What is an operational plan in an organization?

The organisation’s budget should also link closely to the operational plan.  There is no point in having a very ambitious operational plan in place without the resources to deliver it.  The organisation’s budget and cash flow should be closely managed throughout the year to make sure that income and expenditure are on track and that the organisation can meet its targets and its financial commitments.  For more on financial and management controls click here.

Companies often confuse strategic, tactical, and operational planning. Strategic planning sets your organization’s long-term vision and goals. Tactical planning is the process of figuring out how to achieve your strategic plan. And operational planning links the two, outlining the procedural steps you’ll take to meet your goals. A sound operational plan is critical for achieving success in your organization.

What Is Operational Planning?

Operational planning is the process of creating actionable steps that your team can take to meet the goals in your strategic plan. An operational plan outlines daily, weekly, and monthly tasks for each department or employee. During operational planning, you’ll also create milestones that help you achieve your strategic plan. For example, if your strategic plan aims to grow your customer base by 20%, your operational plan will include incremental steps to gain new leads and customers.

What Are the Benefits of an Operational Plan?

A well-constructed operational plan makes everyone’s jobs easier. The benefits include:

• Clear guidance: With actionable steps for each department, operational plans help teams understand if they are performing well or need to improve.
• Better workflow: Each team knows what they’ll be working on over the month or quarter, and they can adjust their workflow as needed.
• Improves morale: All employees can see how their day-to-day work connects to the company’s broader goals.

Creating an Effective Operational Plan

Operational plans help you hit strategic goals, so start by reviewing your strategic plan. Your operational plan should be specific to a department or team, so your organization will likely have more than one operational plan. Identify the key stakeholders for a particular team: they’ll be best suited to develop the plan, which should include:

• Departmental objectives
• Key performance indicators
• Staffing and budget needs
• Process for tracking and reporting on progress

Once the plan is complete, you can replicate this process for each department. Plans should be shared department-wide for feedback and questions.

Operational Goals

Also referred to as departmental goals or objectives, operational goals are the short-term targets that your organization wants to hit. An operational plan includes operational goals and the steps to achieve them. Typically, organizational goals are:

• Tied to a specific department or team
• Tied to a budget line or item
• Tied to a specific short time frame, such as a month or a quarter

Operational Goals Examples

All operational goals should be measurable and actionable. Actionable means your team can achieve them – so the goal cannot be dependent on an outside factor. For example, your IT team may be tasked with training 10 new employees on security best practices each quarter. But if 10 employees aren’t hired in a particular quarter, that operational goal is not actionable.

To be measurable, there must be a clear way to tell if you met your operational goal or not. For example, one operational goal for an accounting team might be to process invoices more quickly. Their accounting software should be able to collect data on how quickly invoices are processed and paid, so the team can measure their performance over time and see if they are working more efficiently.

Share Your Operational Plan

An operational plan shouldn’t be static – it’s a living document. As time goes on, you may need to adjust your operational goals. That isn’t a sign of failure – it means you’re doing a better job of understanding how each team functions and setting your targets accordingly. You should keep your plan up to date and revisit it regularly, whether once a year or at the end of each fiscal quarter. Include key stakeholders in this process so that the plan works for everyone.

Start Your Operational Plan with Spider Impact

Creating an operational plan might seem challenging at first – but once you get started, it can help all your teams run more smoothly. See how Spider Impact helps you define, measure, manage and report on your operational goals. Click for a free test drive or demo.

On the other hand the Operational Plan DOES present highly detailed information specifically to direct people to perform the day-to-day tasks required in the running the organisation. Organisation management and staff should frequently refer to the operational plan in carrying out their everyday work. The Operational Plan provides the what, who, when and how much:

• what - the strategies and tasks that must be undertaken
• who - the persons who have responsibility of each of the strategies/tasks
• when - the timelines in which strategies/tasks must be completed
• how much - the amount of financial resources provided to complete each strategy/task

See also "The Role of the Manager in Operational Planning"

The difference between and operational and strategic plans

A general guide for the management of the organisation

A specific plan for the use of the organisation's resources in pursuit of the strategic plan.

Suggests strategies to be employed in pursuit of the organisation's goals

Details specific activities and events to be undertaken to implement strategies

Is a plan for the pursuit of the organisation's mission in the longer term (3 - 5 years)

Is a plan for the day-to-day management of the organisation (one year time frame)

A strategic plan enables management to formulate an operational plan.

An operational plan should not be formulated without reference to a strategic plan

The strategic plan, once formulated, tends not to be significantly changed every year

Operational plans may differ from year to year significantly

The development of the strategic plan is a responsibility shared and involves different categories of stakeholders.

The operational plan is produced by the chief executive and staff of the organisation.

The purpose of the Operational Plan is to provide organisation personnel with a clear picture of their tasks and responsibilities in line with the goals and objectives contained within the Strategic Plan.

Basically, the Operational Plan is a plan for the implementation of strategies contained within the Strategic Plan.

It is a management tool that facilitates the co-ordination of the organisation's resources (human, financial and physical) so that goals and objectives in the strategic plan can be achieved.

What is an example of a operational plan?

What is the operational plan means?

What should be in an operational plan?

What are the five key components of an operational plan?