Planning - Competency
Definition: Planning is a comprehensive process that integrates strategic foresight, organization, and adaptability to ensure efficient execution and resource utilization. It involves forecasting future needs, prioritizing tasks, managing logistics and time constraints, and adjusting strategies in response to evolving circumstances. Effective planning aligns departmental goals with stakeholder expectations while optimizing staffing, scheduling, and implementation to drive sustained success.
360-Feedback Assessments Measuring Planning:
Survey 1 (4-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 2 (4-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 3 (5-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 4 (5-point scale; radio buttons)
Survey 5 (4-point scale; words)
Survey 6 (4-point scale; words)
Survey 7 (5-point scale; competency comments; N/A)
Survey 8 (3-point scale; Agree/Disagree words; N/A)
Survey 9 (3-point scale; Strength/Development; N/A)
Survey 10 (Comment boxes only)
Survey 11 (Single rating per competency)
Survey 12 (Slide-bar scale)
Survey 13 (4-point scale; numbers; floating anchors)
Survey 14 (4-point scale; N/A)
Self-Comments: Do you have to complete a self-assessment or performance appraisal? If so, the
self-comments here may help.
What is Planning?
Planning is a critical function that enables individuals and organizations to set goals, allocate resources, and execute tasks effectively. It involves forecasting future needs, anticipating challenges, and creating contingency plans to adapt to changes in strategy or circumstances. Strong planning ensures that projects are organized and prioritized, breaking large objectives into manageable steps while considering the input of multiple stakeholders. By integrating organization and strategic foresight, planning aligns departmental objectives with overarching company goals, ensuring sustained progress and adaptability.
Beyond setting goals, planning is essential for project implementation, resource management, and scheduling to maximize efficiency and productivity. Project management principles help define the steps required for completion, while time management ensures deadlines are met without compromising quality. Logistics planning supports the smooth movement of materials through multi-step processes, ensuring that supply chains remain functional and operational demands are met. Organizations that excel in planning create detailed frameworks that allow them to navigate challenges while optimizing staffing and resource allocation.
Effective planning also requires a proactive approach to strategic decision-making, ensuring that risks are assessed, tasks are appropriately delegated, and long-term objectives are met. Balancing immediate needs with future considerations, planning facilitates sustainable success by enabling businesses to remain agile and responsive to market trends. With careful prioritization, sound scheduling, and strong coordination, organizations can cultivate a structured yet adaptable planning process that drives continuous growth and operational excellence. Why is Planning Important?
Planning is vital for organizations and companies because it establishes a structured yet flexible approach to achieving goals and responding to change. By incorporating forecasting, contingency planning, and strategic decision-making, businesses can anticipate potential challenges and develop proactive solutions. Strong planning ensures that resources are used efficiently, tasks are properly prioritized, and major initiatives are divided into manageable steps, allowing teams to operate with clarity and purpose.
Beyond immediate execution, planning is crucial for maintaining long-term sustainability and organizational growth. Effective resource management ensures that financial, material, and human assets are allocated wisely, preventing inefficiencies and ensuring the company remains competitive. Logistics planning and scheduling further optimize workflow, allowing companies to meet deadlines, maintain productivity, and adapt to shifting market conditions. Without a well-defined planning framework, businesses risk falling into disorganization, missing opportunities, and struggling to navigate uncertainties.
Ultimately, planning empowers organizations to stay agile, organized, and goal-oriented. It provides a roadmap for decision-making, ensuring alignment with broader company strategies and stakeholder expectations. Whether managing daily operations or preparing for major industry shifts, a strong planning process strengthens an organization's ability to remain resilient, adaptable, and forward-thinking in an ever-evolving landscape. What are key aspects of Planning?
- Contingency Planning
- Creating and Using Schedules
- Setting Direction
- Forecasting
- Teamwork and Networking
- Task Orientation
- Organizing
- Strategic Planning
- Task Division/Prioritization
- Implementation
- Planning
- Project Management
- Resource Management
- Scheduling/Staffing
- Logistics Planning
- Time-Management
How can I improve my planning skills?
