Community Learning Development Resource 603 – 08
PLANNING AS PART OF THE EVALUATIVE CYCLE
SUMMARY
The nature and value of planning are both explored. Emphasis is placed on planning being an essential part of work practice. Practical ideas for planning are reviewed.
THE EVALUATIVE CYCLE – planning is an output of the evaluative cycle – after we have gained evidence, applied criteria and made judgements, our conclusions may lead us to immediate actions (reactions – Action Planning) and to more carefully planned actions (Development Planning or Business Planning)
Thoughtful planning is an essential phase of evaluation. The outcomes we seek may be simple or complex, immediate or spread over time.
WHY PLAN?
Planning is a task and the planning process takes time and resources. To justify the effort this there must be practical benefits and gains for the work. Planning for planning’s sake has very limited benefits – for planning to be effective, it must contribute to effective working and the achievement of successful work outcomes.
WHAT DO PLANS DO?
- Shape the work – drive the work – give direction
- Help resolve complexity of the work:
- The need to order activity and prioritise
- Help us to manage complexity
- Identify interdependence and the relationships between parts of the work – for example between the five strands
- Identify for us how to connect the parts
- Help us to identify steps along the way – critical paths
- Help us with time management
- Resource management
- Make work more manageable.
- Prepare, equip and free up workers to focus on detail/action
- Provide a guide/map – a framework; a prop; a prompt; a check and a framework for monitoring, evaluation and review
- Inform others:
- Other workers/agencies/partners
- Funders – support funding applications
- Enable others to plan (connecting/coherence/joint planning)
- Relate sensibly and helpfully to other plans – e.g., a Project Development or Business Plan relates to: âAction/Work plans á Strategic plans
The planning process – constructing the plan is a reflective process generating ideas and solutions
Planning is proactive – an alternative is to be reactive and “Grow like Topsy”.
PLANNING IS A TASK – both in construction and use
- Plans must be useful, functional and practical
- Plans that gather dust are only useful in the construction! (thinking space!)
- Make plans active – format needs to be sensible and useful (also needs to be useful to others)
- Not theoretical, abstract exercise – practical tool
- Detail will vary (plans within plans)
A PLANNING FORMAT
- Actions – what are the key tasks in this plan?
- How – what are the actions, which will achieve the task outcomes? (we may also need more detailed action plans – short term focus)
- Criteria – success indicators – how will success be evidenced and measured?
- When and Who – by when ( deadlines – interim and final) and by whom (others and self?)
- Monitoring Progress – how will we monitor progress – what process will we use and how frequently?
- Evaluation – how will we know we have achieved the intended outcomes and how we achieved them – reflection and analysis of our success?
- Resources – what will we need to be able to complete the planning and the planned tasks successfully?
A simple analysis of what we mean when we talk about Improvements and Developments
- Improvement is making better what already exist as Inputs, Outputs or Outcomes.
- Development is having new, different or additional Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes.
PROMPT FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
- An exercise – choose a current task or activity from within you work – evaluate it and write an action plan, using the above planning format example, for the improvement and development of the work.