Team-Based Planning for New and Emerging Leaders

Jan Terkelsen: [00:00]

[00:26] The 10-Step Team-Based Planning Framework

Jan Terkelsen: Well, hello Michelle. Welcome to 2023

Michelle Terkelsen: I know. Woohoo It's already um, off to a good start for a lot of people I know, which is great.

Jan Terkelsen: And, and we hope for those who are listening, it's um, you are included , that you feel that it's off to a good start.

One of the things that I have been itching to do was our plan, as you know, Michelle because being the MBTI type that I am, so I'm an ENFJ, I love to have a plan and I love to have that structure in order.

And once we have a plan, then we are really clear on our roles and what we need to do. So this episode is all about planning for the next year. Now, this year for us, we have made a decision that this is the year of the new and emerging leader. So most of our content, pretty much all of it will be focused on the new and emerging leader.

So if you are an aspiring leader lucky you, you are gonna get some great content throughout the year. However, if you are leading a team of people and you think that one of them is, or a couple of them are new and emerging you, let them know about the podcast cause we're gonna have great content for that.

And if you are an emerging leader, to be able to create a plan for your team is one of the most important skills, wouldn't you say Michelle?

Michelle Terkelsen: Yeah, and I was just thinking even if you have an established team and you have been a leader for a little while, this could be a bit of a refresh [02:00] for you as well.

Jan Terkelsen: Yeah. Okay. So let's have a look at what are some of those key areas that we are going to look at today when we take you through our presentation. Because in our presentation we've got a 10 step team-based planning. Framework and we're gonna take you through all of them.

So the first one, the first step that Michelle is gonna go into a little bit more detail is the Situation Analysis.

Then step two is how do you create a SWOT Analysis and what is a SWOT analysis and why do you do it? We are going to look at the step three Stakeholder Analysis. We'll look at our team purpose. Now, if you are a business, you might see this as, what is your business purpose or your overall purpose.

Team values. If you are in a large organisation you might already have values. If you are not, this is a great opportunity to create some values and we are gonna share with you some of our values as well.

We'll have a look at setting objectives. So this is getting into the detail, you know, who does what.

Then we'll look at what resources and support you need, which is step seven. Step eight is how do you shore up the plan? And this is a really important step that a lot of people miss out on, but it really does help to solidify it.

Step nine is creating a, a timeline. You know, what are those critical points?

And then step 10 is monitoring and following up. You know, how do we keep the plan alive?

So take it away, Michelle. Step

Michelle Terkelsen: one.

[03:32] Step One - Situation Analysis

Michelle Terkelsen: Okay, step one, Situation Analysis.

A lot of people skip this part and they jump straight into setting objectives. And the beauty of this is that a Situation Analysis really gets everybody onto the same page in terms of what's been happening in the team, what went well, where, where are we heading, where do we want tohead?

So it's actually coalescing all of these sort of little thought bubbles that are going on in everybody's head and getting it out [04:00] there onto one page so that everybody is really on the same page. And so we call it a Situation Analysis.

And the way that we have found works really well for teams is to start with a bit of a, a reflection.

And so when we say, okay, so let's reflect on the previous year, some people go straight into the team and the team dynamic side of things, or they go straight into the financials or they go straight in, and then they just tend to focus there. What we have found is a little bit of structure around these reflections can be very useful.

And so the first thing is, you can reflect... so there are a couple of ways you do this is reflect on these key areas such as financials. So what were our financials like last year? And you could do it month by month. If you have good record keeping, you can go, you can put a calendar up on, on the board and go through January, right through to December in each of these key areas.

So that's super systematic way to do it.

And so you reflect on how well did we do in our financials, if we were to reflect on that.

Our reflections on team learning and development. What did we do? How do we feel about it? What went well, what didn't go well?

Processes and operational excellence. When we reflected on that, what did we notice.

Customers, clients, and then marketing and social media could be another area that you reflect on. And so what you would do is you would then start with your reflections in each of these areas.

And then you have a look at, so what is the current state as we are today, about to move into the year, moving forward, how would we describe the current state in each of these areas, and you could either go positive, negative, you know, put a number from one to five, five being fantastic in a great position.

It's really up to you as to how you decide to categorise that, or the words that you use to frame that up.

And then the next one is, it's almost like dipping your [06:00] toe in the water in terms of, so what would we like to create in each of these areas?

What would a desired state look like for our financials, for team development, for marketing, for customers, clients, those sorts of things.

And then, and then what, you know, this could take, and I wouldn't skimp on this. This is such this is going to give you such rich information that you will draw on throughout the rest of the plan.

Is there anything that you would add to this?

Jan Terkelsen: No Michelle, so just so you know that these are our focus areas. So you might have different focus areas and also, you know, in our template that we'll share with you, we also have action statements. So this could be something that you could capture, so when you are reflecting and someone you know, you think, oh, actually that's a bit of a missing piece for us.

Where are we gonna use that? Are we gonna have a parking lot where we actually park all those things? Because we want tobe able to capture things, so, so we just said action statements, but you could say parking lot when you actually do this as well.

Michelle Terkelsen: Right.

[07:03] Step Two - SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Jan Terkelsen: So that's step one, Situation Analysis, and then step two is the SWOT.

So what are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths? And the reason why we do a SWOT is because you want to be really clear, because businesses change on a dime now. You know, like in instead of doing the three year plan, you might want todo every quarter or every six months because things are changing so rapidly and you want tobe able to capture this.

So the strengths, strengths are really characteristics of your team or your business or even your project that give it an advantage over others. So what are some of your strengths? And so some of the strengths could be the technical capability of your people. So it could be that you have a tech strength that perhaps others in the project or in your business don't have. So really it is around characteristics. So they're more [08:00] internal.

Then you've got weaknesses. Now, these are characteristics that place your team or your business or your project at a disadvantage relative to others.

So what are some of the disadvantage? Now, it could be that you don't have enough people in your team to be able to take on the project at the moment, or you have high turnover. So what are those things that give you a bit of a disadvantage?

Opportunities. So now we're actually capturing those external things, so elements that your business project or your team could exploit to its advantage.

So what are the opportunities here? So you might have some clients that you've worked with before that will actually introduce you to a a new client and things like that. So what are some of those opportunities?

Then you've got threats. So these are elements in the environment, so that could cause trouble for your business or your project or your team.

So that could be political, it could be environmental. You know, it could be the financial instability. So those are those external things.

Now, the reason why we capture them is because we want tomake sure that our objectives reflect those opportunities and maybe we need to mitigate some risks. And the way in which we've done this is we've actually had butcher's paper with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

We've separated