Planning, Delivery, and Execution

This topic (Planning, Delivery, & Execution) comes in 3 parts. First, there is planning, then there is delivery, then there is execution. Let’s take each piece in it’s own, and while each piece could have it’s own separate topic, these three fit well together, and flow well from last month’s topic (Strategic Thinking).

First, Planning is the taking of your strategic thinking and writing it down. Essentially, you are creating a roadmap for yourself and others to follow. This plan can be as simple as what you need to get done today or in the next couple hours, or as complicated as a 3 or 5 year strategy (or even longer if you like). The essential part of this, is getting it out of your head, and onto paper (or your laptop).

Delivery is about presenting your idea, your plan, the way you see things going. It’s about sharing. Sometimes that sharing happens with many people, and sometimes, you are the only one you need your plan to be delivered to. We are talking to ourselves, and others, every day, on our plans. We are constantly delivering on our plans. That little voice inside our heads, is constantly running, telling us this and that, selling us on this and that. 

Finally, execution. This is about getting others on board with us, or again about doing it ourselves. Either way, after convincing happens, now is the time for the rubber to meet the road. For our plans to be realized, we need to take action, and that action needs to be in the direction of our plans. 

Everything from going to the grocery store, to turning around a company, to growing sales by 100% over 3 years, each needs a plan, delivery and execution. To go to the grocery store, you need to decide what you need on your shopping list, then you need to convince yourself of the best time to go, and finally, you then need to actually go, and when in the grocery store, not pick up the 15 items not on your list because you went down the chip/cracker/cookie aisle (my wife doesn’t allow me to go to the grocery store for this specific reason, so while i can talk about it, it is harder to do). I use this as an example because it can be this easy to also do longer term planning and uses many of the same elements.