- Enhance Forecasting Abilities - Regularly analyze market trends and organizational needs to anticipate potential challenges and opportunities. Seek input from team members to refine long-term plans.
- Develop Contingency Plans - Always have a backup strategy in place for unexpected changes or disruptions. Being prepared ensures continuity and stability in your department's operations.
- Improve Task Prioritization - Break large projects into manageable steps, assign tasks based on strengths, and hold team members accountable for deadlines and progress.
- Strengthen Resource Management - Accurately estimate the materials, staffing, and financial resources required for various initiatives. Optimize budget allocation and efficiency.
- Optimize Scheduling and Staffing - Regularly assess workloads to ensure schedules are realistic and staffing levels support operational goals. Adjust as needed to maximize productivity.
- Streamline Logistics Planning -- Improve coordination across teams, ensuring that processes flow efficiently, from procurement to final execution, without bottlenecks or miscommunication
- Refine Time Management - Accurately estimate task durations, monitor progress, and establish clear timelines for project phases. Avoid overloading yourself or your team by setting realistic expectations.
What are the benefits of good Planning for the organization?
Planning enables you to set clear objectives, outline strategies to achieve them, and allocate resources effectively. It helps in anticipating potential challenges and developing contingency plans to mitigate risks. Planning is necessary for your development and success.- Contingency Planning Planning for contingencies, ensuring that you can respond quickly and effectively to challenges, minimizing disruptions and maintaining continuity.
- Forecasting Predicting the future conditions that may impact your business helps you to anticipate changes and respond appropriately, staying relevant in the changing workplace.
- Strategic Planning Defining strategy, direction, and making decisions on the allocation of resources while reducing risk and maximizing rewards.
- Task Prioritization Identifying the most important tasks and focusing resources on them, you can achieve more impactful results ensuring that critical objectives are addressed first.
- Implementation Putting plans into action is key to realizing strategic goals. Proper implementation ensures that strategies are executed as intended, leading to successful outcomes.
- Project Management To oversee and guide a project from its inception to completion, ensuring it meets its objectives within the defined scope, time, and budget constraints.
- Resource Management Ensuring the right resources (supplies/equipment/human/financial) are available to successfully implement the plan.
What questions could you consider for including on a 360-degree feedback assessment regarding Planning?
The questionnaire items below will measure "Planning". These questions are grouped into different facets of planning. When creating a 360-degree or other performance assessment, try to select one or two items from each group. 360-Feedback questions that measure Planning
Contingency PlanningContingency Planning focuses on developing backup strategies and preparing for unforeseen events. This dimension highlights the ability to anticipate obstacles, create alternative approaches, and pivot quickly when unexpected challenges arise. It prioritizes proactive problem-solving and risk mitigation, ensuring plans remain resilient despite uncertainty.
- Is good at planning for the "unexpected".
- Always has a "Plan-B" ready if needed.
- Develops effective plans to deal with unforeseen circumstances.
- Has plans to handle unexpected events.
- Regularly makes plans for contingencies.
- Adjusts plans as needed according to situational/strategic changes.
- Explores new directions/approaches to overcome setbacks and roadblocks.
- Develops and works contingency plans as needed.
- Develops contingency plans to address potential problems.
- Creates back-up plan for each quarter to ensure achieving sales goals.
- Works toward identifying potential problems and solutions for addressing them.
ForecastingForecasting focuses on predicting future challenges, trends, and opportunities to proactively prepare for them. This dimension highlights anticipating obstacles, assessing future departmental needs, and mapping out ways to overcome hurdles before they arise. It ensures organizations remain forward-thinking and prepared for evolving circumstances rather than reacting to immediate concerns.
- Able to look ahead (beyond the present) when addressing the work/needs of the department.
- Anticipates potential challenges, develops plan to overcome them and then carries out the plan.
- Anticipates obstacles and ways to overcome them.
- Anticipates challenges and has plans to overcome them.
- Allows input from others for the 5-year plan.
- Anticipates potential challenges, develops plan to overcome them.
- Anticipates unexpected hurdles or obstacles to a plan or project.
- Plans for future enhancements of the products.
