7 Mission:the purpose for which the individual or organisation
was ‘sent’
8 Plan:set of ideas to achieve desired result
9 Vision:a concept denoting clarity of foresight/sharpness of
understanding of a scheme
10 Intention:what is in mind to do.In order to reach the goals/objectives set, you will need to identify
them clearly. The hallmarks of good goals/objectives (see also the
SMARTER^2 test in the earlier section on Making medium-term
plans) are as follows:
Goals/objectives must be:
Clear, specific, measurable, attainable, written, time-bounded,
realistic, challenging, agreed, consistent, worthwhile and
participative.
Attaining goals/objectives brings into play strategy and planning,
for which you need imagination, a sense of reality, power of analysis
and what has been described as helicopter vision (the ability to see
matters in detail, but from a higher perspective).An operational plan/strategy should contain:
•a SMARTER^2 set of goals/objectives- plans/stratagems for achieving them
The plan should detail all the steps required to complete those tasks
which are needed to be done in order to meet the objectives set.
Time spent on planning is crucial in the thinking, the brainstorming
and the sharing of ideas, the definition of purpose, the identification
of obstacles and the ways and means of overcoming them and of
meeting objectives.
It is necessary, of course, to get the right balance between planning
and implementation. Planning saves time at the strategic and
operational level and the key principle is ‘every moment spent
planning saves three or four in execution’.
38 The John Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership