What is Operational Planning?

Simply stated, operational planning is the process of turning strategic vision into deliberate action in order to achieve desired outcomes or goals.

You have a vision of the future. The start or growth of a business…a healthier lifestyle…whatever your mission or goals are, operational planning will get you there.

Operational planning analyzes problems at the systems level, looking beyond cause and effect in order to pinpoint the specific actions that drive towards mission accomplishment.

Operational planning is a problem-solving process. Ultimately, starting with a problem statement: What is the problem you are trying to solve? And developing a Mission Statement: What is the goal you seek to accomplish? It will help you create desired effects (achieve goals), or prevent undesired effects (solve problems and prevent their recurrence)

Operational plans can by simple or complex depending on the nature of the problem.

The act of planning is often more valuable than the actual plan as you learn more and progress towards your goals. This is why I teach planning as an iterative processes that is continuously updated and improved as you approach your goals.

I start with a simple time-proven framework from which to introduce fundamental planning principles to help develop plans to achieve any goal or outcome.

The OODA Loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This simple process-driven framework forms the basic iterative loop from which to develop, assess, and improve plans while taking deliberate action towards achieving your goals.