action plan example for problem solving

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Blog Training and Development

What is an Action Plan & How to Write One [With Examples]

By Danesh Ramuthi , Oct 26, 2023

An action plan is a meticulously structured strategy that pinpoints specific steps, tasks and resources vital to turning a goal into reality. It is extremely useful in any project management. 

Crafting an action plan is like plotting a route for a cross-country journey. It’s the strategic map that outlines every step, decision and pitstop needed to reach your ultimate destination.

With a well-thought-out action plan, you’re not just shooting in the dark; you’re making informed, purposeful strides towards your goals. Dive deep with our guide and witness real-world examples that will inspire and guide you.

Need a tool to kickstart your planning? Try out the Venngage business plan maker and explore their extensive collection of action plan templates .

Click to jump ahead: 

What is the purpose of an action plan?

When to develop an action plan, 7 components of a actions plan, 15 action plan examples.

• How to Write an action plan?

Final thoughts

An action plan serves as a strategic tool designed to outline specific steps, tasks and goals necessary to achieve a particular objective.

Its primary purpose is to provide a clear roadmap and direction for individuals, teams or organizations to follow in order to efficiently and effectively accomplish their goals. 

Action plans break down complex projects into manageable, actionable components, making it easier to track progress and stay on course.

Moreover, action plans play a crucial role in fostering accountability and coordination among team members. By assigning responsibilities and deadlines for each task or milestone, they ensure that everyone involved is aware of their roles and the overall timeline, reducing confusion and enhancing teamwork. 

Additionally, action plans help in resource allocation, budgeting and risk management by enabling stakeholders to identify potential challenges and plan for contingencies. 

Overall, the purpose of an action plan is to transform abstract goals into concrete actions, making them more achievable and measurable while ensuring that the resources and efforts are aligned with the desired outcomes.

Developing an action plan is crucial when you’re looking to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Here are instances when you should consider developing an action plan:

• Start of an organization : Ideally, an action plan should be developed within the first six months to one year of the start of an organization. This initial plan lays the groundwork for the future direction and growth of the entity.
• Project initiation : At the start of any project, an action plan helps to clearly define the tasks, responsibilities, and timelines.
• Goal setting : Whenever you or your organization sets a new goal. Action plans transform these goals from abstract ideas into concrete steps.
• Strategic planning : For long-term visions and missions, action plans break down the journey into manageable pieces, each with its timeline and responsible parties.
• Performance improvement : If there are areas where performance is lacking, whether it’s personal or organizational, an action plan can outline the steps needed to elevate performance.

An action plan is a detailed outline that breaks down the steps necessary to achieve a specific goal. Here are the typical components of an action plan.

1. Objective or Goal

The cornerstone of your action plan is the objective or goal. This should be a clear and concise statement outlining the desired outcome or result. Having a well-defined objective provides a direction and purpose to the entire plan, ensuring all tasks and actions are aligned towards achieving this singular aim.

2. Tasks or Actions

Once the objective is set, the next step is to list down the specific tasks or actions required to achieve this goal. These tasks should be broken down into detailed steps, ensuring no essential activity is overlooked. The granularity of these tasks can vary based on the complexity of the goal.

3. Set deadline

For each task or action, set a realistic and achievable deadline. This timeline ensures that the plan stays on track and that momentum is maintained throughout the execution. It also allows for monitoring progress and identifying potential delays early.

4. Resources needed to complete the project

It’s crucial to recognize and list the resources you’ll need to complete the tasks. This can encompass financial resources, human resources, equipment, technological tools or any other assets. Identifying these early ensures that there are no bottlenecks during execution due to a lack of necessary resources.

5. Person responsible

Assign a person or a team for each task. This designation ensures accountability and clarity. When individuals are aware of their responsibilities, it reduces overlap, confusion and ensures that every task has someone overseeing its completion.

6. Potential barriers or challenges

Every plan will face challenges. By anticipating potential barriers or obstacles, you can be better prepared to address them. This proactive approach ensures smoother execution and less reactionary problem-solving.

7. Measurement of key performance indicators (KPIs)

Determine how you’ll measure the success of each task or the plan overall. KPIs are tangible metrics that allow you to gauge progress and determine whether you’re moving closer to your goals and objectives. They offer a quantifiable means to evaluate success.

Action plans serve as blueprints, guiding the steps and resources needed to achieve a specific goal. 

They come in various formats, tailored to different scenarios and objectives. Here, we present a range of action plan examples that cater to diverse purposes and situations. 

From business strategies to simple task lists, these examples illustrate the versatility and importance of well-structured planning.

Business action plan example

A business action plan is essentially a strategy roadmap, meticulously tailored for realizing broader business objectives. By crafting a solid action plan, businesses can channel their resources, manpower and strategies in a direction that harmonizes with their larger vision.

Key to this plan is the identification and alignment of steps that resonate with the company’s comprehensive strategy, ambitions of growth and aspirations for operational enhancements. 

While this might entail a myriad of specific steps based on unique business goals, some common elements include setting clear key performance indicators (KPIs), undertaking a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to grasp the current business landscape and establishing a timeline to keep track of progress.

Furthermore, allocating responsibilities to team members or individuals ensures that every aspect of the strategy has a dedicated focus. Budgeting, essential to the success of the action plan, ensures that every initiative is financially viable and sustainable. 

Regular reviews and iterations based on feedback and changing market dynamics keep the action plan agile and relevant.

Related: 5 Steps to Create an Actionable Employee Development Plan [with Templates & Examples]

Company action plan example

A comprehensive company action plan serves as the strategic linchpin, ensuring a coherent and coordinated approach to realizing organizational goals. Central to this plan is the incorporation of rigorous market research and analysis, which provides insights into consumer behaviors, market trends and potential opportunities. 

Equally vital is the focus on product development and procurement, ensuring that the offerings align with market demands and stand out in terms of quality and relevance. 

Alongside, adept legal and financial management safeguards the company’s interests, ensuring compliance with regulations and prudent fiscal oversight.

Moreover, the essence of any successful company action plan lies in its sales and marketing strategies. These define how the products or services are positioned and promoted in the market, ensuring visibility and engagement with the target audience. 

However, while acquisition is crucial, retention plays an equally significant role. Hence, impeccable customer service and nurturing relationships become indispensable components, fostering loyalty and ensuring that clients remain ambassadors for the brand long after the initial transaction.

Related: 30+ Project Plan Examples to Visualize Your Strategy (2023)

Sales action plan example

A well-structured sales action plan serves as the backbone for systematic and efficient progress. Central to this plan is the identification and utilization of the most effective sales channels, whether they are direct, online or through third-party avenues. 

Clarity on the products and services on offer, combined with their unique selling propositions, facilitates tailored and resonant sales pitches. 

Budget considerations ensure that resources are judiciously allocated, balancing the act between expenditures and potential returns. This financial prudence is complemented by setting realistic sales projections, which act as both a motivational target and a yardstick for success.

Timelines, or proposed deadlines, infuse the process with a sense of urgency, ensuring that the momentum of the sales drive is maintained. 

However, the true measure of the action plan’s efficacy lies in its key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics, be it lead conversion rates or customer retention figures, serve as tangible markers, highlighting the plan’s strengths and signaling areas that might require recalibration to increase sales.

Corrective action plan example

The essence of a corrective action plan lies in its meticulous structure, tailored to address and rectify deviations or inefficiencies identified within an organization. At its core, each action item serves as a focal point, detailing specific areas or processes that require intervention. 

Accompanying each action item is a clear description that provides a comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand. 

However, merely identifying a problem isn’t enough; delving deep into its origins through root cause analysis ensures that solutions target the fundamental issues, rather than just addressing superficial symptoms. 

This analysis then paves the way for defining the corrective action, a tangible step or series of steps designed to mitigate the identified problem and prevent its recurrence.

Besides, to ensure the plan’s effectiveness, assigning a responsible person to each action item is paramount. This individual or team is entrusted with the task’s execution, ensuring accountability and focus. 

The status of each action keeps stakeholders informed about the progress, be it in the planning phase, ongoing, or completed. 

Lastly, setting a due date for each corrective action introduces a sense of urgency and purpose, ensuring that issues are addressed in a timely manner, minimizing disruptions and maximizing operational efficiency.

Simple action plan example

A simple action plan strips away the layers of complexity, offering a concise and direct approach to achieving a goal or addressing an issue. This type of plan is characterized by its straightforward structure, devoid of extraneous details, yet powerfully effective in its clarity. 

It is specifically designed for tasks or objectives that don’t necessitate elaborate strategies or multi-layered approaches.

The core components of a simple action plan usually include a clear statement of the task or objective at hand, followed by a sequence of actions or steps to be taken. 

Each step is described succinctly, ensuring that anyone involved has a clear understanding of what is expected. Responsibilities are defined clearly, with each task allocated to an individual or a team, ensuring accountability. Timelines might be integrated, providing a clear framework for completion, even if they’re just broad milestones. 

Regular check-ins or assessments, although minimal, might be incorporated to monitor progress. 

The beauty of a simple action plan lies in its agility and adaptability, making it particularly suited for individual projects, short-term tasks or situations where a rapid response is required.

How to write an action plan?

Creating an effective action plan is a foundational step towards turning aspirations into tangible results. It provides a clear roadmap, ensuring that each step taken aligns with the overall objective.

Whether you’re aiming to enhance a business process or achieve a personal goal, a well-drafted action plan can be your guiding light. Here’s key steps on how you can craft one:

• Step 1: Establish SMART goals: Initiating with a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound ensures you have a clear and focused endpoint in sight. Smart goals serves as the cornerstone for your entire strategic blueprint.
• Step 2: Determine necessary tasks: Decompose your overarching objective into smaller, actionable tasks. This modular approach not only makes the mission less daunting but also provides a sequential pathway to goal attainment.
• Step 3: Assign essential resources: Depending on the tasks at hand, designate necessary resources, be they human, financial or technological. This ensures that every activity has the backing it needs for successful execution.
• Step 4: Prioritize tasks by importance: Not all tasks hold equal weight. Determine the hierarchy of tasks based on their impact on the goal and their time sensitivity. This allows for a systematic progression.
• Step 5: Outline timelines and key markers: With tasks in hand, set clear deadlines for each. Introduce milestones, which act as periodic check-ins, ensuring you’re on track and allowing for celebrations of smaller victories.
• Step 6: Oversee and modify your strategy blueprint: As you progress, there will invariably be learnings and challenges. Regularly review your plan to make necessary adjustments, ensuring its relevance and effectiveness.
• Step 7: Consider ready-to-use templates: If starting from scratch feels overwhelming, lean on structured templates to guide your planning. There’s plenty of business plan softwares and platforms such as  Venngage that offer a plethora of action plan templates , tailored to various needs, which can significantly streamline the process.

An action plan is more than just an action steps, it’s a strategic blueprint that bridges the gap between aspirations and realizations. 

Through this comprehensive guide, I’ve walked you through the purpose, ideal timings, core components, and practical examples of action plans across various domains. 

Leveraging tools of project management , you can track progress, assign tasks and ensure every team member stays on the same page. 

It’s not just about setting goals, but about strategically planning every step, ensuring tasks completed align with the larger project goals. 

Remember, success isn’t just about having goals but about charting the right course to achieve them

And if you’re looking to supercharge your planning efforts, don’t miss out on the Venngage business plan maker. 

Dive into their extensive collection of action plan templates and make your strategic planning both efficient and effective. 

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The Seven Steps of Action Planning

• Define the Problem(s)
• Collect and Analyze the Data
• Clarify and Prioritize the Problem(s)
• Write a Goal Statement for Each Solution
• Implement Solutions: The Action Plan
• Monitor and Evaluate
• Restart with a New Problem, or Refine the Old Problem

The following is a simple example of the problem solving process in practice: The dairy farm owner notices that the bulk tank weights are lower this week than last week. In the next sections we will go through the seven steps to solve this problem:

Step 1: Define the Problem(s)

Evaluate the situation. Have all possibilities been considered? In this stage, explore all possibilities, ask all involved or interested individuals for their input into identifying the problem. Is there just one problem or are there more?

Our farm owner conducts a thorough investigation in trying to determine why the bulk tank weights are down. He checks with the veterinarian to be sure there is not a contributing health factor. He also has the nutritionist evaluate the ration to be sure they are feeding at the proper level. In addition, he interviews employees who interact with the cows on a daily basis. This is what he finds:

• Standard Operating Procedures are being followed thoroughly in the milking parlor.
• Several substitute feeders found some premixes in short supply. In order to feed the milking cows they had to prepare premixes before mixing the herd rations.
• The veterinarian visits and reports the cows are in good health.
• The nutritionist evaluates the rations and finds them to be appropriate for the various production groups.

The farm owner begins to suspect the problem is a result of variation in the feed ration being fed as a result of different people mixing the feed.

Step 2: Collect and Analyze the Data

Now that we have identified the problem, we collect and analyze data to prove or disprove the assumption that our problem is a result of inconsistent ration. We analyze the situations by asking questions.

• What ingredient(s) in the computer ration is the likely problem?
• What do others (veterinarian, nutritionist, herdsman) see as the reason for the lower bulk tank weights?
• What do the feeders see? How much feed is in the alley when new feed is put out?
• What does test data indicate? Compare the sample analyses of the ration being fed, the ration being eaten by the cows, and the ration left when new feed is delivered.

In our scenario, the farm owner reviews the bulk tank weights and confirms that tank weights are down. Next he checks the cow numbers to see if perhaps these are down. Instead, he finds that cow numbers are up. As he is gathering data from the employees he is reminded that the old feeder left for a new position. He finds that different people have been pitching in to mix the feed ration. The owner begins to suspect that the cow's daily rations are not being made consistently. He reviews analysis of feed samples at the next three feedings and finds that the variation is beyond the limits for acceptability.

Step 3: Clarify and Prioritize the Problem(s)

If there is more than one problem, you will need to prioritize the problems so you can focus on the most important problems first. Ask the following questions to help you sort the problems with the higher priority issues at the top of the list.

• Which problem could result in negative consequences in terms of cow or employee health?
• Are any of the problems putting the operation in danger of being in noncompliance with regulations?
• Which problems have the greatest impact on the long-term economic stability of the operation?
• Which problems have short-term impact on the stability of the operation?

In this case we only have one problem -- lack of a consistent ration so prioritization is not necessary.

Step 4: Write a Goal Statement for Each Solution

The next step in the process is setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, or goals that are:

S - Specific

M - measurable, a - achievable, r - relevant.

The team needs to go through the problems that have been identified and evaluate them for each of these items. If all the goals that have been set are S.M.A.R.T. goals, great -- you are ready to move on to Monitoring Progress. Otherwise, work with the team to make the necessary adjustments to make the goals S.M.A.R.T.

Specific goals are clear and focused, not broad, ambiguous, or general. Specific goals provide specific information on the behaviors that are associated with the goal. These goals indicate who will do what, when and how.

• Example of a goal that is not specific - "The advisory team will improve Pleasantview Dairy's profitability."
• Example of a specific goal - "Employees of Pleasantview Dairy will lower feed costs by producing high-quality forages (RFV>125), having forage equipment in top working order by May 1, storing the first crop of hay silage by May 25, and continuing to harvest at 31-day intervals throughout the growing season."

Measurable goals provide a measurable indicator of success, so that it becomes easy to monitor progress and determine when success has been attained. Measurements of success may be quantified with numbers or a simple yes/no determination.

• Example of a goal that is not measurable - "Employees of Pleasantview Dairy will improve feed quality."
• Example of a measurable goal - "Employees of Pleasantview Dairy will increase the average relative feed value from 100 to greater than 140 for all hay silage stored this summer" or "All ingredients in the TMR will be weighed using the electronic scales and delivered to the feed bunk by 10:00 a.m."

Achievable goals are realistic, and well within the abilities, responsibilities and resources of the management and staff. This does not mean that goals must be easy to achieve. Every effort should be made to reach a higher level of performance. Sometimes "stretch" goals can encourage someone to step out of their comfort zone and tackle tasks in a new, challenging, yet achievable way that results in overall improvement for the operation.

• Example of a goal that is not achievable - "Milk yields will exceed x amount," where x is beyond the limitations for the breed of cattle, facilities and management of the operation.
• Example of an achievable goal - "Farm employee x will mix feed ingredients accurately (wet feed less than 5 percent and dry feed less than 1 percent error) and deliver it to the cows by 10:00 a.m."

A relevant goal is appropriate to a person who will be attempting to achieve it and to the overall goals and objectives of the farm.

• Example of a goal that is not relevant - "All feed will be delivered to the cows by 10:00 a.m." This goal is easy enough to measure and achieve, but doesn't do anything to ensure the quality of the feed.
• Example of a relevant goal - "Farm staff will improve milk production and lower feed waste by assuring that the computed ration is fed to the cows accurately, in the proper amounts and by 10:00 a.m. each morning."

The attainment of a goal should not be open-ended, but set for a specific time. As much as possible, the exact date the goal is to be achieved should be determined. When a goal has a deadline, it provides a measurable point and speeds progress toward critical goals. Employees will generally put more emphasis on goals that have specific deadlines than on those for which no time for measurement has been established.

• Example of a goal that is not timely - "We will increase milk sold per worker to 1.2 million pounds."
• Example of a timely goal - "We will increase milk sold per worker to 1.2 million pounds by July 1 of next year."

Now, back to our example - an appropriate S.M.A.R.T. goal for this situation would be to write a standard operating procedure (SOP) by tomorrow evening's feeding so that everyone that is assigned to feed the cows unexpectedly can easily follow the steps and assure that the cows are fed correctly twice daily, at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Step 5: Implement Solutions - The Action Plan

Step five is to write an action plan that addresses the problems. An action plan is written so that any employee can do the task successfully alone and is followed much like a recipe. It converts the goal or plan into a people process. It has three essential parts:

• Based on the goal the action plans answers five questions - What? When? How? Where? Who?
• Lists Resources
• Lists Potential Barriers

The example below applies these steps to our sample problem. Some of the steps in the action plan are obvious.

• What? - Feed the cows correctly twice a day.
• When? - By tomorrow night.
• How? - The written SOP.

Some questions still need answers in the action plan

• Where? - Feed is to be mixed in the feed wagon using the green tractor on the concrete pad by the commodity bins next to the silos. The feed is then to be fed to the cows in lots 2, 3, and 4 twice daily, at 6AM and 6 PM.
• Who? - To be assigned by the herdsman until a new feeder is hired and trained.

Resource List

• Ask the herdsman for help if any questions arise.
• The feeds are in the feed storage area and will be replaced as they are used.
• The tractor and mixing wagon are in the shed by the feed storage.
• The feeder is authorized to order feed or ask the office to do so.
• The feeder can spend up to $300 to correct problems when the office is closed and should get parts on account at Dickerson's Equipment.

Potential Barriers

• Depleted feeds in silos or bins.
• Tractor is in use somewhere else.
• Broken equipment.
• Sick employees.
• Cows in the wrong lot.
• Scales broken.

You will want to post an alternative plan for each of these contingencies.

Step 6: Monitor and Evaluate

Our next step in the problem solving process is to design a method for monitoring the outcome. The method we select should assess whether the goal and action plan corrects the problem. In addition, a well-designed monitoring method will help the team to determine when the action plan needs to be improved.

A team of professionals should not spend much time going over numerous data sets. They should have simple spreadsheets or graphs that tell how well the action plan is working and move on to bigger problems. Most teams need a short list of key parameters related to goals that they follow each meeting. An extensive list of production items is provided in the Resource/Special Tools section for ideas. Many teams track summary data from accounting reports, inventories of resources, or other items critical to monitoring action plans.

At each team meeting, the team should receive an update on the progress towards meeting the goals including any difficulties encountered or benefits received. Printed reports, summaries and spreadsheets speed the work of the team and help track progress. As time passes and situations change, the team will need to reevaluate individual goals and action steps as well as eliminate any that are no longer necessary. Add new goals as the need arises.

