur, but you can’t influence them?

It’s crucial to keep in mind that when you choose a goal and purpose, you are making decisions. Since they will have an impact on all of your subsequent planning, these decisions need to be strategic (carefully chosen from the alternatives as the most helpful). Additionally, they must be as precise as possible in order to serve as a record of understanding that will serve as a basis for evaluating your progress as well as a guide for future decisions and actions. The next step is to choose clear, specific objectives that will help you reach your goal.

Step 4 – Develop Clear Specific Objectives

You must accomplish objectives in order to fulfill your purpose. The goals should be as distinct and definite as possible. Instead of what you will do to achieve it, they should state the outcome you hope to achieve. You can then concentrate on the impact that your work should have rather than just on your daily activities. Additionally, it enables you to assess outcomes in terms of actual world modifications, rather than just your actions. Objectives should be pertinent to achieving your purpose and should be more detailed and concrete than your purpose.

In this step you will use your needs analysis and your agreed goal and purpose to decide:

• What specific outcomes are required to fulfill your objectives? Do the causes you identified help you understand what needs to change in order to accomplish your goals? This needs analysis also included an analysis of the problem’s causes and effects. What targets must we hit in order to fulfill the goal?
• Is it possible to be more specific about your goals by stating when they should be accomplished, who should benefit, how many or how much must be accomplished, and how well?
• Can you actually get these results? If not, are you able to increase your ability to accomplish them, for instance by forming alliances and strengthening your organizational capabilities? Should you create goals that consider these factors? (You will need to go back and make the purpose more realistic if you are unable to increase your ability to produce the outcomes required to fulfill the purpose.)
• What outside circumstances must exist for you to effectively accomplish your goals? How probable are they to occur? Can you change the situation in any way so that these circumstances occur? (These things will need to be part of your strategy’s implementation plans or included as objectives.) Are your goals realistic if they’re significant and unlikely to occur but you have no control over them?

You are prepared to start planning the steps you will take to achieve your objectives once you have clear, specific, and agreed-upon objectives. The underlying principles of this process are the goal, purpose, and objectives. The most effective tactic to accomplish each goal will need to be chosen.

Step 5 – Identify Alternative Strategies and Select the Most Effective Strategy

In this step, you look for the most effective strategy to accomplish your goals. The decision we make regarding the most effective method of completing a task is known as a strategy. This is a crucial action. It allows us to avoid assuming that there is only one correct method of doing something and compels us to consider options that we may not have previously given enough thought to. If you want to develop fresh, more efficient methods of operation, this is crucial. It may not be strategic to simply carry on as you have always done. You won’t know unless you consciously consider other possibilities and test them out with an open mind. Organizations that fail to continually test their assumptions in order to develop more effective and pertinent strategies are those that commit the most errors and waste in development work.

In this step, you will use the deeper understanding of the problem and stakeholder needs developed in your needs analysis to decide:

• What other strategies could you employ to accomplish each goal?
• What standards will you use to evaluate each tactic (e.g. relevance, realistic etc) in order to choose the most effective and realistic alternative?
• Which approach will most successfully accomplish each goal in light of these factors?
• What outside circumstances must exist in order for you to successfully apply each tactic? What proportion of success depends on them for your strategy? How likely are they to occur? Can you take any action to change the situation so that these circumstances exist? (These things must be a part of your plan of action.) Is your plan realistic if they matter and are unlikely to exist but you can’t change them?
• What materials will be required? Is this realistic?

You are prepared to begin planning to implement your objectives by creating activity plans once you have come to an agreement on realistic and efficient strategies for achieving each of your goals.

Step 6 – Plan Implementation

In this step, you must carefully plan how you will put the strategies you have chosen into action.

You will use the decisions about the most effective strategy to achieve each objective to decide:

• What major activities will be needed to implement each strategy?
• Who will be responsible?
• By when should activities by completed? What dates need to be set as deadlines?
• What specific resources will be needed for the activities required to achieve each strategy?

You can now complete your plan by preparing for evaluation. The implementation plan you just drew up as part of the activities should then include the plans you make in the following step regarding the date of the evaluation, who will be involved, and how you will gather the information you require.

Step 7 – Plan for Evaluation

This step entails organizing how you will assess your accomplishments and your progress. This needs to be done during the planning stage in order to ensure a clear record of agreements regarding what constitutes successful achievement. Making sure that everyone is on the same page with your goals will help to clarify your plans. Furthermore, it guarantees that you have a transparent and widely accepted framework for evaluating what was actually accomplished and your progress over time. You will already have a very helpful foundation for tracking your progress and assessing your accomplishments if you have followed the methodical approach to planning outlined in the earlier section.

In this step you will use your needs analysis and overall plan to finally decide:

• What criteria or indicators you will use to evaluate progress and achievements in relation to your goal, purpose and specific objectives ;
• When you will monitor progress and evaluate achievements;
• Where and from whom you will get the information you need;
• Who should be involved in monitoring progress and evaluating achievements; and
• How you’ll gather the necessary data.

You’ve finished the planning process once you’ve made these choices. It is now simply a matter of summarizing your plan in a orderly, understandable, and practical manner so that it can serve as a record and a manual for all those who will contribute to its successful implementation.

Step 8 – Summarise Your Plan

It is helpful to summarize your plan as you go along and to keep sending it around to everyone, along with a summary of the discussion after each step is finished. This will ensure that you have a detailed record of your decisions at each stage, which you can use in the following stage.

If you have done this all the way along and are using the Logical Framework Approach outlined in the section on how to plan systematically, you should have a useful record of your discussions that you can use to:

• Check your thinking and whether it all makes sense;
• Keep a clear record of decisions;
• Guide implementation;
• Monitor external conditions and make adjustments if your assumptions do not prove to be accurate;
• Explain your planning to donors or others whose assistance and support you decide to request;
• Evaluate progress and achievements; and
• When you begin the subsequent planning process, review your prior assumptions and update them based on the knowledge you have gained during the implementation and evaluation phases.

Why is Planning Important in Management?

The management process must include planning. The company can use it to help set long-term objectives, chart a course from the present to the future, and maintain organization and efficiency over time.

Most businesses will have at least one project manager specifically assigned to this position.

Additionally, planning determines how an organization will communicate and make decisions. Everybody knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be done thanks to daily planning and efficient project management, which makes daily operations more efficient.

Project planning also aids in accountability because it prevents rash decisions from being made and gives you tangible evidence of how those decisions have affected your business (or personal life) in the past. This information can be used to guide future decisions.

A plan might appear to be a dull endeavor at times, but once you realize that it pays off over time, it becomes one of your most important tools for maintaining control of your situation.

Why Planning is Important in Organization?

In particular, planning helps to critically assess the goal to see if it’s realistic. Predicting when the business will be able to reach its goal makes decision-making easier and allows for setting a deadline. Additionally, it specifies who will be in charge of measuring performance in relation to the established goals.

Conclusion

You can accomplish your objectives by carefully planning every aspect of your business. Every aspect of your life, but especially your business, benefits from planning. A solid plan involves considering the future you want to achieve and outlining the steps necessary to get there. It serves as a guide to help you achieve significant objectives.