rmTools

Everyone who has worked for a major corporation has their horror stories about the ridiculous requirements of corporate planning departments. These seem hilarious when you hear about them, but were not so funny at the time when they were experienced.

While I was the Director of Corporate Planning for CNA Insurance, our corporate development area came up with the G-O-P-P approach ( Goals-Objectives-Programs-Projects ) that was unique and its simple design and implementation guaranteed its success:

• Assisted the CEO in the statement of a few very clearly stated high level GOALS
  
  
• Developed no more than a handful of OBJECTIVES in support of these goals
  
  
• Established 22 corporate wide PROGRAMS in direct support of each one of the aligned GOALS / OBJECTIVES
  
  
• Selected 22 executives throughout the corporation to PROGRAM DIRECTORS and asked them to formulate the plans to accomplish the success of their program.
  
  
• Program Directors had the authority to request any resources from anyone in the organization.
  
  
• Program Directors were asked to meet with Senior Management of their own chain of command to keep them informed of their plans/ intentions and to meet with Senior Management of Departments that were not within their normal functional chain of command when significant resources were requested from their areas.
  
  
• While these meetings took place, it was clear to all that the ultimate direction and results of the program were totally the responsibility of the Program Directors, who could override suggestions made by Senior Management.
  
  
• It was also clear that the Program Directors would eventually resume positions within the corporation and have to have on going relationships with all the Senior Management team.
  
  
• Plans consisted of no more than a short description of MILESTONES and assignment of each MILESTONE to a specific individual ( after sitting down with that individual and discussing what could and should be done )
  
  So the entire corporate project plans consisted only of:
  
  
  
  • A single sheet of paper of clearly stated corporate GOALS.
    
    
  • A single sheet of paper for each Corporate Goal with the few clearly stated OBJECTIVES that supported that GOAL. ( Multiple Goals were many times supported by the same Objective )
    
    
  • A single sheet of paper for each Corporate PROGRAM, containing the Program Directors name, a 1-2 paragraph description of the program in terms of expected results and the list of MILESTONES and the name of the assigned individual for completion of that milestone. ( each milestone had an estimate of total hours and out of pocket expenditures needed in excess of the normal annual budgets )
    
    
  • The entire focus of the corporation project activity was communicated to everyone in the organization in an understandable manner. Everyone not only knew what was going on, but what the end result was to be and how they and their own area fit in.
    
  
  In this example there were 7 GOALS , 7 Objectives and 22 Corporate Programs.. so the entire plan that marshaled hundreds of people, millions of dollars of allocated time and effort was only 30 pages long and easily readable and understandable by every person throughout the entire organization.
  
  Monthly reporting consisted of a single sheet of paper from each person assigned responsibility for each of the milestones, sent to the Program Director ( with a copy sent to the Corporate Planning Area ). Each of those single pieces of paper had a number of check boxes that characterized the project in a number of different dimensions (i.e., on schedule, slightly behind schedule, seriously behind schedule, on budget, slightly over budget, serious over budget ... for both the current and expected completion of the milestone.)
  
  Over half of each milestone sheet was left for an explanation of an exception to the expected final schedule or final scope of the milestone.
  
  It was the Program Directors discretion of whether or not progress meetings were to take place with the people responsible for the milestones.
  
  The Program Directors themselves were only required to hand in a single sheet of paper each month to the corporate planning area. Half of this single sheet report was again just check boxes to indicate the overall status of the
  program and the bottom half for any further clarification necessary.
  
  Only significant exception to schedule, cost or scope were to require any additional reports from the Program Directors to the Chairman and Senior Management Team.
  
  The corporate planning staff would review all the monthly paperwork, which ended up being over 400 single sheet reports. ( One from each of the 22 Corporate Program Directors and one each from all the people throughout the corporation that were assigned the responsibility to any milestone). So it was the corporate planning staff that had a ton of work to do, and had the potential of getting "bogged down with paperwork" and not any of the primary planning participants.
  