In our example, there were several components of the monitoring and evaluation process.

• Grab samples were taken and analyzed at each feeding for the next two weeks.
• The herdsman routinely observed the feed mixing process to see that the standard operating procedure was being followed.
• Bulk tank weights were monitored and plotted with cow numbers on a graph on a wall in the parlor office.

Monitoring Tools: Sample Herd Report

Step 7: Restart With a New Problem, or Refine the Old Problem

The problem solving steps are cyclical. If the first cycle is successful the process starts over with a new problem. If the same problem persists, there must be refinement, so the process starts over with refinement of the original problem as more current data is analyzed.

The problem solving process can last minutes or extend to years depending on the difficulty and complexity of the problem being addressed. Some problems will be addressed "on the fly" by the farm owner. Others will require careful consideration by the farm advisory team.

• Dairy Advisory Teams
• Integrated Dairy Management

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What is an Action Plan? Learn with Templates and Examples

Planning on turning your vision into reality? And what’s your best way to avoid challenges and problems during this journey? A solid action plan.

We have outlined 6 steps explaining how to write an action plan. Once you familiarize yourself with them, go ahead and use the editable templates below to start planning right away.

What is an Action Plan?

Why you need an action plan, how to write an action plan, action plan templates.

An action plan is a specific list of tasks in order to achieve a particular goal. It can be regarded as a proposed strategy to execute a specific project to achieve a specific or general goal effectively and efficiently. It outlines steps to take and helps stay focused and organized, whether it’s personal or work-related. Breaking down the goal into smaller, manageable steps, makes it easier to stay motivated and track progress.

It’s an essential part of the strategic planning process and helps with improving teamwork planning Not only in project management, but action plans can be used by individuals to prepare a strategy to achieve their own personal goals as well.

Components of an action plan include

• A well-defined description of the goal to be achieved
• Tasks/ steps that need to be carried out to reach the goal
• People who will be in charge of carrying out each task
• When will these tasks be completed (deadlines and milestones)
• Resources needed to complete the tasks
• Measures to evaluate progress

What’s great about having everything listed down on one location is that it makes it easier to track progress and effectively plan things out.

An action plan is not something set in stone. As your organization grows, and surrounding circumstances change, you will have to revisit and make adjustments to meet the latest needs.

Sometimes businesses don’t spend much time on developing an action plan before an initiative, which, in most cases, leads to failure. If you haven’t heard, “failing to plan is planning to fail” said Benjamin Franklin supposedly once.

Planning helps you prepare for the obstacles ahead and keep you on track. And with an effective action plan, you can boost your productivity and keep yourself focused.  

Here are some benefits of an action plan you should know;

• It gives you a clear direction. As an action plan highlights exactly what steps to be taken and when they should be completed, you will know exactly what you need to do.
• Having your goals written down and planned out in steps will give you a reason to stay motivated and committed throughout the project.  
• With an action plan, you can track your progress toward your goal.
• Since you are listing down all the steps you need to complete in your action plan, it will help you prioritize your tasks based on effort and impact.

From the looks of it, creating an action plan seems fairly easy. But there are several important steps you need to follow with caution in order to get the best out of it. Here’s how to write an action plan explained in 6 easy steps.

Step 1: Define your end goal

If you are not clear about what you want to do and what you want to achieve, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Planning a new initiative? Start by defining where you are and where you want to be.

Solving a problem? Analyze the situation and explore possible solutions before prioritizing them.

Then write down your goal. And before you move on to the next step, run your goal through the SMART criteria . Or in other words, make sure that it is

• Specific – well-defined and clear
• Measurable – include measurable indicators to track progress  
• Attainable – realistic and achievable within the resources, time, money, experience, etc. you have
• Relevant – align with your other goals
• Timely – has a finishing date

Use this SMART goal worksheet to simplify this process. Share it with others to get their input as well.  

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

And refer to our easy guide to the goal-setting process to learn more about setting and planning your goals.

Step 2: List down the steps to be followed

The goal is clear. What exactly should you do to realize it?

Create a rough template to list down all the tasks to be performed, due dates and people responsible.

It’s important that you make sure that the entire team is involved in this process and has access to the document. This way everyone will be aware of their roles and responsibilities in the project.

Make sure that each task is clearly defined and is attainable. If you come across larger and more complex tasks, break them down to smaller ones that are easier to execute and manage.

Tips: Use a RACI Matrix template to clarify project roles and responsibilities, and plan projects

Step 3: Prioritize tasks and add deadlines

It’s time to reorganize the list by prioritizing the tasks . Some steps, you may need to prioritize as they can be blocking other sub-steps.

Add deadlines, and make sure that they are realistic. Consult with the person responsible for carrying it out to understand his or her capacity before deciding on deadlines.

Step 4: Set milestones

Milestones can be considered mini goals leading up to the main goal at the end. The advantage of adding milestones is that they give the team members to look forward to something and help them stay motivated even though the final due date is far away.

Start from the end goal and work your way back as you set milestones . Remember not to keep too little or too much time in between the milestone you set. It’s a best practice to space milestones two weeks apart.  

Step 5: Identify the resources needed

Before you start your project, it’s crucial to ensure that you have all the necessary resources at hand to complete the tasks. And if they are not currently available, you need to first make a plan to acquire them.

This should also include your budget. You can assign a column of your action plan to mark the cost of each task if there are any.  

Step 6: Visualize your action plan

The point of this step is to create something that everyone can understand at a glance and that can be shared with everyone.

Whether your action plan comes in the shape of a flowchart , Gantt chart , or table , make sure that it clearly communicates the elements we have identified so far – tasks, task owners, deadlines, resources, etc.

This document should be easily accessible to everyone and should be editable.

Step 7: Monitor, evaluate and update

Allocate some time to evaluate the progress you’ve made with your team.

You can mark tasks that are completed as done on this final action plan, bringing attention to how you’ve progressed toward the goal.

This will also bring out the tasks that are pending or delayed, in which case you need to figure out why and find suitable solutions. And then update the action plan accordingly.

Business action plan

You may like to read: The Easy Guide to Making a Business Plan for Presentations

Marketing action plan

Strategic action plan, corrective action plan template.

Learn more about: Corrective Action Plan template .

Additional resources: The Easy Guide to Creating a Business Contingency Plan

Simple action plan template

Any more tips on creating an action plan.

An action plan is designed to guide your way to accomplishing your goals. It turns your vision into actionable goals and steps. And it helps you stay focused and motivated.

From an individual employee in an organization to larger departments can make use of action plans to steer their way towards completing their goals.

Maybe you are about to create your very first action plan, or you are already a pro at writing them. Either way, we’d like to hear your opinions on how to write an action plan. Do share them with us in the comments section below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs About Action Plan

Lack of clarity on goals: Make sure the team understands the goals and objectives of the action plan. The goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Unclear responsibilities: Assign clear roles and responsibilities for each team member to avoid confusion and ensure accountability.

Overcomplicating the plan: Keep the action plan simple and easy to understand. Avoid adding unnecessary complexity or detail that may confuse the team.

Failure to prioritize tasks: Prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. This will ensure that the team focuses on the most critical tasks first.

Inadequate resources: Ensure that the team has access to the necessary resources such as time, budget, and equipment, to carry out the action plan successfully.

Lack of communication: Effective communication is crucial to the success of any action plan. Ensure that team members are regularly updated on progress and any changes to the plan.

Failure to monitor progress: Regularly monitor progress and adjust the action plan as needed to ensure that it stays on track and achieves its goals.

Strategic action plan: This type of plan outlines the long-term goals and objectives of an organization, and the actions that will be taken to achieve them. It typically covers a period of several years and includes high-level strategies and initiatives.

Operational action plan: This plan focuses on the day-to-day operations of an organization, outlining the actions that will be taken to achieve short-term goals and objectives. It typically covers a period of one year or less and includes specific actions and timelines.

Project action plan: This type of plan is used for individual projects and outlines the actions that will be taken to achieve specific project goals and objectives. It includes a detailed breakdown of tasks, timelines, and responsibilities.

Sales action plan: This plan focuses on the actions that will be taken to increase sales and revenue. It includes specific strategies for marketing, sales, and customer service.

Marketing action plan: This plan outlines the actions that will be taken to promote a product or service and increase brand awareness. It includes strategies for advertising, social media, public relations, and other marketing initiatives.

Crisis management action plan: This type of plan outlines the actions that will be taken in the event of a crisis, such as a natural disaster or security breach. It includes specific protocols for communication, evacuation, and other emergency procedures.

An action plan can be used by anyone who wants to achieve specific goals or objectives. It is a useful tool for individuals, teams, and organizations in a variety of contexts. Here are some examples:

Individuals: An individual can use an action plan to achieve personal goals such as losing weight, completing a degree, or starting a business.

Teams: A team can use an action plan to achieve goals related to a specific project or initiative. For example, a marketing team may use an action plan to launch a new product.

Small businesses: Small businesses can use an action plan to achieve goals related to sales, marketing, operations, or finance.

Non-profit organizations: Non-profit organizations can use an action plan to achieve goals related to fundraising, volunteer recruitment, or program implementation.

Government agencies: Government agencies can use an action plan to achieve goals related to policy implementation, disaster response, or public safety.

Educational institutions: Educational institutions can use an action plan to achieve goals related to improving student outcomes, increasing enrollment, or expanding programs.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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How to Write an Action Plan (Example Included)

What Is an Action Plan?

In project management, an action plan is a document that lists the action steps needed to achieve project goals and objectives. Therefore, an action plan clarifies what resources you’ll need to reach those goals, makes a timeline for the tasks or action items and determines what team members you’ll need. We’ll define what project goals, project objectives, action items and action steps are later in this guide.

An action plan documents the execution of the project plan; it’s a detailed list of the work that must be done to complete the project goals, including the action steps that are involved in getting from the start of the project to the finish. An action plan is similar to a project implementation plan and it’s very helpful during the project planning and project execution phases.

Not only are you figuring out the action steps and timeline, but you’ll also determine who you’ll assemble for your project team to work on those tasks. This requires robust project management software like ProjectManager . ProjectManager offers multiple action planning tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, project calendars and more. Best of all, these project planning views sync with project dashboards, timesheets and workload charts to keep track of progress, project resources and costs.

Action Plan Components

An action plan answers the who, what and when of what you’re proposing. Those questions are answered by the various components that make up an action plan. The following are the basic building blocks of a successful action plan.

• Action Plan Steps: The action plan steps are the answer to the question of what. They’re the activities that’ll lead to achieving your goal. Action plan steps detail what will happen, and the more detail, the better.
• Action Items: The action items are the specific, small tasks that make up the action plan steps. These are the tasks that, when executed, lead to the next action plan step.
• Action Plan Timeline: An action plan timeline is the whole action plan laid out from start to finish. It shows the full duration of the action plan and every step and task is also plotted on this timeline, including their start and end dates.
• Action Plan Resources: Resources are anything needed to execute the action plan. That includes labor, materials, equipment, etc. You’ll want to identify the resources you’ll need for the action plan and attach them to the tasks to which they’ll be applied.
• Action Plan Matrix: A matrix is just a tool to help you determine which tasks you need to complete and in what order. Use our free action plan template to outline the steps, items, timeline and resources you’ll need to get the plan done right.
• Action Plan Report: Once you start to execute the action plan, you’ll need to ensure your actual progress matches your planned progress. To track progress, you’ll want to use an action plan report, which is a snapshot of your time, costs and more over a specific period.

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Action Plan Template

Use this free Action Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.

Types of Action Plans

There are many different types of action plans that are used on various kinds of strategic initiatives. Each is similar in makeup but differs in their goals. Here are a few of the varieties of action plans.

Business Action Plan

A business action plan is used to set goals and tasks when you want to start a business or grow an existing business. It outlines the vision for the business and the actions you’ll take to achieve that vision.

Project Action Plan

An action plan for a project is really no different from a general action plan. The only difference is that it’s about producing a deliverable at the end of the plan, whether that be a product or service.

Personal Action Plan

Again, a personal action plan differs little from any other action plan except for the goal. For example, a personal action plan might be for an individual to exercise more. Therefore, the goal might be to walk for a half-hour a day, say, during lunchtime.

Action Plan Sample

Take a look at this sample of an action plan. We used our free action plan template for Excel  and filled out some potential marketing tasks, phases and assignees. Download this action plan template for free from our site, and get started on your own plan today.

How to Write an Action Plan for Project Management in 10 Steps

The benefits of an action plan are simple: you’ve now outlined what action steps and what resources are needed to reach your stated project goals. By having this collected in a single project management document, you can more successfully plan out how to execute your project plan.

People get overwhelmed by project management jargon when having to plan out a project, but the word “action” everyone can understand. The fundamentals to getting an action plan together for any project follow these four project planning basic steps:

1. Define Your Project Goals

There’s a difference between project goals and project objectives. Project goals refer to the high-level goals that the project will achieve. Those generally align with the strategic planning and business objectives of organizations.

2. Define Your Project Objectives

The project objectives are much more specific than the project goals. Project objectives refer to the deliverables and milestones that need to be completed to achieve your project goals.

3. Define Action Steps

The action steps are a group of related tasks or action items that must be executed to produce project deliverables.

4. Identify and Prioritize Action Items

Action items are small, individual tasks that make up the action steps that are outlined in your action plan. First, you need to identify task dependencies among them, and then assign those action items a priority level so that they’re executed sequentially.

5. Define Roles & Responsibilities

Now that you’ve divided the work required to accomplish your action plan, you’ll need to assign action items to your project team members and define their roles and responsibilities.

6. Allocate Resources

As with your project plan, your action plan has resource requirements. Having identified your action steps and action items will help you understand what resources are needed for each task and allocate them accordingly.

7. Set SMART Goals

Your action plan needs to be monitored and controlled to measure its performance. That’s why it’s important that you set SMART goals for your action items, action steps and your project objectives. SMART goals stand for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

8. Set a Timeline for Your Action Plan

As a project manager, you’ll need to do your best to estimate how long it’ll take to complete your action items and action steps. Once you do so, you’ll have a timeline. You can use project management techniques like PERT charts or the critical path method to better estimate the duration of your project action plan.

9. Write an Action Plan Template

Create or use a simple action plan template to collect tasks, deadlines and assignments. This is the place where everything task-related goes in your project action plan, so you have a place for all this crucial information.

Writing an action plan template it’s a great idea because you’ll need to use that format throughout the project. That’s why we’ve created a free action plan template that you can download. There are also dozens of other free project management templates for Excel and Word that can help you with every phase of your project.

10. Use a Project Management Tool

Use a project management tool to keep you on task. ProjectManager has project planning features that help you monitor and report on project progress and performance. Get a high-level view of the action plan with our live dashboards. Unlike other tools, we don’t make you set up the dashboard.

Once you’ve mapped out your action plan, you can use project planning tools to zoom into all the details about your action steps and action items. With ProjectManager, you can calculate various metrics, such as project variance, workload and more. They’re displayed in easy-to-read charts and graphs. Share them with stakeholders to give them updates on action steps whenever they want.

Tips to Write an Action Plan

Once you have an action plan, how do you work with it to run a successful project? Here are some tips to help with implementing your action plan:

• Focus on priorities and what’s due now when identifying action steps and setting your action plan timeline
• When you complete action steps, mark them off
• Have your team members work on one project management platform
• Set up alerts
• Discuss pending or overdue tasks

Action Plan Example

We’ve been talking a lot about an action plan, but let’s take a look at one in-depth. Below, you’ll see our free action plan template . It’s set up for the development of a website.

It’s broken down into phases, the first being the project planning phase , which includes the action steps, market research and the design of the site. You’ll see that tasks are outlined for each action step, including a description of that task, who’s assigned to execute it, the priority and even the status of its completion.

This is followed by the third action step, which is the launch of the site. This is the execution phase of the action plan, but it follows the same format, such as noting the priority, who’s responsible for the work, what that work is and its status.

There’s also a timeline to define the start dates of each of the tasks in the action steps, including the planned hours. This allows you to determine the length of each task and the duration of the entire action plan, from start to finish.

Finally, there’s a place to add your resources. They’re broken down into departments, for example, marketing, web development, etc. Then the materials that are required for each task are listed, including their costs. This allows you to estimate the cost of the plan.

How to Make An Action Plan With ProjectManager

Follow along with this action plan example to see how action plans are typically laid out using project planning software .

1. Map Action Plan Steps Using Multiple Project Views

ProjectManager can help you build your action plan and then execute it. Collect all your action steps tasks on our list view, which does more than light-weight to-do list apps because it allows you to then map your action plan with Gantt charts , project calendars and kanban boards. These robust project management tools allow you to prioritize action items, customize tags and show the percentage complete for each task. Our online project management software gives you real-time data to help you create an action plan and stick to it.

2. Assign Action Items to Your Team Members

Once you’ve mapped out your action plan steps with ProjectManager’s project planning tools , you can assign tasks to your team members and indicate what resources are needed for the completion of each action item. Indicate their roles and responsibilities and set priority levels for each task to ensure the work is carried out properly.

3. Set Action Plan Steps and Deliverables

It’s important to note all the phases of the project timeline to know what action steps and tasks will take place and when. In addition, ProjectManager’s Gantt chart allows you to identify project phases, find the critical path, and set due dates for project milestones and deliverables

4. Track Progress With Real-Time Dashboards

Once you start the project, you’ll need to chart the progress of the work being done. This leads us to the real-time project dashboard , where you’ll check whether your action plan is on schedule and under budget.

Manage Your Project With an Action Plan

Getting a plan together is only the first part of managing a project . Remember, it’s not something to write and put away, but rather it’s a living document that should follow you throughout the project life cycle. Jennifer Bridges, PMP, offers more tips on how to write an action plan in the video below.

Here’s a screenshot for your reference:

ProjectManager’s Action Planning Tools are Ideal for Managing Action Plans

If you’re looking to make an action plan and then take action on it by executing, monitoring and reporting on a project, then you’ll want ProjectManager. Our online project management software lets you make an action plan online with multiple project planning tools such as Gantt charts, task lists, kanban boards and project calendars. Then, you can use timesheets, project dashboards and resource management tools to keep track of progress, time and costs.

Plan & Schedule With Gantt Charts

ProjectManager’s Gantt chart is ideal to map out your action plan on an interactive project timeline that helps you organize your tasks, link dependencies and set milestones. More than that, you can filter for the critical path. When you’re done scheduling your action steps you can set a baseline. This allows you to always see the planned versus actual progress of your action plan to help you stay on track.

Manage Action Items with Kanban Boards, Task Lists and Project Calendars

Once you’ve used the Gantt chart to create a timeline for your action plan, you can zoom into the nitty-gritty details of everyday work with kanban boards , task lists and project calendars. With these tools, you can assign tasks and give teams a collaborative platform to comment and share relevant documents with unlimited file storage and real-time communication features.

Track Progress, Resources and Costs With Real-Time Action Plan Dashboards

ProjectManager’s real-time action plan dashboards sync with all its project management tools so you can check the status of your action plan at any time. You can check on your team members’ progress to see who’s over or underallocated, check labor costs and track whether your team is on schedule.

ProjectManager gives you all the tools you need to create and implement a successful action plan. Regardless of the type of action plan that you need to create, our award-winning project management software makes it easy to do so. Get started with a free 30-day trial today. 

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• What is 8D? A template for efficient pr ...

What is 8D? A template for efficient problem-solving

How you respond when problems arise is one of the most defining qualities of a manager. Luckily, there are tools you can use to master problem-solving. The 8D method of problem-solving combines teamwork and basic statistics to help you reach a logical solution and prevent new issues from arising.

You’ve spent months overseeing the development of your company's newest project. From initiation, planning, and execution, you’re confident this may be your best work yet.

Until the feedback starts rolling in.

There’s no sugar-coating it—things don’t always go as planned. But production or process issues are hardly a signal to throw in the towel. Instead, focus on honing your problem-solving skills to find a solution that keeps it from happening again. 