- Anticipates potential challenges and develops plans to overcome them to achieve success.
OrganizationOrganization focuses on keeping tasks, schedules, and processes structured and orderly. This dimension highlights the ability to maintain clarity, manage lists and schedules, coordinate across teams, and ensure events and activities run efficiently. It prioritizes personal and departmental efficiency, ensuring that workflows remain well-organized and nothing is overlooked.
- Works in an organized manner
- Reorders the schedule of events to maximize attendance/efficiency.
- Creates to-do lists to make sure nothing is missed.
- Able to stay organized and focused using excellent planning skills.
- Integrates planning across functional, divisional and departmental boundaries.
- Organizes activities and events at conferences.
- Organizes lists of items required for meetings or presentations.
Strategic PlanningStrategic Planning emphasizes developing structured, long-term plans to guide an organization's direction and priorities. This dimension centers on assessing risks, ensuring competitiveness, reducing costs, and aligning resources with overarching business objectives. It prioritizes intentional goal-setting and structured execution, ensuring plans are systematically crafted to support organizational success.
- Develops strategic plans for ensuring competitiveness in the marketplace.
- Understands the process for developing strategic plans for the organization.
- Assesses the risks of various strategic plans.
- Develops strategic plans for the company/organization.
- Has developed an effective strategic plan.
- Develops a strategic plan to reduce costs in the department.
- Assesses the potential impact of changes to the strategic plan.
- Open to input from others into the plan for development of the strategic plan.
- Anticipates the impacts of strategic plans.
- Utilizes strategic thinking in planning.
- Develops a strategic plan.
Task Division/PrioritizationTask Division/Prioritization focuses on structuring work by breaking tasks into manageable steps and assigning them based on urgency and efficiency. This dimension highlights determining necessary steps, sequencing tasks appropriately, allocating resources, and ensuring that individuals are assigned roles that optimize productivity. It ensures that work is organized and prioritized effectively before execution.
- Sets the appropriate sequence of tasks to ensure completion of the project.
- Determines the steps required for completion of a task.
- Accomplishes major tasks by breaking them into manageable pieces.
- Prioritizes tasks and allocates resources.
- Prioritizes tasks based on urgency/need.
- Sets the appropriate sequence of tasks to efficiently achieve the goal.
- Divides complex tasks into smaller steps to measure progress toward a goal.
- Assigns the right tasks to the right people and holds them accountable.
ImplementationImplementation emphasizes carrying out the plan and ensuring team alignment in its execution. This dimension centers on delegating roles, reinforcing strategic direction, involving stakeholders, and maintaining accountability throughout the process. It prioritizes team coordination and adherence to the established plan, making sure progress remains steady and performance is assessed properly.
- Delegates role to team members to accomplish goals.
- Closely follows the plan established for the department.
- Involves relevant coworkers in the development of the plan.
- Encourages others to follow the plan.
- Is able to follow the plan set in place.
- Ensures everyone in the department is onboard with the current plan.
- Ensures performance measures are in place to monitor and assess attainment of goals and objectives.
- Consistently restates and reinforces his/her direction or forward plan.
PlanningPlanning emphasizes structuring goals, tasks, and strategies to meet objectives efficiently. This dimension centers on analyzing trends, balancing stakeholder needs, prioritizing initiatives, and executing plans in a structured manner. It focuses on deliberate organization and systematic follow-through, ensuring objectives are met through careful coordination.
- Makes plans and follows through.
- Develops plans used to accomplish urgent or critical tasks.
- Analyzes market trends to plan the best course of action.
- Prioritizes plans based on a cost/benefit analysis.
- Ensures staff are held accountable for following the department plan.
- Develops plans to help manage expectations and project demands.
- Is able to clearly articulate the plan for the department/district.
- Able to balance the needs of multiple stakeholders in developing the plan for the division.
- Consults with the research department before making major changes.
- Plans meetings effectively.
Project ManagementProject Management emphasizes strategically planning, executing, and overseeing complex projects from start to finish. This dimension centers on defining objectives, outlining resources, creating timelines, and ensuring deliverables are met through structured processes. It prioritizes goal-driven execution, ensuring that all necessary steps and decisions align to achieve successful outcomes.
