Tactical planning: what is it and how to do it?

Running a company doesn’t have to be a seven-headed beast. Check out the secret for you to be able to develop a truly effective tactical plan and what are the advantages of putting your business on this path.

Organizing good tactical planning requires less complexity and more attention to shorter-term strategies than anything else. Its purpose is to define actions that need less time to complete.

After all, it is already proven that long-term actions, when inserted in a model like this, can represent total failure.

Other points are very important for effective tactical planning:

predictability;

Punctuality;

Transparency;

Organization; and

Chance prediction and exception control.

Without them, your action plan is at risk of failing and not causing effective changes in your business’s day-to-day activities.

So grab a paper and a pen and read on to discover the step by step of an efficient tactical organization for the health of your business.

After all, what is tactical planning?

It is an important stage in the structuring or restructuring of companies and their business strategy . It mainly involves managers and leaders from all sectors.

Its main objective is to structure realistic initiatives and goals based on an organization made previously and thinking about maximizing, later on, the quality of the company’s operational procedures.

We can consider tactical planning a compromise between strategic planning and operations. Remembering that it only works when it is focused on short and medium term actions and is based on the vision of what happens in each area, as well as the definition of specific actions for them.

What are the functions of tactical planning?

There is not just one role of tactical planning, but several. Among them, the following stand out:

Define processes.

Explain individual and sector functions.

Enable more assertive decision-making — by managers and leaders — that will have an impact at all levels of the sector.

Avoid or eliminate crises.

Minimize risks.

Increase employee commitment.

Improve customer service and experience.

Sign guarantees to consumers and also to employees.

Any and all objectives of this stage of structuring or restructuring a company will only be achieved if there is a good plan of strategic actions behind it.

How to organize effective tactical planning?

The best way is by raising answers to questions that are part of the 5W2H in English: what, why, where, when, who, how and how much (how much).

This methodology defines well what will be the step by step to obtain truly effective tactical plans. See below.

What needs to be done in each sector to achieve its goals?

Why do such things need to be done or why do such actions need to happen?

After all, what are these goals and why do they exist?

Where will the actions take place?

When will it all start and what is the deadline for completion? Among other questions related to the execution time of processes and definitions.

Who will be involved? To whom will the results be presented? Who are the main stakeholders in these changes? Among other guiding questions related to people.

How will each action be performed?

How much will each of them cost? What are the financial processes that fit here? In some cases, it is important to know.

Based on the answers to these and other questions, the main problems and main solutions for each sector of the company will be mapped, as well as the main stakeholders in the process and the most urgent initiatives.

This mapping even represents the main difference between strategic, tactical and operational planning . We will explain further in the next topic.

Difference between strategic, tactical and operational planning

While the strategic one is attentive to more general objectives and has a holistic view of the organization, the tactical plans map problems and solutions much more punctual. In addition, they also serve to distribute goals and tasks between sectors.

Finally, operational planning will come. This is at the base of the organizational pyramid and has supervisors or people in similar positions as commanders. Its direction is for the short term: daily activities, specific objectives and the routine accomplishment of everything that was planned in the previous stages.

Check out some examples to better understand the division:

Examples of strategic planning: Research and Development (R&D), Assessment of Needs for Quality Management System (QMS).

Examples of tactical planning: New Processes, Resource Development, Operations Planning.

Going to the operational side means starting to put everything into practice, with fewer chances of errors, a much more professional management and a greater chance of success, generating profit and maintaining the company’s good financial health .

Posted by: John Labunski