Plan, Organize and Control

One of the most interesting jobs I ever had was teaching management principles to front-line supervisors in each of my company’s 13 plants. It required me to have a thorough understanding of management while allowing me to get to know every supervisor in every plant. Over the years, I have passed these principles, along with my thoughts and observations, on to my family.

Management

Management is defined as the setting and accomplishing of objectives through the planning, organizing and control of human and physical resources. Further, control is broken down into delegation and follow-up.

It is important – in fact, imperative – that all three functions (planning, organizing and control) be followed. Frequently, one or more of these functions is overlooked or merely given “lip service.”

A must-read book on these subjects is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.

I recommend that all people read this book or listen to the audio book.

Planning

A good plan should have three or four lofty goals that you strive to accomplish. Some possible goals might be:

• Meet financial objectives
• Provide a healthy home
• Provide a good quality of life for all family members

In “Have a Vision,” I shared with you my personal vision or mission and showed you my personal goals … one each in the spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional areas.

Notice that these goals are general and lofty but contain no specific, measurable objectives. You must write measurable objectives that, when accomplished, will help you to reach your goals.

Organization

Any group must be organized if you are going to meet your objectives and reach your goals. Everyone cannot be allowed to “do their own thing.” There must be a chain of command.

Control

Finally, the organization must function effectively if the plans are going to be accomplished. To do this you must control the organization or unit. This is the important 3rd phase-control, which is broken down into delegation and follow-up.

Delegation

It is better to build a plan from the bottom-up than the top-down. Having everyone involved in the planning will ensure that everyone “buys into” the process.

It should be true that, if the objectives are accomplished, then the strategies and goals should be obtained as long as there are no external factors.

After the first management function – planning – has been developed by the group and delegated to the rest of the organization, how is the final step – control – accomplished?

Follow-up

It is common to see a good plan, organization and/or delegation fail because there was no follow-up. Too often, the approach is to delegate a project to an individual and then walk away from it.
This is a much-overlooked part of management and is the main reason that plans are not accomplished.