The life-cycle of change management may have aligned planning, assessed operations and sketched a landscape of needs, but up until now, it still has not implemented anything.

When confronted with the laundry list of things that need to be done, managers have been known to run away and hide…

The Wish-List to Action Plan engagement provides the methodology to reduce the list to the 4-5 projects that will be undertaken over the next year. See below for a full description or (download PDF)

 Agility in a Time of Change:

 From Wish-List to Action Plan

This structured approach focuses on the 20% of projects that have the highest priority and least difficulty and risk.

The ultimate goal of the process,  a concise business overview of the 4-5 projects to be included, is shown in The Action Plan summary. Also included is an Anatomy of an Action Plan, which illustrates the specific and detailed nature of the Action Plan deliverable.

For more information, please Douglass Yeager, ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 502-693-1800). 

 Samples

1. Action Planning

A. Setting Priorities

The “Solutions Landscape” provides a summary of business objectives and the universe of tools available to address them, but the result can be somewhat overwhelming. The methodology used here reduces this landscape into a short list of achievable projects.

What does it mean to focus on what is achievable? Objectives need to be priorities Solutions need to work now, (i.e. not tomorrow). Projects will bite off one step at a time (i.e. avoid the big and complicated). The methodology to achieve this result includes: a)   Rating Priorities: Management Team a.    Imperative/ High/ Important/ Low b)   Rating Readiness: a.    Readiness of an Application b.    Readiness of Staff c)   Rating Risk: a.    Complexity of Solution b.     Difficulty (the interaction of readiness and complexity) c.    Seeking Options: a Triage of Readiness & Priority d)   Recommendations

B. Sifting Through Competing Projects

	Perform Triage for Objectives (columns) Then perform triage for applications (rows)
Filtering RESULTS? This sifting process reduces the number of desired projects by over 80%.

 

C. The Action Plan The Action Plan focuses on what a foundation can do today to improve the services it provides to its clients. Technology planning is a constant tug-and-pull between long term objectives and short term expediency, and the action plan has a bias towards shorter term needs and the avoidance of business risk. The Action Plan itself contains both summary and detail perspectives.  For example, the graphic on the right presents an overview of all projects in the context of a foundation's business model, including significant milestones, success factors and budget numbers.
D. Anatomy of an Action Plan The Action Plan Document will set forth the key elements for each projects with a focus on the actions to be taken over the next year. Each will be examined for the following:	Current Actions Required: The issues to be addressed Impact: The results to be expected Recommendation: The provider to be selected Budgeting: Estimates of costs Timing Milestones for 3/6/9/12 months Staffing: Implications for staffing Critical Issues: Success factors
What is This? A sample detail page from an action plan Actions Required Impact Recommendations Budget Timing (milestones) Staffing Issues.

[1] Examples shown are snapshots lifted from actual “deliverables” provided to clients under contract. To protect the confidentiality of these clients, all identifying information has been removed, and samples from multiple clients mixed interchangeably.

For an introduction to services offered by Yeager and Associates, see http://www.dougyeager.com/joomla/services.html