The 8D method of problem solving emphasizes the importance of teamwork to not only solve your process woes but prevent new ones from occurring. In this guide, we’ll break down what 8D is, how to use this methodology, and the benefits it can give to you and your team. Plus, get an 8D template to make solving your issue easier. 

What is 8D?

The eight disciplines (8D) method is a problem-solving approach that identifies, corrects, and eliminates recurring problems. By determining the root causes of a problem, managers can use this method to establish a permanent corrective action and prevent recurring issues. 

How do you use the 8D method?

The 8D method is a proven strategy for avoiding long-term damage from recurring problems. If you’re noticing issues in your workflow or processes, then it’s a good time to give this problem-solving method a try. 

To complete an 8D analysis, follow “the eight disciplines” to construct a statistical analysis of the problem and determine the best solution.

The eight disciplines of problem-solving

8D stands for the eight disciplines you will use to establish an 8D report. As you may notice, this outline starts with zero, which makes nine total disciplines. The “zero stage” was developed later as an initial planning stage. 

To illustrate these steps, imagine your organization experienced a decline in team innovation and productivity this past year. Your stakeholders have noticed and want to see changes implemented within the next six months. Below, we’ll use the 8D process to uncover a morale-boosting solution.

D0: Prepare and plan

Before starting the problem-solving process, evaluate the problem you want to solve. Understanding the background of the problem will help you identify the root cause in later steps. 

Collect information about how the problem has affected a process or product and what the most severe consequences may be. Planning can include:

Gathering data

Determining the prerequisites for solving the problem

Collecting feedback from others involved

If we look back at our example, you may want to figure out whether this decline in morale is organization-wide or only applies to a few departments. Consider interviewing a few employees from different departments and levels of management to gain some perspective. Next, determine what knowledge and skills you will need to solve this lapse in productivity. 

D1: Form your team

Create a cross-functional team made up of people who have knowledge of the various products and workflows involved. These team members should have the skills needed to solve the problem and put corrective actions in place. 

Steps in this discipline may include:

Appointing a team leader

Developing and implementing team guidelines

Determining team goals and priorities

Assigning individual roles

Arranging team-building activities

From our example, a solid team would consist of people with first-hand experience with the issues—like representatives from all departments and key people close to workshop-level work. You may also want to pull someone in from your HR department to help design and implement a solution. Most importantly, make sure the people you choose want to be involved and contribute to the solution.

D2: Identify the problem

You may have a good understanding of your problem by now, but this phase aims to break it down into clear and quantifiable terms by identifying the five W’s a and two H’s (5W2H):

Who first reported the problem?

What is the problem about?

When did it occur and how often?

Where did it occur (relating to the sector, supplier, machine, or production line involved)?

Why is solving the problem important?

How was the problem first detected?

How many parts/units/customers are affected?

Use your team’s insights to answer these questions. From our example, your team may conclude that: 

Employees feel overwhelmed with their current workload. 

There is no real structure or opportunity to share new ideas.

Managers have had no training for meetings or innovation settings.

Disgruntled employees know they can achieve more—and want to achieve more—even if they seem disengaged.

Once you answer these questions, record an official problem statement to describe the issue. If possible, include photos, videos, and diagrams to ensure all parties have a clear understanding of the problem. It may also help to create a flowchart of the process that includes various steps related to the problem description.

D3: Develop an interim containment plan

Much like we can expect speedy first aid after an accident, your team should take immediate actions to ensure you contain the problem—especially if the problem is related to customer safety. 

An interim containment plan will provide a temporary solution to isolate the problem from customers and clients while your team works to develop a permanent corrective action. This band-aid will help keep your customers informed and safe—and your reputation intact.

Because your findings revealed workers were overworked and managers lacked training, your team suggests scheduling a few mandatory training sessions for leaders of each department covering time and stress management and combating burnout . You may also want to have a presentation outlining the topics of this training to get key managers and stakeholders interested and primed for positive upcoming changes. 

D4: Verify root causes and escape points

Refer back to your findings and consult with your team about how the problem may have occurred. The root cause analysis involves mapping each potential root cause against the problem statement and its related test data. Make sure to test all potential causes—fuzzy brainstorming and sloppy analyses may cause you to overlook vital information. 

In our example, focus on the “why” portion of the 5W2H. You and your team identify six root causes:

Managers have never had any training

There is a lack of trust and psychological safety

Employees don’t understand the objectives and goals

Communication is poor

Time management is poor

Employees lack confidence

In addition to identifying the root causes, try to pinpoint where you first detected the problem in the process, and why it went unnoticed. This is called the escape point, and there may be more than one. 

D5: Choose permanent corrective actions

Work with your team to determine the most likely solution to remove the root cause of the problem and address the issues with the escape points. Quantitatively confirm that the selected permanent corrective action(s) (PCA) will resolve the problem for the customer. 

Steps to choosing a PCA may include:

Determining if you require further expertise

Ensuring the 5W2Hs are defined correctly

Carrying out a decision analysis and risk assessment

Considering alternative measures

Collecting evidence to prove the PCA will be effective

Your team decides to roll out the training used in the interim plan to all employees, with monthly company-wide workshops on improving well-being. You also plan to implement meetings, innovation sessions, and team-coaching training for managers. Lastly, you suggest adopting software to improve communication and collaboration. 

D6: Implement your corrective actions

Once all parties have agreed on a solution, the next step is to create an action plan to remove the root causes and escape points. Once the solution is in effect, you can remove your interim containment actions.

After seeing success with the training in the interim phase, your stakeholders approve all of your team’s proposed PCAs. Your representative from HR also plans to implement periodic employee wellness checks to track employee morale .

To ensure your corrective action was a success, monitor the results, customer, or employee feedback over a long period of time and take note of any negative effects. Setting up “controls” like employee wellness checks will help you validate whether your solution is working or more needs to be done. 

D7: Take preventive measures

One of the main benefits of using the 8D method is the improved ability to identify necessary systematic changes to prevent future issues from occurring. Look for ways to improve your management systems, operating methods, and procedures to not only eliminate your current problem, but stop similar problems from developing later on.

Based on our example, the training your team suggested is now adopted in the new manager onboarding curriculum. Every manager now has a “meeting system” that all meetings must be guided by, and workloads and projects are managed as a team within your new collaboration software . Innovation is improving, and morale is at an all-time high!

D8: Celebrate with your team

The 8D method of problem-solving is impossible to accomplish without dedicated team members and first-class collaboration. Once notes, lessons, research, and test data are documented and saved, congratulate your teammates on a job well done! Make an effort to recognize each individual for their contribution to uncovering a successful solution.

8D report template and example

Check out our 8D report template below to help you record your findings as you navigate through the eight disciplines of problem solving. This is a formal report that can be used as a means of communication within companies, which makes for transparent problem-solving that you can apply to the entire production or process chain.

Benefits of using the 8D method

The 8D method is one of the most popular problem-solving strategies for good reason. Its strength lies in teamwork and fact-based analyses to create a culture of continuous improvement —making it one of the most effective tools for quality managers. The benefits of using the 8D method include: 

Improved team-oriented problem-solving skills rather than relying on an individual to provide a solution

Increased familiarity with a problem-solving structure

A better understanding of how to use basic statistical tools for problem-solving

Open and honest communication in problem-solving discussions

Prevent future problems from occurring by identifying system weaknesses and solutions

Improved effectiveness and efficiency at problem-solving

Better collaboration = better problem solving

No matter how good a manager you are, production and process issues are inevitable. It’s how you solve them that separates the good from the great. The 8D method of problem solving allows you to not only solve the problem at hand but improve team collaboration, improve processes, and prevent future issues from arising. 

Try Asana’s project management tool to break communication barriers and keep your team on track.

Related resources

Critical path method: How to use CPM for project management

15 project management interview questions, answers, and tips

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to drive product development

Master the 7-Step Problem-Solving Process for Better Decision-Making

Discover the powerful 7-Step Problem-Solving Process to make better decisions and achieve better outcomes. Master the art of problem-solving in this comprehensive guide. Download the Free PowerPoint and PDF Template.

StrategyPunk

Introduction

Mastering the art of problem-solving is crucial for making better decisions. Whether you're a student, a business owner, or an employee, problem-solving skills can help you tackle complex issues and find practical solutions. The 7-Step Problem-Solving Process is a proven method that can help you approach problems systematically and efficiently.

The 7-Step Problem-Solving Process involves steps that guide you through the problem-solving process. The first step is to define the problem, followed by disaggregating the problem into smaller, more manageable parts. Next, you prioritize the features and create a work plan to address each. Then, you analyze each piece, synthesize the information, and communicate your findings to others.

By following this process, you can avoid jumping to conclusions, overlooking important details, or making hasty decisions. Instead, you can approach problems with a clear and structured mindset, which can help you make better decisions and achieve better outcomes.

In this article, we'll explore each step of the 7-Step Problem-Solving Process in detail so you can start mastering this valuable skill. You can download the process's free PowerPoint and PDF templates at the end of the blog post .

Step 1: Define the Problem

The first step in the problem-solving process is to define the problem. This step is crucial because finding a solution is only accessible if the problem is clearly defined. The problem must be specific, measurable, and achievable.

One way to define the problem is to ask the right questions. Questions like "What is the problem?" and "What are the causes of the problem?" can help. Gathering data and information about the issue to assist in the definition process is also essential.

Another critical aspect of defining the problem is identifying the stakeholders. Who is affected by it? Who has a stake in finding a solution? Identifying the stakeholders can help ensure that the problem is defined in a way that considers the needs and concerns of all those affected by it.

Once the problem is defined, it is essential to communicate the definition to all stakeholders. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that there is a shared understanding of the problem.

Step 2: Disaggregate

After defining the problem, the next step in the 7-step problem-solving process is to disaggregate the problem into smaller, more manageable parts. Disaggregation helps break down the problem into smaller pieces that can be analyzed individually. This step is crucial in understanding the root cause of the problem and identifying the most effective solutions.

Disaggregation can be achieved by breaking down the problem into sub-problems, identifying the contributing factors, and analyzing the relationships between these factors. This step helps identify the most critical factors that must be addressed to solve the problem.

A tree or fishbone diagram is one effective way to disaggregate a problem. These diagrams help identify the different factors contributing to the problem and how they are related. Another way is to use a table to list the other factors contributing to the situation and their corresponding impact on the issue.

Disaggregation helps in breaking down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts. It helps understand the relationships between different factors contributing to the problem and identify the most critical factors that must be addressed. By disaggregating the problem, decision-makers can focus on the most vital areas, leading to more effective solutions.

Step 3: Prioritize

After defining the problem and disaggregating it into smaller parts, the next step in the 7-step problem-solving process is prioritizing the issues that need addressing. Prioritizing helps to focus on the most pressing issues and allocate resources more effectively.

There are several ways to prioritize issues, including:

• Urgency: Prioritize issues based on their urgency. Problems that require immediate attention should be addressed first.
• Impact: Prioritize issues based on their impact on the organization or stakeholders. Problems with a high impact should be given priority.
• Resources: Prioritize issues based on the resources required to address them. Problems that require fewer resources should be dealt with first.

Considering their concerns and needs, it is important to involve stakeholders in the prioritization process. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or other forms of engagement.

Once the issues have been prioritized, developing a plan of action to address them is essential. This involves identifying the resources required, setting timelines, and assigning responsibilities.

Prioritizing issues is a critical step in problem-solving. By focusing on the most pressing problems, organizations can allocate resources more effectively and make better decisions.

Step 4: Workplan

After defining the problem, disaggregating, and prioritizing the issues, the next step in the 7-step problem-solving process is to develop a work plan. This step involves creating a roadmap that outlines the steps needed to solve the problem.

The work plan should include a list of tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities for each team member involved in the problem-solving process. Assigning tasks based on each team member's strengths and expertise ensures the work is completed efficiently and effectively.

Creating a work plan can help keep the team on track and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. It can also help to identify potential roadblocks or challenges that may arise during the problem-solving process and develop contingency plans to address them.

Several tools and techniques can be used to develop a work plan, including Gantt charts, flowcharts, and mind maps. These tools can help to visualize the steps needed to solve the problem and identify dependencies between tasks.

Developing a work plan is a critical step in the problem-solving process. It provides a clear roadmap for solving the problem and ensures everyone involved is aligned and working towards the same goal.

Step 5: Analysis

Once the problem has been defined and disaggregated, the next step is to analyze the information gathered. This step involves examining the data, identifying patterns, and determining the root cause of the problem.

Several methods can be used during the analysis phase, including:

• Root cause analysis
• Pareto analysis
• SWOT analysis

Root cause analysis is a popular method used to identify the underlying cause of a problem. This method involves asking a series of "why" questions to get to the root cause of the issue.

Pareto analysis is another method that can be used during the analysis phase. This method involves identifying the 20% of causes responsible for 80% of the problems. By focusing on these critical causes, organizations can make significant improvements.

Finally, SWOT analysis is a valuable tool for analyzing the internal and external factors that may impact the problem. This method involves identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the issue.

Overall, the analysis phase is critical for identifying the root cause of the problem and developing practical solutions. Organizations can gain a deeper understanding of the issue and make informed decisions by using a combination of methods.

Step 6: Synthesize

Once the analysis phase is complete, it is time to synthesize the information gathered to arrive at a solution. During this step, the focus is on identifying the most viable solution that addresses the problem. This involves examining and combining the analysis results for a clear and concise conclusion.

One way to synthesize the information is to use a decision matrix. This involves creating a table that lists the potential solutions and the essential criteria for making a decision. Each answer is then rated against each standard, and the scores are tallied to arrive at a final decision.

Another approach to synthesizing the information is to use a mind map. This involves creating a visual representation of the problem and the potential solutions. The mind map can identify the relationships between the different pieces of information and help prioritize the solutions.

During the synthesis phase, remaining open-minded and considering all potential solutions is vital. To ensure everyone's perspectives are considered, it is also essential to involve all stakeholders in the decision-making process.

Step 7: Communicate

After synthesizing the information, the next step is communicating the findings to the relevant stakeholders. This is a crucial step because it helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the decision-making process is transparent.

One effective way to communicate the findings is through a well-organized report. The report should include the problem statement, the analysis, the synthesis, and the recommended solution. It should be clear, concise, and easy to understand.

In addition to the report, a presentation explaining the findings is essential. The presentation should be tailored to the audience and highlight the report's key points. Visual aids such as tables, graphs, and charts can make the presentation more engaging.

During the presentation, it is essential to be open to feedback and questions from the audience. This helps ensure everyone agrees with the recommended solution and addresses concerns or objections.

Effective communication is vital to ensuring the decision-making process is successful. Stakeholders can make informed decisions and work towards a common goal by communicating the findings clearly and concisely.

The 7-step problem-solving process is a powerful tool for helping individuals and organizations make better decisions. By following these steps, individuals can identify the root cause of a problem, prioritize potential solutions, and develop a clear plan of action. This process can be applied to various scenarios, from personal challenges to complex business problems.

Through disaggregation, individuals can break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts. By prioritizing potential solutions, individuals can focus their efforts on the most impactful actions. The work step allows individuals to develop a clear action plan, while the analysis step provides a framework for evaluating possible solutions.

The synthesis step combines all the information gathered to develop a comprehensive solution. Finally, the communication step allows individuals to share their answers with others and gather feedback.

By mastering the 7-step problem-solving process, individuals can become more effective decision-makers and problem-solvers. This process can help individuals and organizations save time and resources while improving outcomes. With practice, individuals can develop the skills to apply this process to a wide range of scenarios and make better decisions in all areas of life.

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The 7-Step Problem-Solving Process is a robust and systematic method to help individuals and organizations make better decisions by tackling complex issues and finding practical solutions. This process comprises defining the problem, disaggregating it into smaller parts, prioritizing the issues, creating a work plan, analyzing the data, synthesizing the information, and communicating the findings.

By following these steps, individuals can identify the root cause of a problem, break it down into manageable components, and prioritize the most impactful actions. The work plan, analysis, and synthesis steps provide a framework for developing comprehensive solutions, while the communication step ensures transparency and stakeholder engagement.

Mastering this process can improve decision-making and problem-solving capabilities, save time and resources, and improve outcomes in personal and professional contexts.

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Six Steps Demystified

The six-step approach offers a framework for creative problem solving. Although each step is critical, it is important that participants don't forget that conducting RESEARCH on a topic sets up a strong foundation. Being knowledgeable about a topic allows for better understanding of the bigger picture and is a key part of identifying problems as well as generating solutions. Successful problem solvers always have conducted research on the topic.

There are two essential Pre-Steps before starting the six-step process.

Research the topic

Read and analyze the future scene

Underlying Problem

Evaluate Solutions

Action Plan

Develop an Action Plan

The solution idea (which receives the highest total from STEP 5) is described in detail within the action plan. Develop your action plan by relating the idea back to the U.P. Demonstrate how your action plan will achieve what you set out to accomplish in STEP 2 (the KVP and Purpose).

Tips: 

Explain in detail the  who, what, how why, where,  and  when  of your action plan. Who will carry out the plan or be involved? What will be done to solve the problem? When will the results begin and will it continue? Where will the plan be implemented? Why will this idea positively impact the future scene? How will the action plan be carried out? How does it positively impact the U.P.? 

New facts to your action plan may be added, as long as each addition represents a subpart of your action plan.

Sample Format:  One approach might be to write five complete paragraphs in elaboration of your action plan.

 An overview of the plans steps and stages of implementation ( Who  and  What ).

Discuss the reasons or logic behind the solution being the best choice ( Why  and  How  the plan solves every aspect of the U.P.).

Discuss potential roadblocks or challenges that will likely confront this action plan, along with ideas or actions for overcoming these obstacles.

Highlight the strengths which Action Plan possess.

Underscore the many positive impacts that the action plan will provide to the whole situation described in the future scene. Provide a justification ( Why  and How ) for each positive impact and benefit derived from the implementation of the action plan.

Produce Solution Ideas to the Underlying Problem

Solutions are detailed plans to solve all aspects of the team’s U.P.

Elaborate by indicating  WHO  will implement the solution idea,  WHAT  will be done,  HOW  the solution idea will work, and  WHY  the solution idea will solve the KVP and Purpose of the U.P.

Elements of the future should be incorporated within these action proposals by utilizing new or special technologies, methods, or procedures that would be effective.

Solution ideas are to be stated as definite proposals (e.g. "will").

Incorporate futuristic aspects in your writing of the solution idea.

Attempt to produce solutions for every relevant category of thought for the future scene as possible.

Generate and Select Criteria to Evaluate Solution Ideas

Brainstorm criteria that question the creative potential and importance of solution ideas. Create criteria which will measure the comparative quality (relevance and/or validity) of your STEP 3 solutions.

Only identify one concern/dimension with each criterion. Avoid the use of "and" in a criterion.

It is helpful to include  superlatives words (e.g. least, most, greatest, fewest, etc.).

You can create advanced criteria by considering various aspects of the future scene or your U.P. (KVP or Purpose) within a criterion.

Include the phrase, "which solution will" and phrase each in the form of a question.

Identify Challenges Related to the Topic or Future Scene

Challenges note important concerns, problems, issues, or challenges that have a strong possibility of occurring within the future scene. 

Written in statement form.

Stated in terms of possibility (e.g. may, could, might).

Must have relation to the future scene by containing terms or phrases that describe the topic, place, and/or individuals detailed in the future scene.

Challenges may either cause the future scene or result from the future scene.

Explain WHAT the challenge is, WHY it is a challenge, and HOW it relates to the future scene.

Phrase your challenges as cause and effect logic statements.

Attempt to find as many challenges as you can for every relevant category of thought for the future scene (about 12 categories should be your goal).

Incorporate ideas or concepts found during your research when writing the selected challenges from your group’s brainstorming whenever possible.

Select an Underlying Problem

The Underlying Problem (U.P.) is a statement of the most important challenge identified in STEP 1. The selected challenge, if solved, might solve many of the other challenges identified in the Future Scene. A challenge causing other concerns to occur in the scenario is much preferred as the U.P. rather than a challenge resulting from the future scene’s situation.

