Welcome to PlanningSkills.COM

This website focuses on a wide variety of topics related to organization and individual planning situations. The primary focus is business planning.

Planning is an anticipatory decision making process that involves situation analysis, forecasting outcomes and events, evaluating alternative courses of action, anticipating consequences and considering implementation issues and contingencies. Planning often begins with asking one or more questions, for example: What if ...? Could we ...? Do we ...? Is it possible...? How should we respond ...? How can we ...? Is it feasible to ...?

In general, planning is a proactive process that is intended to help individuals, groups and organizations achieve performance objectives.

Featured Glossary Term

Organization hierarchy refers to how people and tasks are grouped. For example, an organization may be structured in functional units such as accounting and marketing, with only one type of specialist working in each of these units. Or, an organization can be structured in product units. In this instance, specialists of all types are grouped together within one unit. An organization hierarchy can consist of units such as divisions and departments. A department can be part of a company or of a division.

Featured Planning Tip

Goals and objectives can and should guide action. A realistic goal takes into account a situation as it actually is not an idealized view. One of the 9 Principals of War is to set clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objectives.

Goals and objectives should be:

1. Acceptable - Is the objective acceptable to managers and KEY stakeholders?
2. Flexible - Is the objective adaptable to unforeseen changes in the firm’s environment?
3. Measurable - Does the objective clearly state what will be achieved and when it will be achieved?
4. Achievable - Is the objective achievable? Can it be reached?
5. Motivating - Is the objective’s target high enough to challenge, yet realistic and achievable?
6. Suitable - Does the goal/objective fit with the mission statement/purpose and with other important long-term objectives?
7. Understandable - Will managers at all levels understand what senior managers are trying to accomplish and achieve by setting the specific long-term objective?

A memory aid for the seven characteristics of well-defined goals and objectives is AFMAMSU

Traditional goal-setting wisdom prescribes that a good short-run goal must be a) written, b) challenging, c) believable, d) specific, e) measureable, and f) have a specific deadline.

Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective.