By Pete Richardson – Convergence Planning

Our economy has not bottomed out yet. The unemployment percentages continue to worsen. So do the foreclosures. Until these patterns plateau and tip the other way, more people will face the shock and challenge of joblessness.

How do you react when you are blindsided by change? How do you respond to unexpected surprises that change your entire forecast? How might you help your business or perhaps yourself, now in survival mode discover what’s next and move toward the next chapter or next step?

In planning, we call this “battle plan mode.” You don’t have time for a full-fledged strategic plan. You must act quick. “Rome is burning.” What to do?

We’ve attached a short-term battle plan process for you to use – download these items and use the questions worksheet to facilitate you through the process. Remember these are tools. Feel free to adapt these tools to your needs. Here’s the battle-plan process:

WORKSHEET #1 – GETTING PERSPECTIVE
Download the worksheet: http://www.whetstoneinc.com/BattlePlan.pdf

Amidst intense pressure to move fast, never violate the principle: get perspective before you plan. Don’t lose sight of successes. Otherwise, you run the high-risk of setting chaos into motion. The first tool in the short-term battle plan process is a perspective tool. Six critical questions help you see the entirety of your situation:

1. Where am I succeeding? These are things you want to re-enforce. You don’t want to lose sight of our successes. Identify them.

2. Where am I falling short? These are things that you want to change. You need these to be successes, but they are not. Identify them. Expose truth.

3. Where are the opportunities? In every crisis is opportunity waiting to be seized. What do you see in your network that hints at opportunity? What do you see in your industry that needs innovation? Based on what you know about yourself (what you are good at), where can your talents intersect with an opportunity?

4. What are the risks? Risks can be managed, even those completely out of our control. The economy is not in our personal control. But we can respond to it. We can manage the impact it has on us. We can trim back our operating and living expenses. We can sell some of our assets. We can simplify. What are the risks you are facing?

5. Where is the leverage? We want to discover those 1-3 things that are high-leverage to us. They are multipliers. If we do these few things really well, there is great return on investment for us. Where is your leverage? What is before you that if you identify, focus on, and steward has great multiplication imbedded in it?

6. What is important now? We call these our W.I.N.’s or “what’s important now.” Look at your five columns populated with answers to the previous questions. Move macro-themes that you see to this column. Make a list. You may have a list of 6-10 things. Now prioritize them from the most important to the least.

WORKSHEET #2 – CREATE A W.I.N. WHEEL
Download the worksheet: http://www.whetstoneinc.com/WINNow.pdf

Take your top 4 from your “What is important now?” column and move them onto your W.I.N. wheel. These are the top 4 things you must focus on NOW. Put the most important in the Core Issue #1 quadrant and so on to Core Issue #4.

WORKSHEET #3 – CREATE AN ACTION PLAN
Download the worksheet: http://www.whetstoneinc.com/ActionPlan.pdf

For each Core Issue, create an objective statement--what you want to accomplish with this Core Issue. For each Core Issue, identify the top three next steps. Each next step should be driven by an action verb (e.g., develop, research, create, design, install, connect, etc.). Identify the date you need to accomplish each action step, any costs associated with each, the estimated invested time, and today’s current status. Color an action step status red if it is not moving, has problems, or is stuck in some way. Rate it yellow if there is caution with it in some way (it could turn red or it could turn green). Rate it green if it is moving without friction and advancing towards completion.

Remember, plans don’t self-execute. If you struggle with implementation and follow-through, complete these tools with a friend, spouse or someone you can meet with weekly for review, updating and renewing your short-term battle plan. Adapt to change. Keep your plan fluid.

Pete Richardson has worked with Whetstone and has also consulted to Whetstone for Strategic Planning. He is based in Denver Colorado. His direct website is www.convergenceplanning.com