=================== Planning -- Inspirational Messages ================= by M.D. Smith -- Huntsville, AL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Better PLANNING can help us to accomplish more of the things we want to get done, WHEN we want to get them done. It seems almost unnecessary to point out that plans are important to better accomplish our goals. But every day, thousands will begin a project with no clear goal(s) or a clear map of how and when to get there. Of course, if you have no goals, then any plans are OK...even no plans at all. But if you want to get better results from your work, make a commitment NOW! Decide to plan. --------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------------ "MANY OF US HAVE THE RIGHT AIM IN LIFE. WE JUST NEVER GET AROUND TO PULLING THE TRIGGER." Anonymous Sometimes the best made plans never get off the ground. That's because they never get started. Someone wants to check them out further....or success is not certain....or now may not be the time......or whatever. This is the worst kind of failure....never trying. You MUST start your plan and then ride with it to help overcome road-blocks and eventually have your plan succeed. --------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------- PLAN YOUR JOURNEY "`Success is a journey, not an arrival---the true rewards of success are found along the way, not at the end of the road, for when the end is reached, the journey is over and it is too late. Maybe it's time to take a few moments and assess your journey along that road. Find a quiet place, an uninterrupted hour, three sheets of paper, and a pencil. Head your sheets as follows: #1-- What are the things I planned to do in my job that I haven't yet begun? #2-- What am I doing on my job that I'd planned not to do? #3-- What would I like to do in a different way than I'm doing it now? How would I like to do it? So far the technique is simple. The hard part, of course, comes when you use the rest of that uninterrupted hour to fill in the blank pages. It is an hour well-spent -- what better time than the present to plan your journey along the road of success? BERTHA BECK ---------------------------------------[ more ]------------------------ "IF YOU DON'T HAVE A DESTINATION, ANY ROAD WILL GET YOU THERE." Anonymous The very first step in the planning process is to decide on the destination. The results you expect from the plans you will make to get you there is the same as having a trip to make. Once you decide on the city you want to visit, you are then ready to map out the best route to get you there. You look at intermediate cities and estimate when you will arrive at these in-between places. Good planning, whether a trip or a goal you wish to reach, is essential. If you were to take your spouse, you likely involve that person in the planning of the trip. That is the same thing you should do in business. Get them involved with the planning process from the beginning. When the time comes to start the plan, the others will know, understand, and agree on the route, checkpoints and stops to be made along the way. Then as your plan, which is actually everyone's plan, begins, it is a unified effort to reach the desired goal(s) and/or result(s). Planning and cooperation is not a difficult task. Yet, sometimes it is either overlooked entirely, or done in an arbitrary manner. DON'T FAIL TO PLAN OR YOU PLAN TO FAIL ! --------------------------------------------[ more ]--------------------- From the book MANAGEMENT by Peter F. Drucker (Harper & Row) "Management does indeed have to do the work and make the decisions. But in all these areas the worker himself, from the beginning, needs to be integrated as a "resource" into the planning process. From the beginning he has to share in thinking through work and process, tools and information. His knowledge, his experience, his needs are resource to the planning process. The worker needs to be a partner in it. Every attempt should be made to make accessible to the worker the necessary knowledge. He need not become an industrial engineer or a process designer, but the fundamentals of industrial engineering and their application to a man's own job and work can be grasped by almost anyone without great difficulty." Involve your people with their jobs, the planning for new projects, and changes in the current work/environment. You will get far more dedicated employees with this kind of approach to planning and working of the plan. --------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------- SUCCESSFUL PLANNING "Success is not rare -- it is common. Very few miss a measure of it. It is not a matter of luck, or contesting -- for certainly no success can come from preventing the success of another. It is a matter of adjusting one's efforts to obstacles and one's abilities to a service needed by others. There is no other possible success. But most people think of it in terms of getting; success, however, begins in terms of giving." HENRY FORD Planning to be successful is fine. The important thing to remember is to base your plans on sound and ethical foundations. To plan to succeed at another's expense will almost assure the plan to ultimate failure. It is based on the worst kind of foundation. Planning to GIVE what you can to make the people you supervise become successful is the way to plan your own success as a manager. --------------------------------------------[ more ]------------------------ PLANNING TO BE AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESSMAN A young man had been working for others in the wholesale business and had been planning for a long time to go into business for himself. He made plans of how he would run his business, treat his employees, and how great it would be having his own business. When he finally made it, he found out that the IRS told him how he must organize his books. The accountant told him how to keep all the records. The labor unions told him who he could hire and fire. The shipping company told him how he must pack his shipments. His customers told him what merchandise he must stock. The city and state told him how much tax to pay. A battery of agencies forced him to buy special licenses and permits and required him to operate within those guidelines. The competition forced him to set low prices on his merchandise.....and HIS MOTHER still made him come for dinner every Sunday. It seems that this young man planned for many things, but did not look into the true aspects of running your own business. His PLANS were incomplete because he did not include the facts of this kind of business and the requirements of running your own business. MAKE SURE YOUR PLANS INCLUDE ALL THE NECESSARY FACTS BEFORE YOU BEGIN !" **********************[ end of messages ]******************************