(And at the end, we'll be summarizing everything in full.)
Below we’ll walk through each step of the process, highlight best practices, and point out common pitfalls. We’ve used variations of this framework at our respective orgs and have witnessed how it has made planning more predictable, less stressful, and significantly more effective. For example, who should have a say in the plan, and when? What exactly does each stakeholder need to deliver, and to whom? Who sets the timelines? Who holds everyone accountable? And who makes the final call? These questions are too often left unanswered, which leads to chaos and disappointment during the planning process. We realized that the root cause of nearly all bad planning processes is very simple: a basic lack of understanding of roles - who is responsible for what, when. ” We hit on this idea after leaving our respective orgs and reminiscing on our experiences coordinating large numbers of people to drive collective impact. Working without an agreed-upon framework can often be a recipe for disaster.īelow we’ll share a system that we call the “W Framework. You can’t expect the organization to “just know” how to pull together a quarterly plan.
Taking this on for your own personal goals (for example, a New Year’s resolution), feels challenging enough - doing this with dozens or thousands of people can feel nearly impossible. Rather than focusing on day-to-day execution, it requires a large number of people to think about a variety of possible futures, align on one single future, and then plot a concrete course to get there. Planning is hard because it's inherently different from other exercises your organization takes on. They were always ready to rock and roll on day one of the quarter, and as a result delivered significant impact more quickly (and with higher morale) than anyone else. In one case, a single team took it upon themselves to consistently stay ahead of planning. On the flip side, we've also seen the power of a great planning process. For most of us, by the time planning ends we’re left with bruised egos, misaligned plans, and a lack of buy-in. Other times a half-assed plan was rushed through approvals, only to be abandoned entirely after only six months. Sometimes we were still working on our annual plan - three months into the year. We've been through dozens of planning cycles after spending 10 years at Eventbrite and seven years at Airbnb, so we've seen firsthand how messy and challenging it can be. If you’re like most people, this sentence just filled you with dread. It's almost the end of Q3, which means annual (and quarterly) planning is just around the corner.
This article is by Lenny Rachitsky, a former product lead and head of consumer supply growth at Airbnb, and Nels Gilbreth, former Head of Global Revenue Strategy at Eventbrite.
0 kommentar(er)
