Managing By Objective (MBO)

ONE CANNOT ACHIEVE ANYTHING THAT ONE CANNOT DO. HE MUST FOCUS ON OBJECTIVE AND WHAT HE CAN DO. THAT IS MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVE – PETER DRUCKER

Objectives or commander’s intent as it is referred to in the military allows fragmented teams separated by circumstance to act independently and still stick to the goal. The commander’s intent succinctly describes what constitutes success for the operation. It includes the operation’s purpose and the conditions that define the end state: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

Purpose and objective are what defines strategy. The strategic objective must be met using tactics; the objectives are translated into actions, operational objectives. When things go wrong, you have to return to your plan of attack.

5 Benefits of a Plan

A child with a Goal and a Plan can run circles around any unfocused adult.

1.Sell-ability

Your plan must be on paper for clarification. Why tell when you can show. Never say to a client what would you like to do. You must have a plan and structure. Clients (stakeholders), Senior Management, Manager, team members, SMEs all need to be aligned to the goal. Everyone will be aligned despite their diverse points of view and talents.

2.Usability

A healthy debate that slowly moves forward is how you thrive, taking strategic action, not strategic plans. The plan on paper forces thinking it out and has a multiplying impact shared with other strategic planners. It would help if you framed what is important for the week what you want to achieve and then plan your daily tasks around that, so the task has context.

You cherish subject matter expert (SME) opinion, and you want their feedback, share the plan, and ask their opinion because it reshapes the plans. Respond to change over following the plan, we constantly re-course.

Plan data is crucial for tracking toward the goals. Knowing the work is important, values lead it in plans, decisions, and actions; it positively impacts the team; everyone shares the goal.

3.Credibility

Consistent incremental congruence can only develop trust and reputation. When a clearly written, specific prioritized plan is congruent with the designed outcome, there is incremental trust-building. Strategy first, execution second, if you fail to plan, then plan to fail.

4.Visibility

Clarification builds trust. When you explain clearly, it builds trust. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. People do not plan to fail; they fail to plan.

Senior Management can quickly glance at the plan and know the score if it on schedule and budget. The plan prevents wondering and provides direction.

5.Scale-ability

A digital plan is easily shared and can quickly become widely visible with asynchronous communication like email or websites.

5 Pitfalls to Avoid in Plans and Planning

1.Blueprint Issues Correctly

You can be either too far from a problem to understand issues or too close and forget the objective. If you are too familiar, then you start to oversee the solution. Please do not make the strategy the goal because we become irrationally committed to that strategy and present the goal and objective. If you are going exploring, you cannot have a plan that box you in. Having a flexible plan is the only way to be open.

2.Over Planning

It is effortless to be consumed by Business As Usual (BAU) processes. Not all objectives need the same amount of analysis and planning. In the act of tearing apart, we lose the meaning, the holistic approach. Understanding your risk level and where you stand in the cone of uncertainty will allow you to know the blend of planning vs. action you need to take. The tasks must align back to the objective, especially if teams are well partitioned.

3.Postpone Decision Making

Postpone decision making based on analysis paralysis, waiting for every piece of information, or thrashing back and forth based on the current information. 10 hours of thought planning is worth less than 1hr plan with 1hr action then 1hr plan again. Do 2-week experiment and 6-month projects, not long time plans like 5-year plans. Do 20 minutes in daily planning only.

4.Analytical Ivory Towers

Strategy is not planning because plans are shelved after creation. A Strategy is action in motion; it is a living set for inspection that can be revamped. Planning is more mentally rewarding than action. We tend to think after planning. We are done! And we build teams just dedicated to planning, and that is wrong. It must decompose to action. After planning, we must plan to monitor change. It is amazing to see the deviation between the original plan and the actually executed one. Strategic actions force you to see how we live, and it changes your life. Plans do not do that.

5.Flexibility to Pivot

Changes in objective or design strategies are inevitable, so plan for them rather than assume they will not come. The ability to make a “Plan B” and so on until you can hit the goal is instrumental to success.

The whirlwind of life: Planned tasks are a high priority, but unplanned urgent tasks turn up. We hope this should be infrequent, but there will be times where you need to expedite because there will be times we did not plan something. Failure occurs in plan or execution or both.

HAPPINESS IS SOLVING ISSUES AND MAKING PLAN B IN ANY SITUATION, THAT IS GROWTH – MARK MANSON

Stephen Choo Quan

Thanks for reading ❤