Subject: Education Policy and PlanningM. Phil (Education)

Elements and types of Plan.

What is plan.“Plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing

and resources, used to achieve an objective” The term planning implies the working out of sub-

components in some degree of elaborate detail. Broader-brush enunciations of objectives may qualify as

metaphorical roadmaps. Planning literally just means the creation of a plan; it can be as simple as making a list. It has acquired a technical meaning, however, to cover the area of government legislation and regulations related to

the use of resources.

Planning can refer to the planned use of any and all resources, as in the succession

of Five-Year Plans through which the government of the Soviet Union sought to develop the country. However, the term is

most frequently used in relation to planning for the use of land and related

resources, for example in urban planning, transportation planning, etc

How to Build Your Long, Medium, and Short-term Career Plan

Building a long-term career plan is an absolutely critical task for any professional (young or

experienced), since it serves as a "guiding light" to keep you focused and on-track. Jeff Weiner's

"personal mission statement" story from Adam Lashinsky's recent Fortune article is a great

example of a long-term career plan playing out.But even thought you start with a long-term plan,

you can't stop there - you need to connect the dots in between.

A full career plan should have:A long-term vision and mission - the future state

you want your career to be and how you achieve it, based on your professional values

A series of medium-term objectives in support of that vision - the 3 to 5 year milestones and goals that serve as the stepping stones to that

visionShort-term "plateaus" you can seek - skills,

experiences, or accomplishments you can seek in the 1 to 1.5 year timeframe to help you

achieve the medium-term objectives

Entitled "Use the Seven Deadly Sins to Manage Your Career", I presented a

framework on how to identify the values that are most important to you

professionally. Your long-term career vision and mission are built upon those

values. Since there's been a lot written on career mission statements and long-term planning, I'll focus on medium and short-

term planning.

Medium-termYour long-term career vision should be broken down

into a series of medium-term objectives. These are the 3 to 5 year milestones and goals that serve as the

stepping stones to achieving your vision. A common mistake I see among young professionals is thinking they can jump to their long-term vision in one step; most likely, they are several steps away and need to

understand and articulate the milestones in between. Use LinkedIn to find the people who have achieved

what you're trying to achieve, and either reach out to them to understand the steps they took, or study their

profiles to figure out their stepping stones.

For some, these medium term goals might include moving to a new industry to build experience, switching to a different company for more growth opportunities or a different environment, or trying out a new role to gain perspective. For example, if your objective is to be

a CEO of an internet company, you might realize you need Product experience that you don't have, or to be a Sales leader, you need people management experience that you haven't had. For others, it could be a trip back

to school for a graduate degree, or realizing you need to move to a city that has more opportunities where their

interests are. The key concept is to understand the stepping stones to your long-term career vision and

having a clear objectives in mind with each step.

Short-term:Once you've identified and started executing on your next medium-term (3 to 5 year) objective,

you've probably landed into a new role, company, or set of responsibilities. If you were clear about

your medium-term objectives, you can break those down into a series of 1 to 1.5 year "plateaus" -

specific skills and experiences you'd like to acquire that build upon your collective skill set and make

you a more valuable professional. The reason I present these as "plateaus" is because, for many

people, your capabilities in a new area will initially expand rapidly

but your growth in that area will taper off after about a year - at that time, you should identify and start focusing on the next skill or experience you want to build. Here's an illustrative example of how these plateaus "stack" to

make you a more valuable professional:If you've finished a year climbing a plateau and don't feel

you've succeeded yet, go for another year. If you feel you've succeeded - find the next plateau. If you can't find your next plateau in your current situation, pull back and

think about your next mediumSee also strategy. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended

actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. For spatial or planar topologic or topographic sets see map.

Plans can be formal or informal:Structured and formal plans, used by multiple people,

are more likely to occur in projects, diplomacy, careers, economic development, military campaigns,

combat, sports, games, or in the conduct of other business. In most cases, the absence of a well-laid plan can have adverse effects: for example, a non-

robust project plan can cost the organization time and money.

Informal or ad hoc plans are created by individuals in all of their pursuits.The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity;

however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another.

For instance, there is a close relationship between the short- and long-term categories and the

strategic and operational categories.It is common for less formal plans to be created as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained and put to use. More formal plans as

used for business and military purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought,

are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a form that is accessible to

multiple people across time and space. This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the

plan.

Examples of plansArchitectural plan

Business planFragplan

Health planMarketing plan

Project planPlan de Ayala

Plan de Casa MataPlan de Córdoba

Plan de IgualaPlan de San Luis Potosí

Site planThe Schlieffen Plan

The Five-Year Plan system in the former Soviet Union

The Marshall PlanU.S. plan to invade Iraq

A very basic example of a plan: Perhaps you want to go sePlanning to Plan

Have you ever heard the saying 'Those who fail to plan, plan to fail'? While I can't speak

to all facets of life, this is certainly true in business. Managers find themselves

planning for all sorts of things. So much so, that planning is one of the four major

functions of management. In doing so, a manager can be certain that he or she is working toward some organization goal.

Elements of planA plan has the following elements:-

Aim:Any organisation should have definite aim. The aim should be clearly defined so that it

can guide and direct the activities of the enterprise. The main aim of a cooperative

organisation is to do service and to improve the economic conditions of members.

Calvert's definition of cooperation clearly exhibits this aim.

