THINK Consulting Solutions

Welcome to the Planning Toolkit: this is number 1 of 7

The THINK planning toolkit

There are seven toolkits in this THINK mini series, designed to help you navigate your way through planning.

1. Planning cycles; 2. The Truth; 3. Assertions; 4. Alternatives; 5.People; 6. Money; 7. Fulfil.

Health warning:Misuse of planning tools can lead to a ridiculous and un-implementable plan.

Toolkit 1 of 7: Planning Cycle

Adopting a Planning Cycle enables you to bring together all aspects of devising and delivering a plan into a coherent, unified process - mapped out over an agreed timeframe.

Planning Cycles can be adapted to work at different levels within an organisation and for different types of plans e.g. an income generation plan may place financial parameters at the beginning (how will we meet this target), the middle (where will this get us to) or the end (how much will this enable us to raise). The can also be used at different levels to help .

A Modern Planning Cycle

Source: Seth Godin

Source: Seth Godin

Source: Seth Godin

all the salient facts – internal and external brought together and analysed

Source: Seth Godin

the heart: strategic objectives, outcomes, targets etc.

Source: Seth Godin

plan b – what to doif plan a does not work out

Source: Seth Godin

the key element: who we have / who we need to deliver – competencies and attitudes

Source: Seth Godin

income, expenditure and all other associated money issues e.g. resourcing

THINK’s addition...

Source: Seth Godin with a little help from THINK

THINK’s addition...

Source: Seth Godin with a little help from THINK

giving it life

budget

Traditional Planning Cycle

The THINK planning toolkit

There are seven toolkits in this THINK mini series, designed to help you navigate your way through planning.

1. Planning cycles; 2. Truth; 3. Assertions; 4. Alternatives; 5.People; 6. Money; 7. Fulfil.

Here at THINK we all hope that you enjoyed toolkit 1 of 7 and found it useful.

If you need any help with any of the aspects of this toolkit, please do contact strategy@thinkcs.org

Toolkit 2 of 7: The Truth

Getting to The Truth enables you to understand your world as it is.

The Truth toolkit includes a range of tools that will support you to review the external and internal environment e.g. PESTLE analysis, defining competitors, comparators and benchmarks, carrying out a SWOT analysis leading to an understanding of bridges and barriers, how to map stakeholders and dependencies as well as how to analyse your portfolio including the BOSTON matrix. Etc. Etc.

Toolkit 3 of 7: The Assertions

Devising your strategic Assertions is critical to getting to the heart of what it is you want to do.

The Assertions toolkit includes a range of tools that will provide you with the skills to craft strategic assertions from figuring out what frameworks might work like the balanced scorecard, logframes, OGSM etc right through to how you might want to present your objectives in a way that is smart. Etc. Etc.

Toolkit 4 of 7: The Alternatives

As Robert Burns said, The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley’, or in planning terms, if it doesn’t work out as you intended you will need Alternatives.

The Alternatives toolkit includes a range of tools that will help you to figure out what parts of your plan are at most likely to be impacted on by internal and external factors through the use of risk registers and how to mitigate against the challenges these identify, as well as how to create realistic Alternatives through scenario planning. Etc. Etc.

Toolkit 5 of 7: People

We all know that our People – what they do, how they behave and their attitudes - define how we work and our likelihood of success.

The People toolkit includes a suite of approaches to help you figure out your staff and volunteers from traditional models like Belbin and Myers Briggs that help us see our strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to work together, through to leadership models as well as ways to look at the impact of organisational culture and how to create change. Etc. Etc.

Toolkit 6 of 7: The Money

Everyone in THINK comes from an income generation background and we know better than anyone that any plan in our sector scrutinises The Money.

The Money toolkit contains all you need to figure out budgets, margins of error in discipline specific fundraising plans, acceptable ROI, corrective action.Etc. Etc.

Toolkit 7 of 7: Fulfilment

The Fulfilment toolkit is a THINK addition to the great thinking of Seth Godin.

We recognise that any strategy is only as good as its Fulfilment or implementation and we have a range of tools that will help you effectively do that such as the Denning Cycle, how to set strategic and tactical kpis, effective monitoring and evaluation programmes.etc. etc.

Toolkit 2 of 7: The Truth

Getting to The Truth enables you to understand your world as it is.

The Truth toolkit includes a range of tools that will support you to review the external and internal environment e.g. PESTLE analysis, defining competitors, comparators and benchmarks, carrying out a SWOT analysis leading to an understanding of bridges and barriers, how to map stakeholders and dependencies as well as how to analyse your portfolio including the BOSTON matrix. It also looks at how you can keep abreast of trends. Etc. Etc.

For more information or if you have suggestions for the toolkits please contact:

THINK Consulting SolutionsCentral office: +44 (0)1280 824297E-mail: strategy@thinkcs.org

If you would like to be kept up-to-date with THINK developments, please email admin@thinkcs.org with a request that we add you to the list of people that we regularly keep up to date with current THINKing.

Thank you.