Mastering Plan Execution: Essential Tips for Leaders and Project Managers (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about how to successfully execute a plan. When we talk about executing a plan, we're really talking about carrying out a plan or producing something like a work product. Executing a plan is one of the most fundamental actions that a leader, project manager, or team member can make. And to remember, when we're talking about a project, things rarely, if ever, go according to plan. So in today's whiteboard session, what I want to do is offer some tips. So when we talk about executing a plan, we're not talking about just running out and executing a plan. We have to make sure some things are done before and during as we're executing the plan. So let's talk about the tips that we want to offer for planning. We want to be sure that we're preparing a plan that's capable of being executed successfully. And we also want to talk about executing a plan successfully, what are those things we have to do. And then when we monitor, we're talking about monitoring the plan to ensure it's going as planned. And then controlling is controlling to perform corrective measures to get the plan back on track. So let's take a look. So when we're talking about planning, we want to be sure that we document the plan. We want to include why are we doing this plan, why is it so important, who's going to be doing what, when, and how. Then once we document that, we want to take it and we want to communicate it to everyone who needs to know, the team members, the stakeholders, maybe even the executive board, or even our vendor partners. We want to include who and how to notify when things don't go in the right way. We also want to update that plan on a regular, consistent basis to ensure that when things change, it's updated. So then when we talk about executing the plan, we also want to be sure that we're constantly communicating the status, any issues that we see, any risks that we may project that we need to prepare for. We also want to be sure to use tools because we want to set up reminders to let people know when things are coming due. We also want to be able to set up some triggers that are action-based. For instance, if one action occurs, then it triggers another action in a workflow. We also want to set up automations, workflows, and again, alerts. So then when we monitor the plan, again, we're looking at to ensure that it's going as planned. So we want to communicate, again, the status to let everyone know that needs to know that everything's on track or something may be projected to be late. We also want to flag any new issues, risk, or any possible requests for changes. We also, again, want to use tools. And when we're monitoring, we want to use those tools to indicate what's the variance. What's the variance of the schedule? Are we ahead of schedule? Are we behind schedule? We also want to look at cost and budgets. Are we over budget? Are we under budget? We also want to look at the scope. Is that on track? Have we added scope? Do we need to take some out? And also resources. Do we have enough? Do we need to supplement? And then also alerts. When we talk about monitor, some people make the mistake of just monitoring. So they see these things occurring, but they're not taking corrective action. So it's the controlling part that is just as important, and these two really work together hand in hand. So when we talk about controlling, again, we want to communicate the status of any issues, risk, and changes. But these are the things we want to look at, too. We want to be controlling the time. Do we need to extend the schedule? Do we need to shorten the schedule? Resources. Do we need to add resources? Do we need to maybe reallocate them? Or do we need to let some go? And then according to the cost, we want to look at do we need to decrease the cost? Do we need to increase the budget? In some cases, we may need to finance new cost. We may need to set up a payment plan. Or we also may consider partnering with another strategic partner and set up maybe a revenue share that can offload some of the cost, but be able to share some of the revenue. And again, looking at scope, do we cut some of the scope? Do we defer it maybe to later? Do we need to add scope? Or do we need to put it in phases? So as you can see, there's so much more than just executing the plan. So if you need a tool that can help you execute your plan successfully, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.