Did you know that the vast majority of truly successful people in the world have clearly stated goals for themselves and the businesses and organizations for which they are responsible?

If you are serious about developing your business or organization, please spend five minutes reading the rest of this article, it might be the most worthwhile thing you do today.

I am sure the majority of you these days have at some time developed business plans or have set objectives at annual appraisals and such like. I wonder though how often these goal plans are revisited once they are written down and how many planning documents are left to get dusty on bookshelves or at the bottom of a drawer. So often, I am sure that in all kinds of organizations, planning exercises are the end in themselves and not the means to achieving success they should be.

The reasons for this are usually quite simple and fall in either one of two categories or frequently both:

• The goals set have been inappropriately stated and have not taken on board the starting point for the organization concerned

• There hasn't been a sufficient buy in of the plan by everyone in the organization and consequently there is no culture of accountability being nurtured

Does this ring any bells with you? If it does, I'd like to give you some ideas how you can create successful plans that will transform your business or organization. At The Enfys Acumen, we believe that plans should be tools that are regularly used to help you achieve what you want to achieve.

Plans are the most significant management tools we have

I, personally, have been involved in supporting people to develop plans for most of the last twenty-years. Very early on, I realised that plans will fail unless they are truly owned by everyone who has responsibility for achieving the goals set. The best way of ensuring ownership is to involve people in developing the plans in the first place.

People need an opportunity to:

• See it!

• Own it!

• Solve it!

• Do it!

The Enfys Acumen supports organizations to develop a culture of accountability and would gladly discuss ways you can do more to motivate your personnel to achieve your business' or organization goals. Why not get in touch for an informal chat.

Dreaming, values and grounding in where you are now

The first level of planning, we at The Enfys Acumen call Development Planning. I challenge anyone to say that they are in business or go to work just to make money, so this level clarifies why you really are in the business you are in and the dream or vision you are working towards achieving. We have used this process to support groups of people with a wide range of skills and experience and at a pace that was comfortable to everyone concerned.

During a development planning session we start by covering a blank wall with paper and colourfully proceed to fill it with a definite path to achieve the dream or vision for the organisation concerned and the people it serves. Remember, if you don't have a dream, how can you make the dream come true and as Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

We then look at where the organisation is today, the external climate in which it operates and what is currently taking place in the organisation itself. So many plans fail because people haven't truly considered their true starting point and haven't taken on board the little things that need to be addressed before the big things can be achieved.

In setting the grounding for the plan, we then look at the real current values of the people involved in the project, not the written down values, but those clearly demonstrated in day-to-day activities. Values are important in any kind of business and always influence the kind of customer service or user satisfaction you provide.

"Values truly sculpt our world and the game we want to play"

When we have done this, we look at what the values should be. In most cases, there is a clear overlap, but if there isn't then the exercise serves as a wake up call for what really needs to be addressed by the business or organization.

The planning exercise moves on to what you want to achieve. You agree a time in the future that you want to focus on, possibly two years, maybe three or even five or more, it all depends on your organization. We have found however that it is nearly always better to focus on a time that is just out of current view, not the point when a major contract ends or a funding scheme dries up. We always clarify clear, achievable goals and transport ourselves in time to think about them in the present time.

Throughout this planning process and in order to ensure everything you need to cover is considered, we use Edward de Bono's The Six Thinking Hats as a guide. So often we find people get really passionate and excited when setting their long term goals and consequently in this frame of mind, it is so easy to miss out on some crucial issues that have to be thought about if you don't want to set yourself up to fail.

You complete this exercise by thinking about some of the things the organization or business needs to do to gain the strength to achieve its goals, you list who else can help and who you can work with to achieve your goals. We always recognize that no one is a self-made person, we all need help from other people to achieve what we want to achieve, so we advise you always end the session with getting people to commit to the first steps to take.

When we facilitate a Development Planning session, it usually takes a full day. Enthusiasm and momentum are important in this kind of event and we would encourage you not to take too much time over the exercise. When we do it, we ensure everyone can participate full, have fun and are able to make a 100% commitment. Please ask us for more information.

"When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly love life"

The next level of planning that The Enfys Acumen encourages organizations and businesses to accomplish is what we call Strategic Planning. At this stage, you should be thinking in more depth about your goals and turn them into aims, objectives and outcomes. We have realized that some of the greatest challenges in the world today are challenges of language - especially people saying or not saying what they really mean. Terms like aims and objectives often cause some of the greatest difficulties in communication, so we always encourage people to accept the following definitions:

• Aims are the changes you are trying to achieve

• Objectives describe the planned activities by which you are going to achieve your aims

• Outcomes are all the changes, benefits, learning or other effects that actually happen as a result of your activities

You will find that you are more likely to achieve your aims and objectives if you set in place ways for measurement - Outcome Indicators. These can be qualitative or quantitative and are usually described with the following kinds of phrases:

The extent of…

The level of…

The degree of…

The amount of…

The ability to…

Setting outcome indicators in this way is far more positive and realistic for everyone concerned and whatever the outcome, you will realize that there is no such thing as failure only feedback or results.