How To Structure A U.P.:   A U.P. should be stated in one question containing the following five basic components.

Condition Phrase: A beginning sentence that describes the most significant challenge selected from STEP 1 that may be causing many other challenges in the future scene. The conditions should describe an effect and a cause arising from the future scene. The conditions are the impetus for the area of concern that the team has chosen for their solution finding. Since and due to (or because) could be a format used to write the condition phrase.

Stem: Phrased as "How might we" or "In what ways might we"

Key Verb Phrase (KVP): One main verb which is active, descriptive, and clear which describes the action that must be done to solve the problem.

Purpose: The what you aim to accomplish by doing the Key Verb Phrase.

Future Scene Parameters (FSP): The geographic location, time, and topic described within the future scene.

The U.P. should address only one issue (one action in the KVP and one goal in the Purpose).

The action stated in your KVP should be clear and the goal or outcome described in your Purpose should be measurable.

Evaluate Solution Ideas to Determine the Better Action Plan

Select your 8 most promising solution ideas and list them in the 8 solution idea blanks of the grid. If you have fewer than 8, list them all. Rank order your solution ideas from 8 (best) to 1 (least effective) relative to each criterion from STEP 4. Ensure that you use each number between 8 and 1 only once in each vertical column. Sum the ratings across the grid to total the ranks given to each solution. The solution with the highest total rank is the solution used to develop your action plan in STEP 6.

It is always helpful to familiarize yourself with the six steps by looking at the full blank booklet and understanding how evaluators review each step through the GIPS Evaluation Scoresheet which can also be found under at the Virtual Center . 

The GIPS Key Tips packet found under at the Virtual Center offers more in-depth explanation of each step. If you have any questions about the six steps never hesitate to reach out to our Evaluation Director, so we can offer more insight. Always remember to review the evaluators' scoresheet after each submission and read the feedback which can offer advice on how to further improve.

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How To Create An Action Plan - With Examples And Free Templates

Creating an effective action plan is a critical component of any successful project or goal. An action plan clearly outlines the specific steps and resources required to achieve objectives within a certain timeframe. Following a well-developed action plan keeps team members motivated and focused on collectively working towards shared goals.

This comprehensive guide provides everything you need to know about crafting an action plan template that will set your project up for success. Read on to learn what an action plan is, why you need one, how to write an action plan, and access free downloadable action plan templates.

What Is An Action Plan and Why Do You Need One?

An action plan is a detailed plan templates that outlines the specific steps needed to reach a goal or complete a project. It is a roadmap that lays out the tasks and resources required for successful execution.

An effective action plan typically includes the following components:

Goal Statement - A summary of the overall objective or desired outcome.

Action Steps - The tangible and measurable activities that must be completed to move the project forward. These action steps will make up your detailed list of tasks.

Owners - The people who will be responsible for completing each action step. Team members will be assigned to action items.

Due Dates - The timeframe or deadlines for finishing each action step. You will need to include due dates for each task.

Resources - The people, budget, equipment, etc. needed to execute on each activity. These resources needed will be outlined.

Metrics - Clear success metrics to track progress towards completion. You will need to define metrics to measure progress.

Without an action plan, projects can quickly become disjointed and team members may be unsure of their stakeholder responsibilities. An action plan brings enhanced clarity, organization, accountability, and focus to your goals.

There are many benefits of taking the time to develop a detailed action plan:

Communicates goal - The action plan provides a clear statement of the end goal or desired outcome for stakeholders.

Defines roles - By assigning owners, team member responsibilities are clarified upfront. You will assign responsibilities.

Budgets resources - Resources needs are outlined so adequate budget and support can be allocated. The resources required will be documented.

Provides timeline - Due dates create a sense of urgency and keeps things on schedule. Dates will drive urgency.

Measures progress - Key quantifiable metrics offer the ability to monitor progress toward success. You will track progress.

Identifies risks - Potential obstacles can be anticipated and mitigated through detailed planning.

Optimizes efficiency - Careful coordination of action steps maximizes productivity. Your plan will outline efficiency steps.

Creates accountability - Assigning tasks drives responsibility and follow through. The plan will drive accountability.

In summary, an action plan gives your project direction, alignment, and a roadmap for taking it from idea to successful execution. The time invested in developing the plan pays dividends throughout implementation and completion. Having an action plan is critical.

How To Write An Action Plan

Follow this step-by-step guide when writing an effective action plan:

Step 1: Define the Goal or Project Objective

What is the purpose or desired outcome of this initiative? Write a clear goal statement that sums up what you want to accomplish in 1-2 sentences.

Articulating a crisp, concise goal provides focus and direction for the action plan. It drives all ensuing activities toward a shared end. You need a good goal statement.

Step 2: Break Down the Goal into Action Steps

Identify and document all of the smaller action steps required to reach the bigger goal.

Review what must happen to complete the goal and ask probing questions - What are the milestones along the way? What tasks must be accomplished first, second, third, etc? What resources or inputs are needed to complete each action step?

The action steps will provide a detailed list of tasks and work breakdown structure for the project goal. They form the core of your action plan template.

Step 3: Assign Owners and Due Dates

Identify who will be responsible, involved with, or consulted on each action step. List the people who will be completing or have input on each activity.

You will assign owners to each step which drives accountability by clarifying exactly who will be executing on each component of the plan.

Include specific due dates or timeframes for completion to set schedule expectations. This keeps the plan on track.

Step 4: Identify Resources Required

What resources in terms of people, budget, equipment, or input from others are required to perform each action step outlined?

Resources may include subject matter experts to consult, staff to allocate, tools and systems to leverage, facilities, and budget. Outline every resource required.

This helps plan resource capacity and ensure the project is realistic based on resource availability and constraints. The resources needed will be listed.

Step 5: Define Success Metrics

How will progress and ultimate success of the initiative be measured?

Determine appropriate quantitative metrics that will indicate completion and achievement of milestones.

Metrics provide an objective means to track progress. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Define metrics.

Step 6: Review and Approve the Action Plan

Review the completed draft of the action plan with stakeholders and team members.

Incorporate any feedback into a final version of the document. Secure official sign-off and approval for the plan.

Alignment and buy-in upfront prevents surprises down the road and improves execution success. Get formal approval.

Free Action Plan Templates

Rather than drafting your action plan from scratch, save time by downloading and customizing one of these free templates:

1. Simple Action Plan Template

This streamlined action plan template covers the basic components of an action plan in a Word document that is easy to modify. It provides a simple structure for smaller projects or initiatives.

The template includes sections for:

Action steps 

Owners  

Resources required

Having an action plan template makes it easier to create your plan.

Download this simple action plan template here

2. Detailed Action Plan Template

For larger, more complex projects, this detailed template provides a comprehensive structure for documenting your plan. The thorough template is formatted for clarity in Excel.

Sections include:

Vision statement

Action steps

Resource needs

Risk management

Performance metrics

The detailed template covers everything.

Download this detailed action plan template here

3. Project Action Plan Template

Managing projects requires a structured plan. This template includes dedicated columns for documenting action status and progress to help manage multi-step projects.

The template provides columns for:

Project name & owner 

Action step

Completion date

Download this project action plan template here

4. Business Action Plan Template

For business planning, this template includes sections tailored to developing a business goal action plan. The comprehensive template covers strategic planning, execution, financials, and more.

Executive summary

Objectives 

Keys to success

Target market

Competitor analysis

Marketing strategy

Management team

Financial plan

Download this business action plan template here

5. Corrective Action Plan Template

Use this template to develop an action plan focused on correcting performance gaps or addressing issues requiring improvement. The template drives problem-solving.

Problem statement

Gap analysis

Root cause analysis

Corrective actions 

Verification steps

Download this corrective action plan template here

Examples of Action Plans

Reviewing examples of effective action plans can provide ideas and inspiration as you prepare to write your own plan. Here are a few examples:

Example 1: New Product Launch Action Plan

Goal: Launch new Product X by December 1st.

Action Steps:

Complete product design & specs by August 15

Develop marketing campaign and assets by September 30

Produce product video by October 15

Contact influencers and collaborate on sponsored posts by November 1

Build preliminary order list by November 15

Confirm supply chain/inventory by November 22 

Train sales team on selling Product X by November 24

Activate email nurture program by November 25

Go live with eCommerce promotions by November 30

Celebrate successful launch on December 1st!

Having an organized launch plan is critical for introducing a new product successfully. This example outlines the key steps.

Example 2: Website Redesign Action Plan

Goal: Redesign and launch new company website by March 1st.

Document new site goals, target users, content strategy by January 10

Create sitemap, wireframes by January 15

Write new copy, take photos by January 30

Design visual theme by February 10

Develop page templates and components by February 15

Configure CMS, plugins, forms by February 20

Set up hosting, security, speed optimizations by February 25

Create test environment by February 28

Perform QA testing during February 

Migrate content by March 1

Train team members on CMS by March 10 

Announce launch on March 15!

A detailed website redesign plan is key for a successful launch. This outlines all steps.

Example 3: Expand to New Markets Action Plan

Goal: Expand business operations into 3 new markets by end of 2022.

Research potential new target markets by Q1

Assess competition in shortlisted regions by Q2

Tailor messaging for each new market by Q3

Develop translated marketing materials by Q3

Make necessary product/service adaptations by Q3

Pursue regulatory requirements for new markets by Q3

Identify potential partners/distributors by Q4

Hire local country managers in Q4

Establish local physical footprint in Q4

Launch localized campaigns in Q4

Report on KPIs by region in Q1 2023

Expanding into new markets requires careful planning and phased execution. This plan summarizes the phased approach.

Tips for Creating a Successful Action Plan

Follow these best practices when developing and executing your action plan:

Involve team members early - Those responsible for executing the plan should provide input on its creation. Early involvement improves commitment.

Set realistic due dates - Due dates should challenge the team while being achievable given available resources and competing priorities.

Define specific metrics - Quantifiable, results-focused success metrics keep things objective. Leading and lagging indicators are helpful.

Secure formal sign-off - Make sure all stakeholders and team members formally approve the finalized plan to ensure alignment.

Check in regularly - Consistently monitoring progress against milestones keeps everything on track. Communicate regularly.

Adjust as needed - Review the plan often and adjust action steps as required. Formalize changes through a documented change process.

Communicate progress - Keep stakeholders informed of wins and milestones achieved to build momentum.

Reward success - Recognize individuals and teams for progress made to motivate continued commitment.

Conduct post-project review - After completion, evaluate success, learn lessons, and celebrate the team wins!

Following best practices will lead to better action plans and successful execution.

Conclusion and Summary

An action plan is a roadmap that outlines the discrete, measurable steps required to achieve a goal or successfully deliver a project. The documented plan summarizes the goal, action steps, owners, timeline, resources required, and success metrics.

Benefits provided by developing an action plan include enhanced clarity, alignment, accountability, focus, and ability to measure return on investment. Use the step-by-step guide to craft a plan for your next goal or initiative.

Leverage free downloadable templates to save time in documenting your own action plan tailored to the project. Review examples for inspiration on structuring your plan.

Careful planning, stakeholder buy-in, and consistent execution leads to goal achievement. Involve the team, set realistic milestones, communicate regularly, and correct course as needed in order to turn your action plan into outstanding results!

Interview Questions

Comprehensive Interview Guide: 60+ Professions Explored in Detail

26 Good Examples of Problem Solving (Interview Answers)

By Biron Clark

Published: November 15, 2023

Employers like to hire people who can solve problems and work well under pressure. A job rarely goes 100% according to plan, so hiring managers will be more likely to hire you if you seem like you can handle unexpected challenges while staying calm and logical in your approach.

But how do they measure this?

They’re going to ask you interview questions about these problem solving skills, and they might also look for examples of problem solving on your resume and cover letter. So coming up, I’m going to share a list of examples of problem solving, whether you’re an experienced job seeker or recent graduate.

Then I’ll share sample interview answers to, “Give an example of a time you used logic to solve a problem?”

Problem-Solving Defined

It is the ability to identify the problem, prioritize based on gravity and urgency, analyze the root cause, gather relevant information, develop and evaluate viable solutions, decide on the most effective and logical solution, and plan and execute implementation. 

Problem-solving also involves critical thinking, communication, listening, creativity, research, data gathering, risk assessment, continuous learning, decision-making, and other soft and technical skills.

Solving problems not only prevent losses or damages but also boosts self-confidence and reputation when you successfully execute it. The spotlight shines on you when people see you handle issues with ease and savvy despite the challenges. Your ability and potential to be a future leader that can take on more significant roles and tackle bigger setbacks shine through. Problem-solving is a skill you can master by learning from others and acquiring wisdom from their and your own experiences. 

It takes a village to come up with solutions, but a good problem solver can steer the team towards the best choice and implement it to achieve the desired result.

Watch: 26 Good Examples of Problem Solving

Examples of problem solving scenarios in the workplace.

• Correcting a mistake at work, whether it was made by you or someone else
• Overcoming a delay at work through problem solving and communication
• Resolving an issue with a difficult or upset customer
• Overcoming issues related to a limited budget, and still delivering good work through the use of creative problem solving
• Overcoming a scheduling/staffing shortage in the department to still deliver excellent work
• Troubleshooting and resolving technical issues
• Handling and resolving a conflict with a coworker
• Solving any problems related to money, customer billing, accounting and bookkeeping, etc.
• Taking initiative when another team member overlooked or missed something important
• Taking initiative to meet with your superior to discuss a problem before it became potentially worse
• Solving a safety issue at work or reporting the issue to those who could solve it
• Using problem solving abilities to reduce/eliminate a company expense
• Finding a way to make the company more profitable through new service or product offerings, new pricing ideas, promotion and sale ideas, etc.
• Changing how a process, team, or task is organized to make it more efficient
• Using creative thinking to come up with a solution that the company hasn’t used before
• Performing research to collect data and information to find a new solution to a problem
• Boosting a company or team’s performance by improving some aspect of communication among employees
• Finding a new piece of data that can guide a company’s decisions or strategy better in a certain area

Problem Solving Examples for Recent Grads/Entry Level Job Seekers

• Coordinating work between team members in a class project
• Reassigning a missing team member’s work to other group members in a class project
• Adjusting your workflow on a project to accommodate a tight deadline
• Speaking to your professor to get help when you were struggling or unsure about a project
• Asking classmates, peers, or professors for help in an area of struggle
• Talking to your academic advisor to brainstorm solutions to a problem you were facing
• Researching solutions to an academic problem online, via Google or other methods
• Using problem solving and creative thinking to obtain an internship or other work opportunity during school after struggling at first

You can share all of the examples above when you’re asked questions about problem solving in your interview. As you can see, even if you have no professional work experience, it’s possible to think back to problems and unexpected challenges that you faced in your studies and discuss how you solved them.

Interview Answers to “Give an Example of an Occasion When You Used Logic to Solve a Problem”

Now, let’s look at some sample interview answers to, “Give me an example of a time you used logic to solve a problem,” since you’re likely to hear this interview question in all sorts of industries.

Example Answer 1:

At my current job, I recently solved a problem where a client was upset about our software pricing. They had misunderstood the sales representative who explained pricing originally, and when their package renewed for its second month, they called to complain about the invoice. I apologized for the confusion and then spoke to our billing team to see what type of solution we could come up with. We decided that the best course of action was to offer a long-term pricing package that would provide a discount. This not only solved the problem but got the customer to agree to a longer-term contract, which means we’ll keep their business for at least one year now, and they’re happy with the pricing. I feel I got the best possible outcome and the way I chose to solve the problem was effective.

Example Answer 2:

In my last job, I had to do quite a bit of problem solving related to our shift scheduling. We had four people quit within a week and the department was severely understaffed. I coordinated a ramp-up of our hiring efforts, I got approval from the department head to offer bonuses for overtime work, and then I found eight employees who were willing to do overtime this month. I think the key problem solving skills here were taking initiative, communicating clearly, and reacting quickly to solve this problem before it became an even bigger issue.

Example Answer 3:

In my current marketing role, my manager asked me to come up with a solution to our declining social media engagement. I assessed our current strategy and recent results, analyzed what some of our top competitors were doing, and then came up with an exact blueprint we could follow this year to emulate our best competitors but also stand out and develop a unique voice as a brand. I feel this is a good example of using logic to solve a problem because it was based on analysis and observation of competitors, rather than guessing or quickly reacting to the situation without reliable data. I always use logic and data to solve problems when possible. The project turned out to be a success and we increased our social media engagement by an average of 82% by the end of the year.

Answering Questions About Problem Solving with the STAR Method

When you answer interview questions about problem solving scenarios, or if you decide to demonstrate your problem solving skills in a cover letter (which is a good idea any time the job description mention problem solving as a necessary skill), I recommend using the STAR method to tell your story.

STAR stands for:

It’s a simple way of walking the listener or reader through the story in a way that will make sense to them. So before jumping in and talking about the problem that needed solving, make sure to describe the general situation. What job/company were you working at? When was this? Then, you can describe the task at hand and the problem that needed solving. After this, describe the course of action you chose and why. Ideally, show that you evaluated all the information you could given the time you had, and made a decision based on logic and fact.

Finally, describe a positive result you got.

Whether you’re answering interview questions about problem solving or writing a cover letter, you should only choose examples where you got a positive result and successfully solved the issue.

Example answer:

Situation : We had an irate client who was a social media influencer and had impossible delivery time demands we could not meet. She spoke negatively about us in her vlog and asked her followers to boycott our products. (Task : To develop an official statement to explain our company’s side, clarify the issue, and prevent it from getting out of hand). Action : I drafted a statement that balanced empathy, understanding, and utmost customer service with facts, logic, and fairness. It was direct, simple, succinct, and phrased to highlight our brand values while addressing the issue in a logical yet sensitive way.   We also tapped our influencer partners to subtly and indirectly share their positive experiences with our brand so we could counter the negative content being shared online.  Result : We got the results we worked for through proper communication and a positive and strategic campaign. The irate client agreed to have a dialogue with us. She apologized to us, and we reaffirmed our commitment to delivering quality service to all. We assured her that she can reach out to us anytime regarding her purchases and that we’d gladly accommodate her requests whenever possible. She also retracted her negative statements in her vlog and urged her followers to keep supporting our brand.

What Are Good Outcomes of Problem Solving?

Whenever you answer interview questions about problem solving or share examples of problem solving in a cover letter, you want to be sure you’re sharing a positive outcome.

Below are good outcomes of problem solving:

• Saving the company time or money
• Making the company money
• Pleasing/keeping a customer
• Obtaining new customers
• Solving a safety issue
• Solving a staffing/scheduling issue
• Solving a logistical issue
• Solving a company hiring issue
• Solving a technical/software issue
• Making a process more efficient and faster for the company
• Creating a new business process to make the company more profitable
• Improving the company’s brand/image/reputation
• Getting the company positive reviews from customers/clients

Every employer wants to make more money, save money, and save time. If you can assess your problem solving experience and think about how you’ve helped past employers in those three areas, then that’s a great start. That’s where I recommend you begin looking for stories of times you had to solve problems.

Tips to Improve Your Problem Solving Skills

Throughout your career, you’re going to get hired for better jobs and earn more money if you can show employers that you’re a problem solver. So to improve your problem solving skills, I recommend always analyzing a problem and situation before acting. When discussing problem solving with employers, you never want to sound like you rush or make impulsive decisions. They want to see fact-based or data-based decisions when you solve problems.

Next, to get better at solving problems, analyze the outcomes of past solutions you came up with. You can recognize what works and what doesn’t. Think about how you can get better at researching and analyzing a situation, but also how you can get better at communicating, deciding the right people in the organization to talk to and “pull in” to help you if needed, etc.

Finally, practice staying calm even in stressful situations. Take a few minutes to walk outside if needed. Step away from your phone and computer to clear your head. A work problem is rarely so urgent that you cannot take five minutes to think (with the possible exception of safety problems), and you’ll get better outcomes if you solve problems by acting logically instead of rushing to react in a panic.