  The entire process was viewed as extremely successful. That success was attributed to:
  
  
  • Simple and clear understanding throughout the corporation of direction, priorities and expected results
    
  • Time was spent on thought and execution and not project management paperwork
    
  • Everyone involved in any aspect of any one of the program / milestones was fully aware of its importance and priority vis-a-vis their other activities and were able to make appropriate trade offs without raising issues or potential roadblocks.
    
    How can I say this approach was successful?
    
    The participants in this process said it was successful, and most of them entered into the process with negative feelings from every other corporate planning process that they participated in. Due to the simple, straight forward, low administrative requirement approach, it worked !
    
    Better yet, over the years I have received request from those who were involved in these efforts at CNA (or at other corporations since I have also used this approach in other corporate planning engagements) for the design, description of the process right down to the forms and reports.
    
    The simplicity and straightforwardness of the approach wins over most skeptics and makes everyone more of a team player just because of the minimal paperwork, administrative requirements and the clear communication of priorities.
    
    Now there are three very important "behind the scenes" activities that are absolutely required to pull this off:
    
    1) The Goals - Objectives - and each of the Corporate Programs are the total responsibility of the Corporate Planning Staff, not Senior Management, not the Corporate Program Directors. Now you get Goals and Objectives formulated by repeated drafts of the Corporate Goals and Objectives that you run by the CEO as you present the entire process as a new approach that will significantly reduce the time, resources and wasted efforts of most corporate planning processes.
    
    You do not require the CEO to labor over the wording of the Corporate Goals or Objectives, or have him worry about getting them 100% right. You present them as they truly are: These are the directional guidelines that we believe reflects where you want to take the company. We would like to communicate these to the troops to try to get everyone headed in the right direction.
    
    2) The Corporate Planning Staff has to have enough knowledge of the corporation and its operations to come up with the Corporate Programs that make sense, refine their wording and either be knowledgeable enough about the actual selection of the Program Directors themselves, or in close contact with people in the corporation who are knowledgeable enough to do it. his is not a simple task and failure to get a good basic foundation to this entire process will significantly reduce it chances for success.
    
    3) The Corporate Planning staff has to act as the Program Director's staff throughout the process, if and when he needs help. In order to do this, the staff has to be good enough to convince each Program Director that having them on his team is a benefit, not a liability. This is required because many of the people chosen to be Corporate Program Directors will most likely be line management or have a a limited corporate perspective from only viewing the corporation from their particular vantage point. They will need help, whether they realize it or not. The Corporate Planning Staff needs to make sure they figure that out and become the help they need.
    
    Now if you are the one in charge of the corporate planning staff, the usual response to will get from the staff is "Why I am doing this? It is Senior Management's job to define the corporate goals". Another response will be, "I am not the Corporate Program Director, it is not my responsibility to do this".
    
    Your response could be along the lines: "You are the planning professional. This is supposed to be your craft. Think of it this way: Sr. Management and the Program Directors are the race car drivers. The corporate planning staff is the pit crew. We are the professional mechanics to help us diagnose any problems and actually fix the car when it needs fixing. This, like car racing, is a team effort. The TEAM BUS is pulling out of the station. You are either going to be "ON IT" .. or you are going to be "UNDER IT!"
    
    The corporate planning staff will spend hundreds of hours in support of this process and don't kid yourself, these are not going to be easy hours. The same will definitely hold true for most of the Corporate Program Directors. However, the tremendous benefit, in addition to the success of the overall effort, will be that the corporate planning staff and the Corporate Program Directors will become much more knowledgeable about the operations of the corporation and will had the opportunity to build personal relationships with key people throughout the corporation. That opportunity should be enough to motivate each group, because in normal day to day operations, that opportunity usually doesn't exist.
    
    

Disclaimer: The interpretation, application or actions taken based on published ICMs are the responsibility of the reader. Neither ICM Authors, nor their companies, make any guarantee to effectiveness in applications. The internet publisher/site provides no assurances of its effectiveness nor recommends its application. Use and application of information contained in ICM is the solely responsibility of the viewer.

© 2008 - The Company and Author retain all copyright privileges for the content