- Able to identify the needs of the department before a major change.
- Creates effective project plans.
- Determines the appropriate actions needed to achieve goals.
- Develops an effective plan to guide the project.
- Develops a detailed plan outlining tasks, resources, timelines, and deliverables.
- Creates plans to handle complex, multi-faceted projects.
- Initiates the planning process by defining the scope of the project.
- Open to input from others into the plan for the project.
- Creates a timeline to specify when each phase of the project should be concluded.
- Identifies what must be accomplished for successful completion of project.
Resource ManagementResource Management focuses on anticipating, acquiring, and allocating necessary materials, supplies, and financial resources. This dimension highlights estimating needs, ensuring departments have the required tools, and strategically planning for future resource demands. It prioritizes planning and distribution of assets, ensuring that personnel and projects have what they need to function effectively.
- Ensures staff have the supplies and resources necessary to enact the plan.
- Anticipates resources needed to successfully implement a plan or project.
- Determines what supplies/equipment will be needed for the job.
- Determines the amount of materials/supplies needed for the project.
- Determines what supplies/equipment will be needed for the department.
- Accurately estimates the amount of materials/supplies needed for the project.
- Purchases equipment and software that will be needed in the future.
- Determines what supplies/equipment will be needed for the project.
- Understands what materials will be required to successfully implement the plan.
- Identifies resource requirements that may impact the development of the 5-year plan.
- Understands what equipment will be needed for the project.
- Determines the allocation of funds based on plans for future development.
- Identifies resources needed to accomplish objectives.
- Develops systematic approach to get resources needed to accomplish the plan.
Scheduling/StaffingScheduling/Staffing focuses on organizing personnel and structuring work schedules to maximize efficiency. This dimension highlights adjusting staff assignments, planning for seasonal needs, coordinating breaks, and ensuring associates are strategically scheduled based on their strengths. It also incorporates recruiting efforts and future staffing needs, ensuring resources are available to support business operations.
- Adjusts and rearranges the schedule to maximize efficiency.
- Notifies staff when the plan is not on schedule.
- Determines staffing needs for the project/department.
- Reduces uncertainty in the department through clear planning and schedules.
- Creates a timeline for events and monitors progress.
- Schedules staff based on seasonal needs.
- Plans for future staffing needs.
- Plans schedules in detail to include breaks and specific assignments, by associate, by hour to maximize customer service.
- Plans and organizes events effectively.
- Plans schedules based on associates' strengths to maximize sales.
- Regularly plans and participates in networking and recruiting activities to ensure additional help is available throughout the year.
Logistics PlanningLogistics Planning emphasizes coordinating the movement and flow of materials through supply chains to optimize efficiency. This dimension centers on creating seamless logistics strategies, minimizing delays, and ensuring supply chain operations run smoothly. It prioritizes operational execution, focusing on the transportation, handling, and scheduling of materials and goods.
- Develops good plans used for logistics.
- Develops proper plans to ensure seamless flow of materials through logistics.
- Effectively uses logistics planning to reduce supply delays.
- Develops plans to ensure the smooth operation of the supply chain.
- Creates effective logistics plans to achieve high operational efficiency.
- Makes strategic and tactical decisions to guide the logistics process.
- Able to develop logistics plans to move material through a multi-step supply chain.
- Plans freight processing during non-operating hours or off the sales floor to maximize customer service.
Time-ManagementTime-Management emphasizes allocating time effectively to ensure tasks and goals are completed on schedule. This dimension centers on estimating task durations, setting up timeframes, monitoring deadlines, and ensuring work is structured to meet key milestones. It prioritizes personal and team efficiency, helping individuals make the most of available time.
- Establishes and monitors timeframes and timelines.
- Conducts regular assessments of the project status to ensure adherence to the set schedule.
- Efficiently manages deadlines.
- Sets up and monitors timeframes and plans
- Plans for how to allocate time to specific activities.
- Accurately estimates the duration of tasks.
- Establishes a course of action for self and others to accomplish specific goals.