You can use all of the ideas above to describe your problem solving skills when asked interview questions about the topic. If you say that you do the things above, employers will be impressed when they assess your problem solving ability.

If you practice the tips above, you’ll be ready to share detailed, impressive stories and problem solving examples that will make hiring managers want to offer you the job. Every employer appreciates a problem solver, whether solving problems is a requirement listed on the job description or not. And you never know which hiring manager or interviewer will ask you about a time you solved a problem, so you should always be ready to discuss this when applying for a job.

Related interview questions & answers:

• How do you handle stress?
• How do you handle conflict?
• Tell me about a time when you failed

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How to improve your problem solving skills and build effective problem solving strategies

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Effective problem solving is all about using the right process and following a plan tailored to the issue at hand. Recognizing your team or organization has an issue isn’t enough to come up with effective problem solving strategies. 

To truly understand a problem and develop appropriate solutions, you will want to follow a solid process, follow the necessary problem solving steps, and bring all of your problem solving skills to the table.  

We’ll first guide you through the seven step problem solving process you and your team can use to effectively solve complex business challenges. We’ll also look at what problem solving strategies you can employ with your team when looking for a way to approach the process. We’ll then discuss the problem solving skills you need to be more effective at solving problems, complete with an activity from the SessionLab library you can use to develop that skill in your team.

Let’s get to it! 

What is a problem solving process?

• What are the problem solving steps I need to follow?

Problem solving strategies

What skills do i need to be an effective problem solver, how can i improve my problem solving skills.

Solving problems is like baking a cake. You can go straight into the kitchen without a recipe or the right ingredients and do your best, but the end result is unlikely to be very tasty!

Using a process to bake a cake allows you to use the best ingredients without waste, collect the right tools, account for allergies, decide whether it is a birthday or wedding cake, and then bake efficiently and on time. The result is a better cake that is fit for purpose, tastes better and has created less mess in the kitchen. Also, it should have chocolate sprinkles. Having a step by step process to solve organizational problems allows you to go through each stage methodically and ensure you are trying to solve the right problems and select the most appropriate, effective solutions.

What are the problem solving steps I need to follow? 

All problem solving processes go through a number of steps in order to move from identifying a problem to resolving it.

Depending on your problem solving model and who you ask, there can be anything between four and nine problem solving steps you should follow in order to find the right solution. Whatever framework you and your group use, there are some key items that should be addressed in order to have an effective process.

We’ve looked at problem solving processes from sources such as the American Society for Quality and their four step approach , and Mediate ‘s six step process. By reflecting on those and our own problem solving processes, we’ve come up with a sequence of seven problem solving steps we feel best covers everything you need in order to effectively solve problems.

1. Problem identification 

The first stage of any problem solving process is to identify the problem or problems you might want to solve. Effective problem solving strategies always begin by allowing a group scope to articulate what they believe the problem to be and then coming to some consensus over which problem they approach first. Problem solving activities used at this stage often have a focus on creating frank, open discussion so that potential problems can be brought to the surface.

2. Problem analysis 

Though this step is not a million miles from problem identification, problem analysis deserves to be considered separately. It can often be an overlooked part of the process and is instrumental when it comes to developing effective solutions.

The process of problem analysis means ensuring that the problem you are seeking to solve is the right problem . As part of this stage, you may look deeper and try to find the root cause of a specific problem at a team or organizational level.

Remember that problem solving strategies should not only be focused on putting out fires in the short term but developing long term solutions that deal with the root cause of organizational challenges. 

Whatever your approach, analyzing a problem is crucial in being able to select an appropriate solution and the problem solving skills deployed in this stage are beneficial for the rest of the process and ensuring the solutions you create are fit for purpose.

3. Solution generation

Once your group has nailed down the particulars of the problem you wish to solve, you want to encourage a free flow of ideas connecting to solving that problem. This can take the form of problem solving games that encourage creative thinking or problem solving activities designed to produce working prototypes of possible solutions. 

The key to ensuring the success of this stage of the problem solving process is to encourage quick, creative thinking and create an open space where all ideas are considered. The best solutions can come from unlikely places and by using problem solving techniques that celebrate invention, you might come up with solution gold. 

4. Solution development

No solution is likely to be perfect right out of the gate. It’s important to discuss and develop the solutions your group has come up with over the course of following the previous problem solving steps in order to arrive at the best possible solution. Problem solving games used in this stage involve lots of critical thinking, measuring potential effort and impact, and looking at possible solutions analytically. 

During this stage, you will often ask your team to iterate and improve upon your frontrunning solutions and develop them further. Remember that problem solving strategies always benefit from a multitude of voices and opinions, and not to let ego get involved when it comes to choosing which solutions to develop and take further.

Finding the best solution is the goal of all problem solving workshops and here is the place to ensure that your solution is well thought out, sufficiently robust and fit for purpose. 

5. Decision making 

Nearly there! Once your group has reached consensus and selected a solution that applies to the problem at hand you have some decisions to make. You will want to work on allocating ownership of the project, figure out who will do what, how the success of the solution will be measured and decide the next course of action.

The decision making stage is a part of the problem solving process that can get missed or taken as for granted. Fail to properly allocate roles and plan out how a solution will actually be implemented and it less likely to be successful in solving the problem.

Have clear accountabilities, actions, timeframes, and follow-ups. Make these decisions and set clear next-steps in the problem solving workshop so that everyone is aligned and you can move forward effectively as a group. 

Ensuring that you plan for the roll-out of a solution is one of the most important problem solving steps. Without adequate planning or oversight, it can prove impossible to measure success or iterate further if the problem was not solved. 

6. Solution implementation 

This is what we were waiting for! All problem solving strategies have the end goal of implementing a solution and solving a problem in mind. 

Remember that in order for any solution to be successful, you need to help your group through all of the previous problem solving steps thoughtfully. Only then can you ensure that you are solving the right problem but also that you have developed the correct solution and can then successfully implement and measure the impact of that solution.

Project management and communication skills are key here – your solution may need to adjust when out in the wild or you might discover new challenges along the way.

7. Solution evaluation 

So you and your team developed a great solution to a problem and have a gut feeling its been solved. Work done, right? Wrong. All problem solving strategies benefit from evaluation, consideration, and feedback. You might find that the solution does not work for everyone, might create new problems, or is potentially so successful that you will want to roll it out to larger teams or as part of other initiatives. 

None of that is possible without taking the time to evaluate the success of the solution you developed in your problem solving model and adjust if necessary.

Remember that the problem solving process is often iterative and it can be common to not solve complex issues on the first try. Even when this is the case, you and your team will have generated learning that will be important for future problem solving workshops or in other parts of the organization. 

It’s worth underlining how important record keeping is throughout the problem solving process. If a solution didn’t work, you need to have the data and records to see why that was the case. If you go back to the drawing board, notes from the previous workshop can help save time. Data and insight is invaluable at every stage of the problem solving process and this one is no different.

Problem solving workshops made easy

Problem solving strategies are methods of approaching and facilitating the process of problem-solving with a set of techniques , actions, and processes. Different strategies are more effective if you are trying to solve broad problems such as achieving higher growth versus more focused problems like, how do we improve our customer onboarding process?

Broadly, the problem solving steps outlined above should be included in any problem solving strategy though choosing where to focus your time and what approaches should be taken is where they begin to differ. You might find that some strategies ask for the problem identification to be done prior to the session or that everything happens in the course of a one day workshop.

The key similarity is that all good problem solving strategies are structured and designed. Four hours of open discussion is never going to be as productive as a four-hour workshop designed to lead a group through a problem solving process.

Good problem solving strategies are tailored to the team, organization and problem you will be attempting to solve. Here are some example problem solving strategies you can learn from or use to get started.

Use a workshop to lead a team through a group process

Often, the first step to solving problems or organizational challenges is bringing a group together effectively. Most teams have the tools, knowledge, and expertise necessary to solve their challenges – they just need some guidance in how to use leverage those skills and a structure and format that allows people to focus their energies.

Facilitated workshops are one of the most effective ways of solving problems of any scale. By designing and planning your workshop carefully, you can tailor the approach and scope to best fit the needs of your team and organization. 

Problem solving workshop

• Creating a bespoke, tailored process
• Tackling problems of any size
• Building in-house workshop ability and encouraging their use

Workshops are an effective strategy for solving problems. By using tried and test facilitation techniques and methods, you can design and deliver a workshop that is perfectly suited to the unique variables of your organization. You may only have the capacity for a half-day workshop and so need a problem solving process to match. 

By using our session planner tool and importing methods from our library of 700+ facilitation techniques, you can create the right problem solving workshop for your team. It might be that you want to encourage creative thinking or look at things from a new angle to unblock your groups approach to problem solving. By tailoring your workshop design to the purpose, you can help ensure great results.

One of the main benefits of a workshop is the structured approach to problem solving. Not only does this mean that the workshop itself will be successful, but many of the methods and techniques will help your team improve their working processes outside of the workshop. 

We believe that workshops are one of the best tools you can use to improve the way your team works together. Start with a problem solving workshop and then see what team building, culture or design workshops can do for your organization!

Run a design sprint

Great for: 

• aligning large, multi-discipline teams
• quickly designing and testing solutions
• tackling large, complex organizational challenges and breaking them down into smaller tasks

By using design thinking principles and methods, a design sprint is a great way of identifying, prioritizing and prototyping solutions to long term challenges that can help solve major organizational problems with quick action and measurable results.

Some familiarity with design thinking is useful, though not integral, and this strategy can really help a team align if there is some discussion around which problems should be approached first. 

The stage-based structure of the design sprint is also very useful for teams new to design thinking.  The inspiration phase, where you look to competitors that have solved your problem, and the rapid prototyping and testing phases are great for introducing new concepts that will benefit a team in all their future work. 

It can be common for teams to look inward for solutions and so looking to the market for solutions you can iterate on can be very productive. Instilling an agile prototyping and testing mindset can also be great when helping teams move forwards – generating and testing solutions quickly can help save time in the long run and is also pretty exciting!

Break problems down into smaller issues

Organizational challenges and problems are often complicated and large scale in nature. Sometimes, trying to resolve such an issue in one swoop is simply unachievable or overwhelming. Try breaking down such problems into smaller issues that you can work on step by step. You may not be able to solve the problem of churning customers off the bat, but you can work with your team to identify smaller effort but high impact elements and work on those first.

This problem solving strategy can help a team generate momentum, prioritize and get some easy wins. It’s also a great strategy to employ with teams who are just beginning to learn how to approach the problem solving process. If you want some insight into a way to employ this strategy, we recommend looking at our design sprint template below!

Use guiding frameworks or try new methodologies

Some problems are best solved by introducing a major shift in perspective or by using new methodologies that encourage your team to think differently.

Props and tools such as Methodkit , which uses a card-based toolkit for facilitation, or Lego Serious Play can be great ways to engage your team and find an inclusive, democratic problem solving strategy. Remember that play and creativity are great tools for achieving change and whatever the challenge, engaging your participants can be very effective where other strategies may have failed.

LEGO Serious Play

• Improving core problem solving skills
• Thinking outside of the box
• Encouraging creative solutions

LEGO Serious Play is a problem solving methodology designed to get participants thinking differently by using 3D models and kinesthetic learning styles. By physically building LEGO models based on questions and exercises, participants are encouraged to think outside of the box and create their own responses. 

Collaborate LEGO Serious Play exercises are also used to encourage communication and build problem solving skills in a group. By using this problem solving process, you can often help different kinds of learners and personality types contribute and unblock organizational problems with creative thinking. 

Problem solving strategies like LEGO Serious Play are super effective at helping a team solve more skills-based problems such as communication between teams or a lack of creative thinking. Some problems are not suited to LEGO Serious Play and require a different problem solving strategy.

Card Decks and Method Kits

• New facilitators or non-facilitators 
• Approaching difficult subjects with a simple, creative framework
• Engaging those with varied learning styles

Card decks and method kids are great tools for those new to facilitation or for whom facilitation is not the primary role. Card decks such as the emotional culture deck can be used for complete workshops and in many cases, can be used right out of the box. Methodkit has a variety of kits designed for scenarios ranging from personal development through to personas and global challenges so you can find the right deck for your particular needs.

Having an easy to use framework that encourages creativity or a new approach can take some of the friction or planning difficulties out of the workshop process and energize a team in any setting. Simplicity is the key with these methods. By ensuring everyone on your team can get involved and engage with the process as quickly as possible can really contribute to the success of your problem solving strategy.

Source external advice

Looking to peers, experts and external facilitators can be a great way of approaching the problem solving process. Your team may not have the necessary expertise, insights of experience to tackle some issues, or you might simply benefit from a fresh perspective. Some problems may require bringing together an entire team, and coaching managers or team members individually might be the right approach. Remember that not all problems are best resolved in the same manner.

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, peer groups, coaches and mentors can also be invaluable at not only solving specific business problems, but in providing a support network for resolving future challenges. One great approach is to join a Mastermind Group and link up with like-minded individuals and all grow together. Remember that however you approach the sourcing of external advice, do so thoughtfully, respectfully and honestly. Reciprocate where you can and prepare to be surprised by just how kind and helpful your peers can be!

Mastermind Group

• Solo entrepreneurs or small teams with low capacity
• Peer learning and gaining outside expertise
• Getting multiple external points of view quickly

Problem solving in large organizations with lots of skilled team members is one thing, but how about if you work for yourself or in a very small team without the capacity to get the most from a design sprint or LEGO Serious Play session? 

A mastermind group – sometimes known as a peer advisory board – is where a group of people come together to support one another in their own goals, challenges, and businesses. Each participant comes to the group with their own purpose and the other members of the group will help them create solutions, brainstorm ideas, and support one another. 

Mastermind groups are very effective in creating an energized, supportive atmosphere that can deliver meaningful results. Learning from peers from outside of your organization or industry can really help unlock new ways of thinking and drive growth. Access to the experience and skills of your peers can be invaluable in helping fill the gaps in your own ability, particularly in young companies.

A mastermind group is a great solution for solo entrepreneurs, small teams, or for organizations that feel that external expertise or fresh perspectives will be beneficial for them. It is worth noting that Mastermind groups are often only as good as the participants and what they can bring to the group. Participants need to be committed, engaged and understand how to work in this context. 

Coaching and mentoring

• Focused learning and development
• Filling skills gaps
• Working on a range of challenges over time

Receiving advice from a business coach or building a mentor/mentee relationship can be an effective way of resolving certain challenges. The one-to-one format of most coaching and mentor relationships can really help solve the challenges those individuals are having and benefit the organization as a result.

A great mentor can be invaluable when it comes to spotting potential problems before they arise and coming to understand a mentee very well has a host of other business benefits. You might run an internal mentorship program to help develop your team’s problem solving skills and strategies or as part of a large learning and development program. External coaches can also be an important part of your problem solving strategy, filling skills gaps for your management team or helping with specific business issues. 

Now we’ve explored the problem solving process and the steps you will want to go through in order to have an effective session, let’s look at the skills you and your team need to be more effective problem solvers.

Problem solving skills are highly sought after, whatever industry or team you work in. Organizations are keen to employ people who are able to approach problems thoughtfully and find strong, realistic solutions. Whether you are a facilitator , a team leader or a developer, being an effective problem solver is a skill you’ll want to develop.

Problem solving skills form a whole suite of techniques and approaches that an individual uses to not only identify problems but to discuss them productively before then developing appropriate solutions.

Here are some of the most important problem solving skills everyone from executives to junior staff members should learn. We’ve also included an activity or exercise from the SessionLab library that can help you and your team develop that skill. 

If you’re running a workshop or training session to try and improve problem solving skills in your team, try using these methods to supercharge your process!

Active listening

Active listening is one of the most important skills anyone who works with people can possess. In short, active listening is a technique used to not only better understand what is being said by an individual, but also to be more aware of the underlying message the speaker is trying to convey. When it comes to problem solving, active listening is integral for understanding the position of every participant and to clarify the challenges, ideas and solutions they bring to the table.

Some active listening skills include:

• Paying complete attention to the speaker.
• Removing distractions.
• Avoid interruption.
• Taking the time to fully understand before preparing a rebuttal.
• Responding respectfully and appropriately.
• Demonstrate attentiveness and positivity with an open posture, making eye contact with the speaker, smiling and nodding if appropriate. Show that you are listening and encourage them to continue.
• Be aware of and respectful of feelings. Judge the situation and respond appropriately. You can disagree without being disrespectful.   
• Observe body language. 
• Paraphrase what was said in your own words, either mentally or verbally.
• Remain neutral. 
• Reflect and take a moment before responding.
• Ask deeper questions based on what is said and clarify points where necessary.   

Active Listening   #hyperisland   #skills   #active listening   #remote-friendly   This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.

Analytical skills

All problem solving models require strong analytical skills, particularly during the beginning of the process and when it comes to analyzing how solutions have performed.

Analytical skills are primarily focused on performing an effective analysis by collecting, studying and parsing data related to a problem or opportunity. 

It often involves spotting patterns, being able to see things from different perspectives and using observable facts and data to make suggestions or produce insight. 

Analytical skills are also important at every stage of the problem solving process and by having these skills, you can ensure that any ideas or solutions you create or backed up analytically and have been sufficiently thought out.

Nine Whys   #innovation   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   With breathtaking simplicity, you can rapidly clarify for individuals and a group what is essentially important in their work. You can quickly reveal when a compelling purpose is missing in a gathering and avoid moving forward without clarity. When a group discovers an unambiguous shared purpose, more freedom and more responsibility are unleashed. You have laid the foundation for spreading and scaling innovations with fidelity.

Collaboration

Trying to solve problems on your own is difficult. Being able to collaborate effectively, with a free exchange of ideas, to delegate and be a productive member of a team is hugely important to all problem solving strategies.

Remember that whatever your role, collaboration is integral, and in a problem solving process, you are all working together to find the best solution for everyone. 

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing   #teamwork   #team   #leadership   #collaboration   In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

Communication  

Being an effective communicator means being empathetic, clear and succinct, asking the right questions, and demonstrating active listening skills throughout any discussion or meeting. 

In a problem solving setting, you need to communicate well in order to progress through each stage of the process effectively. As a team leader, it may also fall to you to facilitate communication between parties who may not see eye to eye. Effective communication also means helping others to express themselves and be heard in a group.

Bus Trip   #feedback   #communication   #appreciation   #closing   #thiagi   #team   This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

Creative problem solving skills can be some of the best tools in your arsenal. Thinking creatively, being able to generate lots of ideas and come up with out of the box solutions is useful at every step of the process. 

The kinds of problems you will likely discuss in a problem solving workshop are often difficult to solve, and by approaching things in a fresh, creative manner, you can often create more innovative solutions.

Having practical creative skills is also a boon when it comes to problem solving. If you can help create quality design sketches and prototypes in record time, it can help bring a team to alignment more quickly or provide a base for further iteration.

The paper clip method   #sharing   #creativity   #warm up   #idea generation   #brainstorming   The power of brainstorming. A training for project leaders, creativity training, and to catalyse getting new solutions.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is one of the fundamental problem solving skills you’ll want to develop when working on developing solutions. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, rationalize and evaluate while being aware of personal bias, outlying factors and remaining open-minded.

Defining and analyzing problems without deploying critical thinking skills can mean you and your team go down the wrong path. Developing solutions to complex issues requires critical thinking too – ensuring your team considers all possibilities and rationally evaluating them. 

Agreement-Certainty Matrix   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   #problem solving   You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic .  A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate.  It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably.  A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail.  Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward.  A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”  The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Data analysis 

Though it shares lots of space with general analytical skills, data analysis skills are something you want to cultivate in their own right in order to be an effective problem solver.

Being good at data analysis doesn’t just mean being able to find insights from data, but also selecting the appropriate data for a given issue, interpreting it effectively and knowing how to model and present that data. Depending on the problem at hand, it might also include a working knowledge of specific data analysis tools and procedures. 