Aims and objectives should always be stated well and a tool you might find useful is the CREATE mnemonic:

C Clear and Concise

R Realistic

E Ecological

A As now

T Towards what you want and Timed

E End step and Evidence procedure

We would be delighted to have an opportunity to clarify this tool in more detail and encourage you to get in touch. Strategic Planning does require more time and as you work through the model, you will find that certain aims and objectives will need reviewing so that more meaningful outcomes can be stated. We found that the most relevant people to involve in this exercise are the managers involved in strategic issues and need to have a strong overview of what the business or organisation is set up to achieve.

"Success isn't about resources but about resourcefulness"

The third level of planning in The Enfys Acumen model focuses on how you can achieve your aims and make the best use of the resources you have available or need to acquire. We call it Business Planning and have developed a matrix to turn the plan into a tool that you can use as both for marketing and for monitoring how far down the road you are travelling to meet your aims.

This matrix has been developed over many years with inputs from many skilled planners and theorists and provides an opportunity to clarify the rationale for objectives, to identify opportunities and barriers to achievement, to resource needs and costs. As I mentioned at the start of this ebrief, it is essential that everyone concerned buys into the planning process and this tool encourages naming responsible personnel and deadlines for completion in the process.

As in all of the planning levels in The Enfys Acumen model, the Business Planning Matrix builds on the Development and Strategic Planning models, it does take some time to complete, but is truly an investment to help you improve your business and quality of service. Contact us to find out how you can use this model in your organisation.

"The map is not the territory"

Having clearly stated goals is the primary purpose of any planning exercise, but unless you go out and achieve the goals the effort is pointless. You wouldn't go to a restaurant and eat the menu now, would you?

Walt Disney once said:

"You can have the greatest dream in the world, but you need people to build it."

This is very true of course, but often not given the level of priority it truly needs.

The Enfys Acumen can support you to enthuse, encourage and enable your people to achieve aims and objectives in several ways:

• Individual planning and appraisal systems

For many years and in a variety of management roles, I have been developing and refining a system to ensure individual people have personal goals that slot in clearly with the business and organisation aims. I am convinced that in a culture of accountability we need to support people not to just do their jobs but rather to take action to achieve overarching aims and objectives. People need support and resources to do this and that is what individual planning is all about. Why not get in touch to find out more?

• Directors and trustees road maps

I wonder how many of you are responsible for or work in organisations where there is a governance board that meets regularly, people turn up religiously for meetings, but are rarely seen or heard from in the weeks in between. I suspect this is a scenario common to many of you.

Company directors and charity trustees are the key ambassadors of any organisation, they have legal responsibilities for accountability and ensuring resources are in place and appropriately used. Yet often do little more than rubber stamp other people's decisions and are wheeled out when extra bodies are required. Am I right? The Enfys Acumen is committed to the belief that everyone has a gift they can contribute to a situation and should be encourage to develop and use this gift. When you have agreed your business or organisations aims and objectives, why not enable your directors and trustees to complete a road map to commit to doing something in between meetings to help achieve overall aims. In my experience, people are very willing to do something extra, if only they knew what to do that would be most useful. Talk to us about introducing roadmaps into your organisation.

• Mentoring for managers and lone workers

I have written before about the benefits of mentoring and wish that I'd had the experience of a mentor at various stages in my career. With almost twenty years experience of managing and developing organisations, often learning the hard way, I have a wealth of information I can share with you.

• Life and executive coaching

Coaching differs from mentoring, in that the latter is very much about bringing someone else's experience, knowledge and skills to the party, being able to sound out your ideas against someone who has been there before. Coaching on the other hand is more about helping you to decide your priorities in life, to achieve your goals and quite simply to help you move from dreaming to action. The planning skills that The Enfys Acumen has developed are equally relevant to individual people as they are to businesses and organisations. However, in our constant quest to learn new skills and develop service quality, I am currently following a coaching diploma course with Europe's top Coaching Academy. If you would like to explore the benefits of coaching to your life and career, please do not hesitate in getting in touch.

Have a look at our website www.enfysacumen.com to find out some of the ways we might be able to help. If what you need isn't listed, but think we might be able to help in some way, please get in touch.