Writing an Effective Action Plan to Deliver Results for Your Store
Writing an effective action plan for your store can be a frustrating or intimidating proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. Perhaps you have been asked to complete a plan for results, customer feedback, or associate engagement results and you want to ensure you create something that will not only be helpful in improving the situation but that you can be proud of. There are a couple of things you can do to improve the quality of your plan.
Ask others for feedback
As you set out to create your action plan for your store, discuss the subject with your other leaders. If you have assistant managers, supervisors, or department heads, it will be essential that you seek their feedback and have open discussions about what they see as potential solutions to what you are working towards. It will not be possible to successfully conclude your plan if you do not have the buy-in and support of your co-leaders. They can help carry the message to the team and likely will be the ones that need to execute the steps on a day to day basis for real improvement to occur. Keep your discussions open and flowing with them so they are part of the plan and not just another person that hears about it after you’ve written it.
Narrow the scope of your actions
One of the most common mistakes I see being made with action plans for stores is that the manager tries to do too many things all at once to try to solve the situation. Instead, invest time in understanding what the real problems may be. Again, this is a great place to partner with your other store leaders to capture their insights. Once you have options for potential solutions, narrow them down to the one or two best items to work on first. You can always try additional things later, but when you try to do too many things at the same time, they usually fail. Worse, because you attempted so much all at once, you aren’t certain which components may have been successful.
Be specific in your actions
The next most common mistake is that the action plan is it is too vague. The action items are very high level and do not address specific actions, behaviors, or timelines. Your action plan should follow the SMART method (S - Specific, M- Measurable, A - Actionable, R - Reasonable, T - Time based). When you have all of those pieces in place, you will know who needs to do what, when, and how. It should be a roadmap for how you will achieve your success and give you mile-markers along the way to know how you are progressing. If you don’t have those components in place, take additional time to ask yourself the who, what, when, why, and how questions. That will almost always lead to being a much better strategy to get to the outcome you are looking for.
Action planning does not have to be a bad experience. Too often these types of things are used as busy work, but when you have the opportunity to complete an action plan for your store, take advantage of the success it can lead to. Some key components to your action plan:
Dedicate the necessary time to lay out the pieces you need to have in place to realize success.
Involve your team to gain their insights and buy in.
Keep it simple, narrow, and focused on what will have the most significant impact.
Finally, ensure that your plan provides the specifics that will keep you on track along the way.
With these few steps, you can bring that action plan to life and make a difference for your store, your team, and your customers.
What successes have you had with action plans in your past?
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