Paper details
Original Discussion Question:
List the important components of action plans. Which component do you think is the most important? The least important? Explain your response.
OR
What are the primary characteristics of action plan objectives? Are these characteristics descriptive of good organizational strategic goals? Why or why not?
The Action Plan Components
According to Ginter et al. (2018), the action plan provides clear and specific guidelines of the broader strategies incorporated into the organization or the departments of the organization. The action plan carries out the strategy and helps to meet organizational objectives (Ginter et al., 2018). The seven steps of the action plan process include a review of the strategic decisions, setting the objectives for the unit, action identification to help accomplish the objectives, a time frame for each action, responsibilities assignment, determination of resources, and finally, measuring of the results (Ginter et al., 2018).
An important component of the strategic plan is the people, who are involved in the strategy development and bringing the action plan to life. Usually, the key players in the action plan development are the senior managers and upper leadership (Ginter et al., 2018). Choosing the correct tactic for the action plan implementation will provide a successful outcome for the chosen strategy and will overall help to reshape the organization, and organizational culture. Brainstorming components of an action plan will lead to tactics, objectives, and goal determination. According to Ginter et al. (2018), the critical responsibility of the healthcare providers is to articulate the strategy to other providers regarding their responsibilities during the broader strategic decision identification, on step one of the action plan process. The importance of targeting consumers/patients cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, in the identification of the goals, the goals must follow the SMART model, where S-specific, M-measurable, A-attainable, R-relevant, and T-time-based (Ginter et al., 2018).
After the determination of the goals and objectives, the activities will be assigned to help with goals/objectives accomplishment, and prioritization of the tasks from the most important to the least important. The priorities of the tasks should be well communicated within the team and the organization, in order to ensure the action plan is flexible, and avoid complexity. The time frame of the action plan process will align each step of the process with the main schedule. The timing of the process will reinforce the aligning of the activities with the goals and objectives (Ginter et al., 2018).
The assignment responsibilities will help to build ownership among the employees (Ginter et al., 2018). In addition, the action of providing updates on the progress during this phase of the action plan will be fulfilled (Ginter et al., 2018). Resources are a critical component of the action plan. Resources are not only financial, including the cost of each operation of the plan, but also include members of the project, and necessary equipment. Finally, the measurement of the results, where the performance will be measured and evaluated, and the connection of the actions with the objectives and provided strategic control over the whole process will be evaluated (Ginter et al., 2018).
I believe all steps or components of the process are important. All steps help to create, monitor, and revise the action plan. Helping track the correlation of the steps of the action plan with the identified objectives, as well as, provide a dynamic, flexible process for effective strategy implementation.
References
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). Strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
