URBS 661—Long-Range & Strategic Planning

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Strategic Implementation

The most common mistake of planners is to come to policy decision and neglect to plan the implementation of the decision.

1. Project Implementation Definition: Specify the following information to assist in designing the implementation
• Project name
• Problem or opportunity definition
• Project description
• Expected benefits (in user terms--What can we do with it that we couldn't do otherwise?)
• Consequences of rejection
• Resource requirements (people, time, money)
• Alternatives
• Other Considerations
• Authorization (all who will be affected--the Japanese call it nemawashi)
• Project team
2. Planning tools
• Gantt
• PERT/CPM
• Milestones
3. Operations
• Competitive advantage comes from
• process of human resource mobilization
• quality
• JIT--Just In Time (controlling the timing of production)
• capacity
• technology to increase productivity of other resources
• Structure
• monolithic vs. federated vs. Pluralistic
• directed vs. Entrepreneurial
4. Innovation (from Andy VandeVenn) comes from
• Managing attention
• Managing part/whole relationships(complexity)
• Managing ideas into good currency
• Institutional leadership
5. Evaluating Success of Plans (Emily Talen,1996, Do plans get implemented, Journal of Planning Literature, 10(3): 248-259): Consider
• process
• outcomes
• impacts

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MSU

© 2006 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 4 January 2006