Having a solid grasp of data analysis techniques is useful if you’re leading a problem solving workshop but if you’re not an expert, don’t worry. Bring people into the group who has this skill set and help your team be more effective as a result.

Decision making

All problems need a solution and all solutions require that someone make the decision to implement them. Without strong decision making skills, teams can become bogged down in discussion and less effective as a result. 

Making decisions is a key part of the problem solving process. It’s important to remember that decision making is not restricted to the leadership team. Every staff member makes decisions every day and developing these skills ensures that your team is able to solve problems at any scale. Remember that making decisions does not mean leaping to the first solution but weighing up the options and coming to an informed, well thought out solution to any given problem that works for the whole team.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)   #action   #decision making   #problem solving   #issue analysis   #innovation   #design   #remote-friendly   The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

Dependability

Most complex organizational problems require multiple people to be involved in delivering the solution. Ensuring that the team and organization can depend on you to take the necessary actions and communicate where necessary is key to ensuring problems are solved effectively.

Being dependable also means working to deadlines and to brief. It is often a matter of creating trust in a team so that everyone can depend on one another to complete the agreed actions in the agreed time frame so that the team can move forward together. Being undependable can create problems of friction and can limit the effectiveness of your solutions so be sure to bear this in mind throughout a project. 

Team Purpose & Culture   #team   #hyperisland   #culture   #remote-friendly   This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is an important skill for any successful team member, whether communicating internally or with clients or users. In the problem solving process, emotional intelligence means being attuned to how people are feeling and thinking, communicating effectively and being self-aware of what you bring to a room. 

There are often differences of opinion when working through problem solving processes, and it can be easy to let things become impassioned or combative. Developing your emotional intelligence means being empathetic to your colleagues and managing your own emotions throughout the problem and solution process. Be kind, be thoughtful and put your points across care and attention. 

Being emotionally intelligent is a skill for life and by deploying it at work, you can not only work efficiently but empathetically. Check out the emotional culture workshop template for more!

Facilitation

As we’ve clarified in our facilitation skills post, facilitation is the art of leading people through processes towards agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership, and creativity by all those involved. While facilitation is a set of interrelated skills in itself, the broad definition of facilitation can be invaluable when it comes to problem solving. Leading a team through a problem solving process is made more effective if you improve and utilize facilitation skills – whether you’re a manager, team leader or external stakeholder.

The Six Thinking Hats   #creative thinking   #meeting facilitation   #problem solving   #issue resolution   #idea generation   #conflict resolution   The Six Thinking Hats are used by individuals and groups to separate out conflicting styles of thinking. They enable and encourage a group of people to think constructively together in exploring and implementing change, rather than using argument to fight over who is right and who is wrong.

Flexibility 

Being flexible is a vital skill when it comes to problem solving. This does not mean immediately bowing to pressure or changing your opinion quickly: instead, being flexible is all about seeing things from new perspectives, receiving new information and factoring it into your thought process.

Flexibility is also important when it comes to rolling out solutions. It might be that other organizational projects have greater priority or require the same resources as your chosen solution. Being flexible means understanding needs and challenges across the team and being open to shifting or arranging your own schedule as necessary. Again, this does not mean immediately making way for other projects. It’s about articulating your own needs, understanding the needs of others and being able to come to a meaningful compromise.

The Creativity Dice   #creativity   #problem solving   #thiagi   #issue analysis   Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

Working in any group can lead to unconscious elements of groupthink or situations in which you may not wish to be entirely honest. Disagreeing with the opinions of the executive team or wishing to save the feelings of a coworker can be tricky to navigate, but being honest is absolutely vital when to comes to developing effective solutions and ensuring your voice is heard. 

Remember that being honest does not mean being brutally candid. You can deliver your honest feedback and opinions thoughtfully and without creating friction by using other skills such as emotional intelligence. 

Explore your Values   #hyperisland   #skills   #values   #remote-friendly   Your Values is an exercise for participants to explore what their most important values are. It’s done in an intuitive and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitive feeling rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values. It is a good exercise to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values.

Initiative 

The problem solving process is multi-faceted and requires different approaches at certain points of the process. Taking initiative to bring problems to the attention of the team, collect data or lead the solution creating process is always valuable. You might even roadtest your own small scale solutions or brainstorm before a session. Taking initiative is particularly effective if you have good deal of knowledge in that area or have ownership of a particular project and want to get things kickstarted.

That said, be sure to remember to honor the process and work in service of the team. If you are asked to own one part of the problem solving process and you don’t complete that task because your initiative leads you to work on something else, that’s not an effective method of solving business challenges.

15% Solutions   #action   #liberating structures   #remote-friendly   You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference.  15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change.  With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

Impartiality

A particularly useful problem solving skill for product owners or managers is the ability to remain impartial throughout much of the process. In practice, this means treating all points of view and ideas brought forward in a meeting equally and ensuring that your own areas of interest or ownership are not favored over others. 

There may be a stage in the process where a decision maker has to weigh the cost and ROI of possible solutions against the company roadmap though even then, ensuring that the decision made is based on merit and not personal opinion. 

Empathy map   #frame insights   #create   #design   #issue analysis   An empathy map is a tool to help a design team to empathize with the people they are designing for. You can make an empathy map for a group of people or for a persona. To be used after doing personas when more insights are needed.

Being a good leader means getting a team aligned, energized and focused around a common goal. In the problem solving process, strong leadership helps ensure that the process is efficient, that any conflicts are resolved and that a team is managed in the direction of success.

It’s common for managers or executives to assume this role in a problem solving workshop, though it’s important that the leader maintains impartiality and does not bulldoze the group in a particular direction. Remember that good leadership means working in service of the purpose and team and ensuring the workshop is a safe space for employees of any level to contribute. Take a look at our leadership games and activities post for more exercises and methods to help improve leadership in your organization.

Leadership Pizza   #leadership   #team   #remote-friendly   This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development and initiate goal setting.

In the context of problem solving, mediation is important in keeping a team engaged, happy and free of conflict. When leading or facilitating a problem solving workshop, you are likely to run into differences of opinion. Depending on the nature of the problem, certain issues may be brought up that are emotive in nature. 

Being an effective mediator means helping those people on either side of such a divide are heard, listen to one another and encouraged to find common ground and a resolution. Mediating skills are useful for leaders and managers in many situations and the problem solving process is no different.

Conflict Responses   #hyperisland   #team   #issue resolution   A workshop for a team to reflect on past conflicts, and use them to generate guidelines for effective conflict handling. The workshop uses the Thomas-Killman model of conflict responses to frame a reflective discussion. Use it to open up a discussion around conflict with a team.

Planning 

Solving organizational problems is much more effective when following a process or problem solving model. Planning skills are vital in order to structure, deliver and follow-through on a problem solving workshop and ensure your solutions are intelligently deployed.

Planning skills include the ability to organize tasks and a team, plan and design the process and take into account any potential challenges. Taking the time to plan carefully can save time and frustration later in the process and is valuable for ensuring a team is positioned for success.

3 Action Steps   #hyperisland   #action   #remote-friendly   This is a small-scale strategic planning session that helps groups and individuals to take action toward a desired change. It is often used at the end of a workshop or programme. The group discusses and agrees on a vision, then creates some action steps that will lead them towards that vision. The scope of the challenge is also defined, through discussion of the helpful and harmful factors influencing the group.

Prioritization

As organisations grow, the scale and variation of problems they face multiplies. Your team or is likely to face numerous challenges in different areas and so having the skills to analyze and prioritize becomes very important, particularly for those in leadership roles.

A thorough problem solving process is likely to deliver multiple solutions and you may have several different problems you wish to solve simultaneously. Prioritization is the ability to measure the importance, value, and effectiveness of those possible solutions and choose which to enact and in what order. The process of prioritization is integral in ensuring the biggest challenges are addressed with the most impactful solutions.

Impact and Effort Matrix   #gamestorming   #decision making   #action   #remote-friendly   In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

Project management

Some problem solving skills are utilized in a workshop or ideation phases, while others come in useful when it comes to decision making. Overseeing an entire problem solving process and ensuring its success requires strong project management skills. 

While project management incorporates many of the other skills listed here, it is important to note the distinction of considering all of the factors of a project and managing them successfully. Being able to negotiate with stakeholders, manage tasks, time and people, consider costs and ROI, and tie everything together is massively helpful when going through the problem solving process. 

Record keeping

Working out meaningful solutions to organizational challenges is only one part of the process.  Thoughtfully documenting and keeping records of each problem solving step for future consultation is important in ensuring efficiency and meaningful change. 

For example, some problems may be lower priority than others but can be revisited in the future. If the team has ideated on solutions and found some are not up to the task, record those so you can rule them out and avoiding repeating work. Keeping records of the process also helps you improve and refine your problem solving model next time around!

Personal Kanban   #gamestorming   #action   #agile   #project planning   Personal Kanban is a tool for organizing your work to be more efficient and productive. It is based on agile methods and principles.

Research skills

Conducting research to support both the identification of problems and the development of appropriate solutions is important for an effective process. Knowing where to go to collect research, how to conduct research efficiently, and identifying pieces of research are relevant are all things a good researcher can do well. 

In larger groups, not everyone has to demonstrate this ability in order for a problem solving workshop to be effective. That said, having people with research skills involved in the process, particularly if they have existing area knowledge, can help ensure the solutions that are developed with data that supports their intention. Remember that being able to deliver the results of research efficiently and in a way the team can easily understand is also important. The best data in the world is only as effective as how it is delivered and interpreted.

Customer experience map   #ideation   #concepts   #research   #design   #issue analysis   #remote-friendly   Customer experience mapping is a method of documenting and visualizing the experience a customer has as they use the product or service. It also maps out their responses to their experiences. To be used when there is a solution (even in a conceptual stage) that can be analyzed.

Risk management

Managing risk is an often overlooked part of the problem solving process. Solutions are often developed with the intention of reducing exposure to risk or solving issues that create risk but sometimes, great solutions are more experimental in nature and as such, deploying them needs to be carefully considered. 

Managing risk means acknowledging that there may be risks associated with more out of the box solutions or trying new things, but that this must be measured against the possible benefits and other organizational factors. 

Be informed, get the right data and stakeholders in the room and you can appropriately factor risk into your decision making process. 

Decisions, Decisions…   #communication   #decision making   #thiagi   #action   #issue analysis   When it comes to decision-making, why are some of us more prone to take risks while others are risk-averse? One explanation might be the way the decision and options were presented.  This exercise, based on Kahneman and Tversky’s classic study , illustrates how the framing effect influences our judgement and our ability to make decisions . The participants are divided into two groups. Both groups are presented with the same problem and two alternative programs for solving them. The two programs both have the same consequences but are presented differently. The debriefing discussion examines how the framing of the program impacted the participant’s decision.

Team-building 

No single person is as good at problem solving as a team. Building an effective team and helping them come together around a common purpose is one of the most important problem solving skills, doubly so for leaders. By bringing a team together and helping them work efficiently, you pave the way for team ownership of a problem and the development of effective solutions. 

In a problem solving workshop, it can be tempting to jump right into the deep end, though taking the time to break the ice, energize the team and align them with a game or exercise will pay off over the course of the day.

Remember that you will likely go through the problem solving process multiple times over an organization’s lifespan and building a strong team culture will make future problem solving more effective. It’s also great to work with people you know, trust and have fun with. Working on team building in and out of the problem solving process is a hallmark of successful teams that can work together to solve business problems.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity   #ice breaker   #teambuilding   #team   #remote-friendly   9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Time management 

The problem solving process is designed to lead a team from identifying a problem through to delivering a solution and evaluating its effectiveness. Without effective time management skills or timeboxing of tasks, it can be easy for a team to get bogged down or be inefficient.

By using a problem solving model and carefully designing your workshop, you can allocate time efficiently and trust that the process will deliver the results you need in a good timeframe.

Time management also comes into play when it comes to rolling out solutions, particularly those that are experimental in nature. Having a clear timeframe for implementing and evaluating solutions is vital for ensuring their success and being able to pivot if necessary.

Improving your skills at problem solving is often a career-long pursuit though there are methods you can use to make the learning process more efficient and to supercharge your problem solving skillset.

Remember that the skills you need to be a great problem solver have a large overlap with those skills you need to be effective in any role. Investing time and effort to develop your active listening or critical thinking skills is valuable in any context. Here are 7 ways to improve your problem solving skills.

Share best practices

Remember that your team is an excellent source of skills, wisdom, and techniques and that you should all take advantage of one another where possible. Best practices that one team has for solving problems, conducting research or making decisions should be shared across the organization. If you have in-house staff that have done active listening training or are data analysis pros, have them lead a training session. 

Your team is one of your best resources. Create space and internal processes for the sharing of skills so that you can all grow together. 

Ask for help and attend training

Once you’ve figured out you have a skills gap, the next step is to take action to fill that skills gap. That might be by asking your superior for training or coaching, or liaising with team members with that skill set. You might even attend specialized training for certain skills – active listening or critical thinking, for example, are business-critical skills that are regularly offered as part of a training scheme.

Whatever method you choose, remember that taking action of some description is necessary for growth. Whether that means practicing, getting help, attending training or doing some background reading, taking active steps to improve your skills is the way to go.

Learn a process 

Problem solving can be complicated, particularly when attempting to solve large problems for the first time. Using a problem solving process helps give structure to your problem solving efforts and focus on creating outcomes, rather than worrying about the format. 

Tools such as the seven-step problem solving process above are effective because not only do they feature steps that will help a team solve problems, they also develop skills along the way. Each step asks for people to engage with the process using different skills and in doing so, helps the team learn and grow together. Group processes of varying complexity and purpose can also be found in the SessionLab library of facilitation techniques . Using a tried and tested process and really help ease the learning curve for both those leading such a process, as well as those undergoing the purpose.

Effective teams make decisions about where they should and shouldn’t expend additional effort. By using a problem solving process, you can focus on the things that matter, rather than stumbling towards a solution haphazardly. 

Create a feedback loop

Some skills gaps are more obvious than others. It’s possible that your perception of your active listening skills differs from those of your colleagues. 

It’s valuable to create a system where team members can provide feedback in an ordered and friendly manner so they can all learn from one another. Only by identifying areas of improvement can you then work to improve them. 

Remember that feedback systems require oversight and consideration so that they don’t turn into a place to complain about colleagues. Design the system intelligently so that you encourage the creation of learning opportunities, rather than encouraging people to list their pet peeves.

While practice might not make perfect, it does make the problem solving process easier. If you are having trouble with critical thinking, don’t shy away from doing it. Get involved where you can and stretch those muscles as regularly as possible. 

Problem solving skills come more naturally to some than to others and that’s okay. Take opportunities to get involved and see where you can practice your skills in situations outside of a workshop context. Try collaborating in other circumstances at work or conduct data analysis on your own projects. You can often develop those skills you need for problem solving simply by doing them. Get involved!

Use expert exercises and methods

Learn from the best. Our library of 700+ facilitation techniques is full of activities and methods that help develop the skills you need to be an effective problem solver. Check out our templates to see how to approach problem solving and other organizational challenges in a structured and intelligent manner.

There is no single approach to improving problem solving skills, but by using the techniques employed by others you can learn from their example and develop processes that have seen proven results. 

Try new ways of thinking and change your mindset

Using tried and tested exercises that you know well can help deliver results, but you do run the risk of missing out on the learning opportunities offered by new approaches. As with the problem solving process, changing your mindset can remove blockages and be used to develop your problem solving skills.

Most teams have members with mixed skill sets and specialties. Mix people from different teams and share skills and different points of view. Teach your customer support team how to use design thinking methods or help your developers with conflict resolution techniques. Try switching perspectives with facilitation techniques like Flip It! or by using new problem solving methodologies or models. Give design thinking, liberating structures or lego serious play a try if you want to try a new approach. You will find that framing problems in new ways and using existing skills in new contexts can be hugely useful for personal development and improving your skillset. It’s also a lot of fun to try new things. Give it a go!

Encountering business challenges and needing to find appropriate solutions is not unique to your organization. Lots of very smart people have developed methods, theories and approaches to help develop problem solving skills and create effective solutions. Learn from them!

Books like The Art of Thinking Clearly , Think Smarter, or Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow are great places to start, though it’s also worth looking at blogs related to organizations facing similar problems to yours, or browsing for success stories. Seeing how Dropbox massively increased growth and working backward can help you see the skills or approach you might be lacking to solve that same problem. Learning from others by reading their stories or approaches can be time-consuming but ultimately rewarding.

A tired, distracted mind is not in the best position to learn new skills. It can be tempted to burn the candle at both ends and develop problem solving skills outside of work. Absolutely use your time effectively and take opportunities for self-improvement, though remember that rest is hugely important and that without letting your brain rest, you cannot be at your most effective. 

Creating distance between yourself and the problem you might be facing can also be useful. By letting an idea sit, you can find that a better one presents itself or you can develop it further. Take regular breaks when working and create a space for downtime. Remember that working smarter is preferable to working harder and that self-care is important for any effective learning or improvement process.

Want to design better group processes?

Over to you

Now we’ve explored some of the key problem solving skills and the problem solving steps necessary for an effective process, you’re ready to begin developing more effective solutions and leading problem solving workshops.

Need more inspiration? Check out our post on problem solving activities you can use when guiding a group towards a great solution in your next workshop or meeting. Have questions? Did you have a great problem solving technique you use with your team? Get in touch in the comments below. We’d love to chat!

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Going from a mere idea to a workshop that delivers results for your clients can feel like a daunting task. In this piece, we will shine a light on all the work behind the scenes and help you learn how to plan a workshop from start to finish. On a good day, facilitation can feel like effortless magic, but that is mostly the result of backstage work, foresight, and a lot of careful planning. Read on to learn a step-by-step approach to breaking the process of planning a workshop into small, manageable chunks.  The flow starts with the first meeting with a client to define the purposes of a workshop.…

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Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. But how do you choose the right ones? Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or MS Office toolkit and email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing and delivering your workshop? Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when you need to facilitate a meeting and lead workshops. In this post, we’ll share our favorite online tools you can use to make your job as a facilitator easier. In fact, there are plenty of free online workshop tools and meeting facilitation software you can…

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• Table of Contents
• Troubleshooting Guide
• A Model for Getting Started
• Justice Action Toolkit
• Best Change Processes
• Databases of Best Practices
• Online Courses
• Ask an Advisor
• Subscribe to eNewsletter
• Community Stories
• YouTube Channel
• About the Tool Box
• How to Use the Tool Box
• Privacy Statement
• Workstation/Check Box Sign-In
• Online Training Courses
• Capacity Building Training
• Training Curriculum - Order Now
• Community Check Box Evaluation System
• Build Your Toolbox
• Facilitation of Community Processes
• Community Health Assessment and Planning
• Section 9. Community Action Guide: Framework for Addressing Community Goals and Problems

Chapter 1 Sections

• Section 1. A Community Tool Box Overview and Gateway to the Tools
• Section 3. Our Model of Practice: Building Capacity for Community and System Change
• Section 5. Our Evaluation Model: Evaluating Comprehensive Community Initiatives
• Section 6. Some Core Principles, Assumptions, and Values to Guide the Work
• Section 7. Working Together for Healthier Communities: A Framework for Collaboration Among Community Partnerships, Support Organizations, and Funders
• Section 8. Some Lessons Learned on Community Organization and Change
• Section 10. Using Internet-Based Tools to Promote Community Health and Development
• Section 11. Participatory Evaluation
• Main Section

What is action planning?

How does action planning help a community, why is action planning important, when should you create an action plan, what are the components of an action plan framework.

Have you had the motivation to mobilize your community to address a problem that affects the local population, but just not known how to begin? You might wonder; “How do I investigate the problem?”, “Whom do I involve in the strategies to address the problem?”, “How do I successfully facilitate a group of diverse representatives from a community to reach consensus about a common vision and the actions that will turn ideas into results?”

This tool has the answers to these and other important questions. It will prepare you to lead your community in action planning.