Objectives:Webster's Dictionary defines objectives as

"that towards which effort is directed or end of action or goal". Hence objectives or goals may be described as the ends towards which

the group activities are aimed.People say "Effective management is management by objectives". A cooperative organisation can have sub-objectives for each department or

sections and they can be united to have board based objective.

Policies:A policy is a verbal, written or implied basic guide that provides direction to a manager for action. Policies guide the actions of an organization's

performance and its objectives in the various areas of operation.

Procedures:Procedures spell out the actions to be taken out in practice to achieve the organizations objectives as stated in the policies. Procedures may be static or changed often. Organizations have set procedures

for procuring raw materials, recruitment of personnel etc.

Methods:Methods are work plans, since they provide the manner

and order, keeping the objectives, time and facilities available. Methods involve only one department and one person. They contribute to the efficiency in working and

help work planning and control. Methods are used in manufacturing, marketing and office work.

Rules:Rules are different from procedures and policies. A rule requires a specific and definite action be taken or not

taken with respect to a situation. Rules do not allow any discretion in their application. Also they do not allow any

leniency to come in the way of their application.

Budget:Budget is essentially a plan expressed in quantitative terms. Budgets involve both

planning and control element. Like the plan, budget is flexible, realistic and operates within a framework. A budget is differentiated from

other plans in the following respects:-

a. It is a tool for planning and control.b. A budget covers specific period.

c. Budget is expressed in financial terms.

Programmes:Programmes show the way and lay down

procedure for activities to take place within a time limit for accomplishing, the stated

objectives. The constituents of a programme are objectives, policies, procedures, rules, methods and resources to be made use for

obtaining the objectives. Programmes enable the management to anticipate and

prepare them ahead to meet future eventualities.

Strategics:Koontz and O'Donnell consider this as an important

planning element. "Strategy concerns the direction in which human and physical resources will be deployed

and applied in order to maximize the chance of achieving a selected objective in the face of

difficulties".In corporate planning strategy serves as a master plan which the company adopts for the realization of the

objectives. It provides skill and judgment to the management to predict and foresee what difficult and

complex situations are likely to arise and they can take timely action to avert them or at least to

minimize the risk and uncertainty

Types of planThere are three main types of plans that a manager will use

in his or her pursuit of company goals, which include operational, tactical and strategic. If you think about these three types of plans as stepping stones, you can see how

their relationship to one another aids in the achievement of organizational goals. Operational plans are necessary to

attain tactical plans and tactical plans lead to the achievement of strategic plans. Then, in true planning

fashion, there are also plans to backup plans that fail. These are known as contingency plans. To better understand how each type of plan is used by managers, let's take a look at an example from Nino's Pizzeria and how Tommy, Martha

and Frank carry out their planning responsibilities.

Strategic PlansTo best understand the relationship between the

different types of plans, let's start at the top. Strategic plans are designed with the entire

organization in mind and begin with an organization's mission. Top-level managers, such as

CEOs or presidents, will design and execute strategic plans to paint a picture of the desired future and long-term goals of the organization. Essentially,

strategic plans look ahead to where the organization wants to be in three, five, even ten years. Strategic plans, provided by top-level managers, serve as the

framework for lower-level planning.

Tommy is a top-level manager for Nino's Pizzeria. As a top-level manager, Tommy

must use strategic planning to ensure the long-term goals of the organization are

reached. For Tommy, that means developing long-term strategies for

achieving growth, improving productivity and profitability, boosting return on

investments, improving customer service and finding ways to give back to the

community in which it operates

For example, Tommy's strategic plans for achieving growth, improving productivity and

profitability and boosting return on investments are all part of the desired future of the pizzeria. Strategic plans also tend to require multilevel

involvement so that each level of the organization plays a significant role in achieving

the goals being strategically planned for. Top-level managers, such as Tommy, develop the organizational objectives so that middle- and lower-level managers can create compatible

plans aligned with those objectives

Tactical PlansNow that you have a general idea for how

organizational planning evolves, let's look at the next level of planning, known as tactical planning. Tactical plans support strategic plans by translating them into

specific plans relevant to a distinct area of the organization. Tactical plans are concerned with the

responsibility and functionality of lower-level departments to fulfill their parts of the strategic plan.For example, when Martha, the middle-level manager

at Nino's, learns about Tommy's strategic plan for increasing productivity, Martha immediately begins to

think about possible tactical plans to ensure that happens

Tactical planning for Martha might include things like testing a new process in making pizzas that

has been proven to shorten the amount of time it takes for prepping the pizza to be cooked or

perhaps looking into purchasing a better oven that can speed up the amount of time it takes to cook a pizza or even considering ways to better

map out delivery routes and drivers. As a tactical planner, Martha needs to create a set of

calculated actions that take a shorter amount of time and are narrower in scope than the strategic

plan is but still help to bring the organization closer to the long-term goal.

Operational Plans1.What is OPERATIONAL planning?

>short-range planning that deals with day-to-day

maintenance activities>performed at a unit or departmental level

>done as part of the overall strategic planning

Ex1: Unit Director plans a meeting of staff nurses to

reinforce knowledge gained from orientation of new

staff… may get endorsement from the Division

Chief Nurse who has set her own staffdevelopment plan for the whole division.

Ex2: Unit Director reviews with staff medicinesuppliesSTEPS IN OPERATIONAL PLANNING

Different steps1.Set your objectives2.Set your priorities

3.State your assumptions4.Review any and all limitations

5.Develop your primary and back-up plans6.Implement the plan

7.Set up a control system and follow up onprogress and results