The Elements of Planning

A plan is made of specific elements. Each one has a job. A “plan” missing any element is incomplete. A school head who understands the six elements can audit her own plans and find what is missing.

The six elements

Plan

A method for doing something, consisting of at least one goal and a predefined course of action for achieving that goal.

A plan is a method. It is more than a document. The document is a record of the plan; the plan itself is the method the document describes.

This distinction matters. A school can have impressive planning documents and no real plan. The documents exist; the methods they describe are not actually being used. Whether the plan exists is a question about behaviour, not paperwork.

Goal

A specific result to be achieved; the end result of a plan.

A goal is the destination. “Every grade-3 child reads at level by year end” is a goal. “Be a great school” is not; it is too vague to count as a destination.

A useful test: can the goal be recognised when achieved? If two reasonable observers could disagree about whether the goal has been met, it is not specific enough.

Objectives

Specific results toward which effort is directed.

Objectives are intermediate steps toward the goal. The grade-3 reading goal might have these objectives:

1. By end of term 1: 80 percent of grade-3 children at the grade-2 reading level.
2. By end of term 2: 80 percent at the early grade-3 level.
3. By end of term 3: 90 percent at the grade-3 level.

Objectives break the goal into measurable stages. They make progress visible during the year, not just at the end.

Actions

The means, or specific activities, that are planned to achieve the objectives.

Actions are what the team actually does. For the grade-3 reading goal, the actions might include:

1. Daily structured reading block of forty minutes.
2. Paired reading at home four times a week.
3. Six-weekly reading assessments.
4. Weekly small-group instruction for struggling readers.
5. Termly parent workshops on supporting reading at home.

Each action is specific enough that a teacher can do it on Monday morning.

Resources

Constraints on the course of action; also involves budgeting: identifying the sources and levels of resources that can be committed to the courses of action.

A plan that does not account for resources is wishful. Resources include people, money, time, materials, and external support. The plan has to fit within the resources available, or it has to include a way of acquiring more resources.

A school plan that asks teachers to do an additional thirty minutes a day of work, with no compensation and no removal of existing work, is unresourced. The teachers will not do it for long, or they will do it badly, or they will burn out. The plan looks good on paper and fails in execution.

Implementation

The assignment and direction of personnel to carry out the plan.

Implementation is the connection between plan and people. Each action needs an owner: who is responsible for doing it, by when, with what resources. Without ownership, even good plans drift.

A common implementation gap: the principal writes the plan, the staff agree it sounds good, and no specific person is assigned to each action. Three months later, most actions have not been done, and no one feels responsible.

The fix is explicit assignment. Each action has a named person responsible. Each person knows what is on her list. The principal tracks progress.

How the elements fit

The elements are not a checklist. They are a logical chain.

Goal → Objectives → Actions → Resources → Implementation

The goal sets the destination. Objectives break it into stages. Actions are what to do. Resources are what you need to do them. Implementation is who does what.

A plan that has a goal and objectives but no actions is aspirational. A plan with actions but no resources is unresourced. A plan with resources but no implementation is unassigned. Each gap breaks the chain.

A school head can audit her own plans against this chain. Where is the chain breaking? That is where the plan is failing.

What planning entails

The handout adds a useful framing of what the planning act actually involves:

Choosing goals and courses of action and deciding now what to do in the future to achieve those goals. Assessing today the consequences of various future courses of action.

Three things planning does, summarised differently:

1. Choosing. Planning is choice. Out of many possible goals and many possible methods, the planner picks one of each.
2. Deciding now for the future. Today’s decisions shape tomorrow’s actions. The plan compresses future work into today’s choice.
3. Assessing consequences. Planning forces the planner to look at where each option leads. Some choices look good now and produce bad consequences later. The plan surfaces these consequences before they happen.

This is what makes planning hard. It requires choice, decision, and foresight. Many people, including many leaders, avoid planning because the work is uncomfortable. They prefer to leave options open and respond to whatever happens. The result is a year of responses and no progress.

A worked example

A grade-level coordinator wants to improve student writing in grade 5.

This is a complete plan. Every element is filled in. Anyone in the team can read it and know what to do. Progress can be measured against the objectives. The coordinator has something to control against.

A vaguer version (no objectives, no specific actions, no implementation) would not produce the same result. The detail is what makes the plan operational.

Flashcard

What are the six elements of a plan, and how do they connect?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Plan, Goal, Objectives, Actions, Resources, Implementation.

The elements form a logical chain:

1. Goal. The destination. Specific enough that achievement can be recognised.
2. Objectives. Intermediate measurable stages toward the goal.
3. Actions. Specific activities that produce the objectives.
4. Resources. What the actions require: people, time, money, materials.
5. Implementation. Named owners assigned to each action with timelines.

A plan missing any element breaks the chain. Goal without objectives is aspirational. Actions without resources are unfunded. Resources without implementation are unassigned. A school head auditing her own plans should look for the break in the chain.