The overall goal of action planning is to increase your community’s ability to work together to affect conditions and outcomes that matter to its residents—and to do so both over time and across issues of interest.

As your community works towards a broad vision of health for all, creating supportive conditions for change requires comprehensive efforts among diverse sectors of the community. These include health organizations, faith communities, schools, and businesses. Representatives of each sector come together to form a community coalition. Your community coalition can strive to influence systems changes—programs, policies, and practices that can enhance the community’s capacity to be a healthy environment.

A community coalition initiates its work by generating an action plan.

An action plan outlines what should happen to achieve the vision for a healthy community. Desirable changes and proposed activities (action steps), timelines, and assignment of accountability provide a detailed road map for collaborators to follow.

Regardless of the complexity of the problem at hand within your community, action planning helps you:

• Understand the community’s perception of both the issue at hand and its potential solutions
• Assure inclusive and integrated participation across community sectors in the planning process
• Build consensus on what can and should be done based on the community’s unique assets and needs
• Specify concrete ways in which members of the community coalition can take action

The list above describes how an action plan helps a community’s sectors and residents within those sectors work together to achieve a common vision. This tool will address each item and provide guidance for your action planning work that lies ahead.

Proper planning of any initiative is critical for yielding the best results or outcomes possible. An action plan, while a significant investment of time and energy, can be an effective tool that grounds all collaborators with a common purpose. Developing an action plan is a critical first step toward ensuring project success.

An action plan assures that:

• No detail is overlooked
• Proposed action steps are feasible and/or realistic
• Collaborators follow through with their commitments
• Measurable activities are documented and evaluated

Overall, action planning is important because it provides a reference point with a detailed time line and assignment of accountability for accomplishing tasks along the path to making a difference.

Research findings of the Center for Community Health and Development suggest that there are a number of factors that appear to have a positive effect on rates of community and system change—and one of those includes action planning:

• Analyzing Information About the Problem, Goals, and Factors Affecting Them
• Establishing Your Group's Vision and Mission
• Defining Organizational Structure and Operating Mechanisms
• Developing a Framework or Model of Change
• Developing and Using Strategic and Action Plans
• Arranging for Community Mobilizers
• Developing Leadership
• Implementing Effective Interventions
• Assuring Technical Assistance
• Documenting Progress and Using Feedback
• Making Outcomes Matter
• Sustaining the Work

Ideally, you should develop an action plan within the first six to twelve months of the start of an initiative or organization. Once an action plan is generated, it should be revisited frequently (e.g., as often as monthly but at least annually) so it can be modified to meet the changing needs of your community.

While some issues may be universal (for example, mental health issues), each community will have different assets and barriers for improving conditions for its residents. Therefore, each community’s intervention strategy for influencing programs, policies, and practices will be unique. However, a series of steps—a framework—helps guide the process of community action and change within the context of a community’s unique needs.

If you approach the action planning process as a manageable series of steps, you can take charge and help your community coalition work through each one with confidence.

Determine what people and sectors of the community to involve

As you begin your action planning process, you will need to accomplish three things:

• Document the problem or issue with information and statistics
• Learn more about your community
• Involve community members

How do you go about accomplishing these steps?

Listen to the community about issues and options . Conduct focus groups and public forums to obtain information about perceived issues and solutions within the community.

The key pieces of information you should gather in each listening session or focus group include:

• The perceived problem or issue
• Perceived barriers or resistance to addressing the issue
• Resources for change
• Recommend solutions and alternatives
• Current and past initiatives to address the problem or issue

Gather data to document the problem . In addition to hearing the community perspective on problems or goals related to the issue at hand, it is important to document the issue using existing information sources.

• "What are the issues related to the problem/topic in your community?"
• "What are the consequences of these issues?"
• "Who is affected?"
• "How are they affected?"
• "Are these issues of widespread concern?"

While the information that you collect can answer the questions above, remember that it will also play a key role in helping you determine how effective your group was in addressing the problem. You will use these baseline data—data that document the extent of the problem prior to implementation of your initiative—for comparison with data that document the extent of the problem after implementation of your initiative.

Listed below are helpful data sources that you may want to investigate. Keep in mind that not all of them will be relevant to your particular issue or problem.

• State or county health department data
• State social services department data
• Hospital admissions and exit records
• Police records
• Chamber of commerce data
• Nonprofit service agency data
• School district data
• Information from your local reference librarian
• Data from specialized local, statewide, or national organizations

Also see federal websites such as:

• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reportable disease files
• The National Center for Health Statistics’ Statistical Abstract of the United States
• Census data
• Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA, Title V Block Grant Information System

Become aware of local resources and past and current efforts : If current efforts targeting your issue exist, think of ways in which they can become more effective via support, advocacy or other means.  Consider the following:

• Do current efforts have a parallel vision?
• How many people are they serving?
• Do the services and program meet local needs?

Particularly if pre-existing initiatives had a similiar mission and failed, seek to understand why and apply those lessons learned to your action planning.  You might gain valuable insight by talking with the agency or group with the failed initiative.

Involve key officials and grassroots leaders in a planning group : While you may easily identify key officials, service providers, or representatives from relevant agencies, extend the boundaries of your planning coalition to be as inclusive as possible. Remember that your planning group should reflect the diversity of the local community.

Your group might use interviews with both key officials and key grassroots leaders to answer the following questions:

• Who can make things happen on this issue?
• What individuals are in a position to create (or block!) change?
• What contact people within the initiative would be most successful in getting those key officials to become involved?
• What neighborhoods and ethnic and cultural communities are particularly affected by this issue?
• What individuals and groups make things happen in these neighborhoods?
• What contact people within the initiative would be most successful in involving members of these neighborhoods?

Convene a planning group

Once you identify and include interested participants for the planning group, publicize planning sessions to assure that they are open to all group members. As facilitator, you should extend additional courtesies to planning group members, such as starting and ending meetings on time, using an agenda, and covering items in as little time as possible. Other responsibilities that you might have as a facilitator include:

Managing conflict . The richness of diverse views represented within your planning group may also lead to conflict among members. group leaders may need to elevate discussions to a higher level on which there may be a basis for agreement. Leaders can also remind group members of the shared vision as a means of fostering discussion on a common gound.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) documentation includes suggestions for reaching consensus in group meetings:

• Avoid the “one best way” attitude, and opt for that which reflects the best collective judgment of the group
• Avoid “either/or” thinking; often the best solution combines several approaches
• A majority vote may not always be the best solution. When participants give and take, several viewpoints can be combined.
• Healthy conflict may actually help participants reach a consensus; do not end conflict prematurely.
• Problems are best solved when all participants try to communicate and listen.

Conflict resolution is the process of settling disagreements among group members . The CDC recommends trying one of four approaches to resolve conflicts about goals, plans, activities, or procedures:

• Avoidance: While this can be a temporary solution, particularly if a conflict does not seem important enough to discuss, be sure to reassess the problem at a later date.
• Accommodation: Use tact and discretion to ask participants to yield or conform to the positions of others.
• Compromise: When a consensus cannot be reached, compromise may be the only solution. With compromise, everyone both wins and gives up something.
• Collaboration: While this may be the best approach, reserve it for issues of greatest importance. Collaboration requires all group members to acknowledge the conflict, consider many possible solutions and the consequences of each, and select the alternatives that best meet the needs of the group.

Creating a supportive context for planning and action . Several aspects of your community group can influence the element of support in the planning environment. They are: leadership, size and structure, organization, and diversity and integration.

• Leadership – Although a single person may accept overall responsibility, effective organizations usually have a number of leaders who work with constituents to fulfill the group’s mission. Leaders should have a clear vision and the capacity for listening and relating to others in the group.
• Size and Structure – A maximum group size of 15 is recommended. If this seems prohibitive given the number of persons interested in participation, you can also structure smaller groups such as “task forces” for specific functions within the action plan.
• Organization – If your planning group or surrounding community is particularly large, you may want to allocate work to subcommittees for each sector of the community to be involved (e.g., health organizations, businesses, schools). If your planning group or surrounding community is relatively small, the group might work as a whole to accomplish action planning.
• Diversity and Integration – Include all types of participants: persons in positions of authority, grassroots leaders, and local residents with experience.

Offering ongoing encouragement . Throughout the planning process, let group members know when they are doing a good job. Positive feedback is very important—especially when people are volunteering their time and energy.

If you find it challenging or intimidating to facilitate planning sessions in which diverse ideas and opinions are spoken, try applying some of the information below to your situation. Having a “plan” for effective facilitation will help you yield the most positive outcomes and best ideas from your planning meetings.

Tips for Group Facilitation

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) documentation offers the following suggestions for facilitating meetings:

• Create an environment conducive to communication by seating participants around small tables or in semicircles.
• Make participation an expectation; ask questions frequently and use open-ended questions to encourage thought and participation.
• Create opportunities for participants to work in teams.
• Give small assignments in advance, and ask participants to come to meetings prepared to share their work.
• Encourage participants to evaluate the group’s working dynamic and offer solutions to improving interaction if needed.
• Talk with quiet participants during breaks, and help them express their ideas and share their thoughts with the group.
• Use flip charts or overhead transparencies to record comments, but face participants while writing or ask someone else to do it.
• Suggest the “next step” if a meeting seems to be stagnating.
• Walk around to gain attention, but look directly at participants.
• Expect to make some mistakes! Acknowledge them, correct them, and move on.

Lead brainstorming sessions . Brainstorming is a problem-solving technique that encourages all members of a group to contribute ideas. You may find this technique of idea generation particularly helpful in the early phases of action planning. There are three common approaches to brainstorming:

• Freewheeling: Participants randomly call out suggestions, which are then recorded on a flip chart. Some group members may dominate in this setting.
• Round robin: Each member is called upon for a suggestion in turn, and ideas are recorded on a flip chart. This is a more organized approach and prevents domination of the session by only a few individuals.
• Slip: Each member submits anonymous suggestions on a slip of paper, and ideas are then recorded on a flip chart.

CDC suggests that a group facilitator follow these guidelines for a brainstorming meeting:

• No critical remarks allowed; evaluation comes later
• Give the thought only; explanation comes later
• Give only one idea at a time
• Adding to or improving on someone else’s idea is appropriate
• Give all participants a chance to share ideas.
• Ask one or two people to record ideas.
• Keep a lively tempo to the process.
• Praise the quantity versus quality of ideas.

Convening and facilitating a planning group for a common vision, mission, or purpose can be challenging yet rewarding. Participation of diverse individuals can require skilled facilitation. However, you can successfully facilitate a group meeting by applying the guidelines presented above. The more meetings you lead throughout the action planning process, the more confident you will become!

Develop an action plan to address proposed changes

Your planning meetings, brainstorming sessions, and other group discussions will yield an extensive compilation of great ideas (and maybe some that are not so great!).

What do you do with all of that information? How do you sort through the pile of rocks to find the gems?

First, you will need to distill the many ideas and voices into a common vision and mission. Next, you will need to refine the relevant ideas into objectives with corresponding strategies and actions.

As you distill the large number of ideas into a common vision, the VMOSA process (vision, mission, objectives, strategies, and action) will help your planning group develop a blueprint for moving from dreams to actions to positive outcomes for your community. VMOSA gives both direction and structure to your initiative. The five components of VMOSA should be completed in the order in which they are presented here.

Your planning group needs a vision statement to serve as a unifying statement for your effort, help communicate you goals and attract participants, remind participants of the desired outcome, and guide important decisions. The vision statement should be a few short phrases or a sentence. Catchy phrases such as "Healthy teens," "Safe streets, safe neighborhoods" and "Education for all" illustrate the common characteristics of a vision statement.

Craft a vision statement that is:

• Understood and shared by members of the community
• Broad enough to include a diverse variety of perspectives
• Inspiring and uplifting
• Easy to communicate

Your planning group’s mission statement will be more specific than the vision . As the next step in the action planning process, it expresses the "what and how" of your effort, describing what your group is going to do to make your vision a reality. An example of a mission statement: "Our mission is to develop a safe and healthy neighborhood through collaborative planning, community action, and policy advocacy."

While your vision statement inspires people to dream, your mission statement should inspire them to action.

Create your mission statement to be:

• Outcome-oriented

Objectives are the specific, measurable steps that will help you achieve your mission. Develop objectives that are SMART+C: specific, measurable, achievable (eventually), relevant to your mission, and timed (with a date for completion). The +C reminds you to add another important quality to your goals: make them challenging!

Strategies explain how your group will reach its objectives.

Broad strategies for change include:

• Coalition building
• Community development
• Policy or legislative change.

The big picture

Charting a logical pathway for community and system change: A key question to ask as your group formulates strategies is, “What combination of changes in programs, policies, and practices are necessary to make a difference with the mission of promoting health for all?” Your group will want to take inventory of potential community and system changes for addressing the problem or issue of interest. To do this, sort your “inventory” of ideas and objectives generated via the planning group into five specific strategy categories:

• Providing information and enhancing skill
• Altering incentives and disincentives
• Modifying access, barriers, and opportunities
• Enhancing services and support
• Modifying policies and practices

To facilitate the process of thinking about how ideas fit most logically together, you may want to draft a one page flowchart that forms pathways leading logically to widespread behavior change and elimination or reduction of the problem to be addressed. You might want to think of this flow chart as a way to double check for any gaps that may remain despite your extensive planning and discussion up to this point. Furthermore, as you look at the pathways and linkages along the way to change, the visual representation may prompt you to think of potential resources and barriers for accomplishing objectives. These noted resources and barriers will be applied to the development of action steps—the last piece of your action plan (to be discussed in the next section).

Determining strategies within your community’s context

Once your planning group has a clear vision and mission and has chosen community and system changes to be sought, you will have the foundation for making informed decisions regarding types of strategies to implement. The information below is a guide to talking through the development of strategies as they relate to the priorities and desired changes in the context of your community.

When developing strategies to accompany your objectives, consider the following factors:

• Population levels to be affected
• Universal versus targeted outreach
• Personal and environmental factors
• Which community sectors can benefit from and contribute to efforts
• Behavioral strategies to be used.

The levels to be targeted (individuals vs. families and kinship groups vs. organizations and sectors vs. broader systems).

Whether the strategy will be universal (e.g., include all of those who may be at risk or may benefit) or targeted (e.g., targets those who may be at greater risk for the problem):

• Universal example : targeting all men ages 40 and over in the community regarding the importance of prostate cancer screening.
• Targeted example : targeting all men ages 40 and over in the community with a family history of prostate cancer.

The personal and environmental factors to be addressed by the initiative:

• Personal factors : knowledge, beliefs, skills, education and training, experience, cultural norms and practices, social status, cognitive or physical abilities, gender, age.
• Environmental factors : social support, available resources and services, barriers (including financial, physical, and communication), social approval, policies, environmental hazards, living conditions, poverty.

Individuals who can most benefit and contribute and how they can be reached or involved in the effort .

• Targets of change - those who may at particular risk for the issue and those whose actions (or omission of actions) contribute to the problem.
• Agents of change - those who may be in a position to (and have a responsibility to) contribute to the solution or initiative (includes targets of change)
• Community sectors through which targets and agents of change can be reached or involved

The behavior change strategies to be used. Approaches may include:

• Providing information and enhancing skills - Delivery of information or training through media, courses, workshops, webinars or other modes.
• Enhancing services and supports - Increasing, improving or expanding assistance or social or technical supports related to the identified goal(s). This could include expanding or changing components or offerings such as mental health or social services or expanding hours or to new locations.
• Modifying access, barriers, and opportunities - Changes in the environment (e.g., changes in office hours, reduced entry fees, changes to the built environment such as trails or lighting) that reduce barriers and improve access.
• Changing consequences - Changing the incentives or disincentives for outcomes. This might include public recognition or tax breaks. This might also take the form of implementation of policies that call for consequences to actions, such as a junk food tax.
• Modifying policies and broader systems - Changing existing policies or regulations at the organizational or governmental level to promote desired behaviors/ outcomes. This might take the form of written regulations or organizational policies.

For each strategy, consider what programs, policies, and/or practices should be created or modified. Make a list, keeping in mind how they work together to address the problem or goal. And finally, review your planning group’s strategies for:

• Consistency with the overall vision, mission, and objectives
• Goodness of fit with the resources and opportunities available
• Anticipated resistance and barriers and how they can be minimized
• Whether those who are affected will actually be reached
• Whether those who can contribute will be involved

Building consensus on proposed strategies for change Once you think that the strategies are finalized and in place, you will want to build consensus on proposed changes within your planning group. Keeping in mind the fact that multiple sectors of the community are represented in the planning group, you should complete two types of review:

• Taken together, do these proposed changes maximize this sector’s contribution to the mission
• What other changes in programs, policies, or practices could or should be made in this sector
• Would all changes, taken together, be sufficient to reduce the problem?
• What other changes in programs, policies, or practices could or should be made within the community or system?
• “Is this proposed change important to the mission?”
• “Is this proposed change feasible?”

You can even put these two questions into a survey format and create a table for planning group members to respond to. Before administering the survey, set criteria for which sought changes will be kept or eliminated with a ranking score system.

You can see below that a sample ranking system ranging from ‘1’ for “Not at All [Important or Feasible]” to ‘5’ for “Very [Important or Feasible]” has been used. We suggest that you set criteria of an average value of 3 or higher for a proposed change to be retained.

How do you calculate the average ranking score using a scale like the one in the table above?

Example: For a proposed change, 20 planning group members select one of the score values in their response. Of those, you have: 10 responding “3” 4 responding “2” 6 responding “4” Given the suggested criteria of an average ranking of 3 or higher, will you keep or toss the proposed change? Step 1. 10(3) + 4(2) + 6(4) = 62 Step 2. 62 / 20 responses = an average ranking of 3.1 Step 3. Based on the scoring criteria, you determine to keep the proposed change since the overall consensus via the survey is 3.1.

What is most important about the process demonstrated above is that each group member participates in the consensus vote on each proposed change. And when you are finished, your community will be armed with a targeted action plan that has the approval of all community sector representatives.

The Grande Finale – The Complete Action Plan!

By now, you have come a long way in your action planning process. You have gathered information, involved key community members, outlined a vision, mission, objectives, and developed appropriate strategies for your community. In this final step of action plan development, you will specify in detail who will do what, by when, to make what changes happen. The action plan will also note the resources needed, potential barriers or resistance, and collaborators or communication lines that need to be active. You can rely on this plan to know what actions you should take day by day.

Action Step Criteria

Your action plan will consist of numerous action steps needed to bring about change in the community. Each action step should outline:

• What actions or changes will occur
• Who will carry out those changes
• By when the changes will take place, and for how long
• What resources are needed to carry out proposed changes
• Communication (who should know what?)

Drafting Action Steps

Action steps are similar to well-written objectives in their structure and content, but include some additional information. First, let’s start by looking at how to draft a strong objective. Then, we will take it one step further and write a comparable action step. You may already be working from objectives in a funded grant proposal. If that is the case, you have a time saving, solid foundation for your action steps.

The best action steps have several characteristics in common with well-written objectives. Those parallel characteristics are:

• Specific . That is, they tell how much (e.g., 40 %) of what is to be achieved (e.g., what behavior of whom or what outcome) by when (e.g., by 2010)?
• Measurable . Information concerning the objective can be collected, detected, or obtained from records (at least potentially).
• Achievable . Not only are the objectives themselves possible, it is likely that your organization will be able to pull them off.
• Relevant to the mission . Your organization has a clear understanding of how these objectives fit in with the overall vision and mission of the group.
• Timed . Your organization has developed a timeline (a portion of which is made clear in the objectives) by which they will be achieved.
• Challenging . They stretch the group to set its aims on significant improvements that are important to members of the community.

Example: Your community is working to establish on-site childcare for community health clinic clients by the year 2010. Based on the desired systems change, here is a sample action statement: “By June 2009, all necessary regulatory permits will be obtained.”

Now, let’s take this information and generate a complete action step. In addition to the criteria for well-written objectives, action steps address resources needed, anticipated barriers, and a communication plan. Now we will complete the five action step criteria (what, who, by when, what resources, and communication) using the sample, “By June 2009. . . “

Criteria 1 : What actions or changes will occur?

    All necessary regulatory permits will be obtained [for the on site provision of child care for health clinic clients.

Criteria 2: Who will carry out those changes?

    Danelda Jackson and Tom Glinn, staff of the community health clinic

Criteria 3: By when will the changes take place, and for how long?

    2009, in order to open in 2010. They will be renewed annually after that.

Criteria 4: What resources are needed to carry out the proposed changes? (For example, resources may be material, financial, or temporal).

Contractors

What potential barriers might affect this action step? Barriers to success might include:

• Faltering commitment on behalf of collaborators
• Key individuals or groups opposing efforts
• Lack of sustained interest in the initiative at the community level
• Simultaneous events such as economic downturn or parallel or competing initiatives
• City staff may resist providing a permit because it may appear to intensify the use of the clinic site.

Criteria 5 : Communication (who should be informed about these actions?)

    Clinic staff and patrons and community residents should be made aware of the availability of on site child care at the clinic.

Note: You may find it most helpful to set up a template for a table in a word processing program so you can efficiently record each action step generated by your planning group. The table below has been filled in with the criteria and sample information listed above.

Review your action plan for completeness

Once the planning process is complete, be sure to obtain review and approval of the final action plan from all group members.

Assess the action plan for:

• Comprehensiveness
• Feasibility
• Flexibility

Remember that the action plan will be revisited from time to time for modifications, as a community’s needs change. However, ultimately, this “blueprint for action” will be used over time, across sectors of the community, and across issues of interest. Therefore, strive to make it a powerful tool for community change.

Follow Through

Your completed action plan may contain many action steps . And while you will have mapped those out carefully along a timeline, you will probably have action steps that should occur simultaneously. Furthermore, you may sense a need to prioritize the order in which you execute action steps that are supposed to take place in the first six months of your initiative.

You may find it easier to determine that ordering or prioritization strategy if you ask the following questions:

• Which changes are the most important or key to the initiative's objectives?
• Which changes would inspire and encourage participants and build credibility within the community?
• Which changes need to be completed before others can? For example, some changes may require other changes and relationships to be established.
• Which changes are easier or quicker? Could completing them give the planning group’s members a sense of success?

Part of following through with proposed action steps will be the task of maintaining collaborator commitment and interest. An invaluable approach to fostering this working relationship is communication: communication about timelines, upcoming planning meetings, progress, results, intermediary feedback, etc.

Communicate progress

Communication is paramount to continued support and commitment within all sectors of the community. Continue to hold planning group meetings and additional public forum meetings, making sure to publicize these appropriately via local newspapers, email listservs, etc. Communicate with all relevant audiences, and let them know how their feedback was used to modify the action plan when relevant. You may want to refer back to the “communication” column of your action step table to make sure that you have corresponded with all people who need to know about the status of a particular action step.

It is best to include a communication plan in your action plan, and regularly share information about progress and outcomes relevant to the initiative. And the best means of having sound information to report is an evaluation plan.

Document progress

After you have worked so hard to plan and implement action steps, your community group will most certainly want a means of measuring progress towards the vision. It is important to evaluate your initiative toward that end.

The purpose of evaluation is to document and measure the completion or success of action steps. From your action planning group’s perspective:

• Evaluation may help you clarify action steps so they are measurable.
• Documentation and evaluation help you continually refine your program. Remember—an action plan is an ever-changing blueprint that can be modified according to community needs. If evaluation of action steps reveals successes, failures, or other lessons learned, that information should be applied to future planning cycles or revision of the overall action plan.
• Evaluation data provide information about the relative costs and effort for tasks so activity and budget adjustments can be made as needed.

It is important to include evaluation components as you develop your action plan versus as you implement it. Be sure that your action plan details how information will be collected, analyzed, and communicated. Because the action plan will be implemented over a long period of time, you may want to document intermediary accomplishments on a monthly basis. Such cumulative records help you identify trends in rates of community and system change over a number of years

Celebrate progress and revisit/renew the action plan

Even the most effective initiatives can benefit from reflection on their accomplishments. Therefore, you should review your action plan as frequently as needed, but at least annually. Arrange for ongoing review and discussion of group progress and proposed changes in the action plan. And, when new and important changes occur (e.g., a long-awaited policy change by a major employer), celebrate them.

Overall, focus on “small wins” versus creating “the perfect program.” This approach will:

• Reward outcomes versus actions
• Provide multiple opportunities for celebration
• Allow coalition partners to work together by asking each other to do their part while not demanding that everyone be locked into a single course of action
• Provide a sensitive measure of progress that can be monitored periodically to support improvement and accountability

Throughout evaluation of progress, celebration of progress, and renewal of the action plan as the community environment changes over time, maintain this key perspective:

Your community coalition is a catalyst for change, helping to bring about a series of community and system changes related to the mission, rather than simply the delivery of a single program or service. While evaluation has its place in all initiatives, try to focus more on contribution rather than attribution as your community implements its action plan.

Action planning includes:

• Key officials
• Grassroots leaders
• Representatives of key sectors
• Representatives from all parts of the community, including diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic groups
• Listening to the community
• Documenting problems that affect healthy youth development
• Identifying risk and protective factors
• Developing a framework for action
• Becoming aware of local resources and efforts
• Refining your group's vision, mission, objections, and strategies
• Refining your group' s choice of targets and agents of change
• Determining what community sectors should be involved in the solution
• Developing a tentative list of changes to be sought in each sector
• Building consensus on proposed changes
• Outlining action steps for proposed changes
• Documenting progress on bringing about community and system changes
• Renewing your group' s efforts along the way

When you complete these activities, celebrate (for now)   You have developed a blueprint for action.

• Understand the community’s perception of both the issue at hand and its potential solutions.
• Assure inclusive and integrated participation across community sectors in the planning process.
• Build consensus on what can and should be done based on the community’s unique assets and needs.
• Specify concrete ways in which members of the community coalition can take action.

Myles Horton, the late founder of the Highlander Center, talked about "making the road by walking." The work of transforming communities and systems to promote healthy youth development will be made by joining with local people who care enough to make needed changes. As we do this important work, we realize that we walk the path of those before us. And, eventually, with those who will carry on this cause after we are gone.

Online Resources

Concerns Report Handbook: Planning for Community Health

Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Preventing Youth Violence: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Promoting Child Well-Being: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Promoting Health for All: Improving Access and Eliminating Disparities in Community Health

Promoting Healthy Living and Preventing Chronic Disease: An Action Planning Guide for Communities

Promoting Urban Neighborhood Development: An Action Planning Guide for Improving Housing, Jobs, Education, Safety and Health, and Human Development

Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Youth Development: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

Print Resources

Fawcett, S., Carson, V., Collie, V., Bremby, R., & Raymer, K. (May 2000). Promoting Health for All: An Action Planning Guide for Improving Access and Eliminating Disparities in Community Health. KU Work Group on Health Promotion & Community Development, Lawrence, Kansas.

Francisco, V., Holt, C., Swenson, J., & Fawcett, S. (November 2002). Youth Development: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives . KU Work Group on Health Promotion & Community Development, Lawrence, Kansas.

Puddy, R., Fawcett, S., & Francisco, V. (July 2002). Promoting Child Well-Being: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives . KU Work Group on Health Promotion & Community Development, Lawrence, Kansas.

Tarlov, A., & St. Peter, R. (2000 ). The Society and Population Health Reader: A State and Community Perspective . New York: The New Press. Chapter Four: Fawcett, S., Francisco, V., Hyra, D., Paine-Andrews, A., Shultz, J., Russos, S., Fisher, J., & Evensen, P. Building Healthy Communities.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Planned Approach to Community Health: Guide for the Local Coordinator . Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

7 Examples of Problem-Solving Scenarios in the Workplace (With Solutions)

What is problem-solving anyway, problem-solving scenario #1: tight deadlines and heavy workload.

• Problem-solving Scenario #2: Handling a Product Launch

Problem-solving Scenario #3: Internal Conflicts in the Team

Problem-solving scenario #4: team not meeting targets, problem-solving scenario #5: team facing high turnover, problem-solving scenario #6: team member facing discrimination, problem-solving scenario #7: new manager unable to motivate a team, building an effective problem-solving framework, wrapping up, frequently asked questions for managers.

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Problem-Solving Scenarios for Managers

• Talk to the team members: John begins by asking what’s holding them back. Based on their responses, he realizes that he needs to delegate better. Immediately, John schedules meetings to  clarify each member’s expectations , priorities, and roles and ensure everyone is on the same page. He also makes a note to work on his delegation skills.
• Plan things: John creates a project timeline or task list that outlines the deadlines and deliverables for each team member and shares this with the team to ensure that everyone is aware of what is expected of them.
• Support the team: The team sits together to establish regular check-ins or progress updates to ensure members can ask questions or raise concerns.

Problem-solving Scenario # 2 : Handling a Product Launch

• Review and redraw plans:  Emily revisited the project plan and identified areas where the team could reduce the scope or prioritize features to meet the budget constraints.
• Go for alternatives:  The team then explored alternative resources or suppliers to find cost-effective options. Are there any underutilized resources, equipment, or personnel from other projects or departments that can be temporarily assigned to this project? Moreover, they revisited their suppliers and negotiated further.
• Outsourcing parts of the project:  Emily considered outsourcing some project functions to external contractors or freelancers. Eventually, they outsourced the marketing to another team and continued working on the core features.
• Upgrade the available capacity:  Emily and her team invested in upskilling the present workforce with additional skills. It allowed some team members to explore exciting areas and supplemented the team.
• Get both sides onboard: Taylor begins the conflict resolution process by talking to both team members. She recognizes the issue and first goes into individual discussions with both. Later, she sets up a meeting for both to share their perspectives.
• Mediation:  In the next step, the manager encourages the two team members to talk to each other and resolve the conflict independently. Taylor describes how the optimal contribution can look different for different team members. Additionally, she encourages them to be more open and collaborative so that they understand what the other one does.
• Preventing mistakes again:  The team holds a meeting to discuss the issue and allow other team members to express their thoughts and feelings. By not hiding the problem that happened in front of everyone, Taylor acknowledges the issues and shows that she cares about the things happening inside the team. Further, by discussing and sharing, they can build a healthy relationship to prevent similar issues in the future. 
• Use formal tools: Lastly, they establish clear guidelines and expectations for behavior and communication within the team to prevent future conflicts. Training and coaching are also added to help team members improve their communication and conflict-resolution skills.
• Discussions with the Sales Representatives: Donna starts by having one-on-one conversations with each team member to understand their perspectives on why the targets are not being met. After gathering insights from personal discussions, Donna calls for a team meeting. During the session, she allows team members to share their experiences, challenges, and suggestions openly. 
• Analysis of Sales Process: Donna conducts a detailed sales process analysis, from lead generation to closing deals. She identifies bottlenecks and areas where the team might be facing difficulties. This analysis helps her pinpoint specific stages that need improvement. 
• Setting Realistic Targets: Donna understands that overly ambitious targets might be demotivating. She collaborates with her team to develop more achievable yet challenging sales targets based on their current performance and market conditions. She organizes training sessions and workshops to help team members develop the necessary skills and knowledge to excel. 
• Recognition and Incentives: Donna introduces a recognition program and incentives for meeting and exceeding targets to motivate the team. This helps boost morale and encourages healthy competition within the team. She closely monitors the team’s progress toward the revised targets. 
• Conduct Exit Interviews:  As the stream of resignation continues, Neil adopts a realistic approach and starts by attempting to understand the issues his former team members face. He conducts exit interviews with the people leaving and tries to determine what’s wrong. 
• Understand the current team:  In the next step, Neil tries to learn the perspectives of staying people. Through surveys and conversations, he lists the good parts of working in his team and emphasizes them. He also finds the challenges and works on reducing them. 
• Change and adapt to employee needs:  These conversations help Neil enable a better work environment to help him contain turnover and attract top talent. Moving forward, he ensures that pay is competitive and work is aligned with the employee’s goals. He also involves stakeholders to create development and growth opportunities for his team.
• Be approachable and open: Erica first ensures she can gather all the details from the team members. She provides them with a safe space and comfort to express their concern and ensures that action will be taken. She supports the targeted team members, such as access to counselling or other resources.
• Adopt and follow an official policy: Developing and enforcing anti-discrimination policies that clearly state the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is the first step to creating a safe workplace. Erica refers to the policy and takes immediate action accordingly, including a thorough investigation.
• Reiterating commitment and goals: Providing diversity and inclusion training to all team members to help them understand the impact of discrimination and how to prevent it is essential to create a safe workplace. Erica ensures that the team members are aware of the provisions, the DEI goals set by the organization, and 
• Connect with the team: Andrew starts by conducting one-on-one meetings with team members to understand their personal and professional goals, challenges, and strengths. Observing team dynamics and identifying any issues or obstacles hindering motivation and productivity also helps.
• Involving team members in the process: Seeking feedback from team members on what motivates them and what they want to see from their manager to feel more inspired.
• Enabling and empowering: Offering opportunities for growth and development, such as training, mentoring, or leadership roles, helped Andrew contribute to his team’s development. 
• Take help from Merlin: Andrew reached out to Merlin, the AI chatbot of Risely, to get tips whenever he got stuck. Merlin sought details about his issues and shared some tips to help out Andrew. Here is what it looked like: 

• Develop a problem-solving process: To get problem-solving right for multiple scenarios repeatedly, the key is to remember and set a problem-solving approach that works across the board. A wide-ranged problem-solving process that begins with identification and concludes at the resolution helps managers navigate various challenges the profession throws us. 
• Learn to identify problems: The key to solving problems is placing them at the right moment. If you let some problems pester for long, they can become more significant issues for the teams. Hence, building the understanding to identify issues is essential for managers.
• Think from multiple perspectives: As a problem-solver, you must care for various parties and stakeholders. Thus, thinking from numerous perspectives and considering ideas from a broad spectrum of people is a core skill. 
• Consistently work on skills: Like other managerial skills, problem-solving skills need constant practice and review. Over time, your skills can become more robust with the help of assessments and toolkits. Tools like Risely can help you with resources and constant guidance to overcome managerial challenges. Check out Risely today to start reaching your true potential.

Suprabha Sharma

Suprabha, a versatile professional who blends expertise in human resources and psychology, bridges the divide between people management and personal growth with her novel perspectives at Risely. Her experience as a human resource professional has empowered her to visualize practical solutions for frequent managerial challenges that form the pivot of her writings.

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65 Free Action Plan Templates For Excel, Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Docs

Last Updated on April 1, 2024 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

Featured Bonus Content: Get 65 Free Action Plan Templates! Click Here To Download It.

If you don’t want to spend years wishing you achieved your goals, you need to act on them now. The best way to do so is to have an action plan.

Having a long list of tasks to complete can be overwhelming. As you see the list grow, you may lose the motivation to do any of them. That said, if you have a step-by-step action plan that spells out your chores in achievable pieces, you can accomplish them without noticing.

Action plans assist in keeping track of your work progress. With an action plan in place, you’ll have an official start and end date, as well as an estimate of how long each step will take. You won’t have to spend mental energy each day trying to decide when and how to start. 

Also, you can use an action plan to keep track of your project budget and determine whether you need to change your time or resource estimates.

In this in-depth post, you’ll learn what an action plan is, why you need one, and how to make action plan templates on Microsoft Excel, Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Docs.

We’ll also answer some frequently asked questions about action plans. Finally, we’ll give you access to 65+ free, editable, and downloadable action plan templates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and Google Docs.

Let’s get started.

Chapter One: What is an Action Plan and Why Do You Need One?

Chapter Two: Action Plan Templates For Excel

Chapter Three: Action Plan Templates For Word

Chapter Four: Action Plan Templates For PDF

Chapter Five: Action Plan Templates For PowerPoint

Chapter Six: Action Plan Templates for Google Docs

Chapter Seven: How to Make an Action Plan on Excel, Word, and Google Docs

Chapter eight: action plan templates frequently asked questions (faqs), chapter nine: create and manage your action plans using sweetprocess.

Every situation benefits from having an action plan. It is a simple success roadmap if used judiciously. In your job, business, or personal endeavor, a well-designed action plan will highlight what to do at every point and assist you in tracking achieved tasks. 

For instance, do you want to switch to a tech career by a specific age? An action plan helps you consider your existing qualifications, identify your existing strengths, and point you to the courses you’re going to need to take to successfully achieve this transition. You can also include the top tech organizations you’ll hopefully transition into.  

If you’re working on a project, the action plan forces you to consider the number of resources you have at your disposal, the complexity of the project or objective at hand, and the level of detail necessary when executing the project. 

What is an Action Plan?

Action plans are communication tools that simplify complex tasks and initiatives. It is an organizational strategy framework for identifying steps that you must take to achieve a goal. 

When using an action plan, you should consider and map out specific tasks to help the organization set quality standards and save costs. This enables you to avoid trial and error as much as possible. 

An action plan is a social planning tool. With it, you can document actions that serve as a symbol of a company’s or nation’s accountability. 

For instance, an action plan might be used by a city to express plans to enhance a neighborhood. This could involve plans for adding green spaces, services, living streets, and better rail service.

Why You Need an Action Plan

Many companies have a growth strategy, but nothing gets done at the end of the day. This happens because they have no action plan to follow to provide a roadmap for how and when to complete each task. 

Your action plan is a working document that makes your strategy a reality. As a result, you achieve your tasks and allocate resources to your team for efficient job implementation.

You need an action plan so you can:

• Focus on specific goals

Action plans provide you with the framework to efficiently execute specific tasks, so you complete your work without distractions. 

• Logically complete tasks

It assists you in completing your tasks in a logical order and ensures that you do not overlook or miss any essential steps. 

• Effectively delegate tasks

Action plans make it easy to determine when you need to delegate or outsource tasks. The document quickly points you to what job to outsource and how to do it. That way, you’ll save time and effort as you’re able to delegate tasks that slow your progress or do not achieve the end goal for your business. 

• Efficiently keep records 

Having an action plan lets you document the time and resources you’ll likely spend on tasks. This way, you stay motivated and ensure that you complete your job in as short a period as possible.

• Avoid procrastination

With an effective action plan, you’ll avoid procrastination. This is because an action plan provides you with a visual map that documents achievement in a structured manner. As a result, it helps you see your progress when you need to complete each job faster. 

What You Should Include in Your Action Plan

Action plans are likely to fail for two reasons: You may not take action as written on the document, or you fail to include the essential points to make the path to success clear in the action plan.

When creating an action plan, here are the specifics to include to use it efficiently.

Define your goal

You need to understand your goal before creating an effective action plan. Having this at the top of your action plan motivates you to keep moving forward.

State the actions 

Write out the step-by-step actions that are involved in doing every task. This will help you to achieve your set goals and minimize decision fatigue.

List the persons in charge 

Mention the employees who will be handling each step. This introduces accountability to your action plan and creates a sense of responsibility in the mind of stakeholders.

Timeline 

You’ll be less likely to achieve your goals if you don’t attach your set goals to a particular deadline. Having a deadline for each step keeps you on your toes to effectively deliver your tasks.

Resources 

Identify the assets you need to allocate for each step. When resources are not available, your action plan will experience a delay. Therefore, in your action plan, ensure that you include plans to acquire the necessary resources to meet your project delivery deadline. 

Potential barriers 

Be mindful of the factors that can potentially hinder the completion of each step. Considering this will force you to have mitigation strategies in place for every foreseeable problem that arises.

Track your progress

It won’t be fair to realize that your goals won’t be met at the end of your task. You should track your progress to avoid this. Not tracking each process leads to mistakes and inefficiencies, and you’ll waste time going back to fix your errors. 

Why Use an Action Plan Template?

Are you a worker who wishes to enhance your job performance, or a project manager whose task is to delegate responsibilities to team members? 

You need an action plan to help organize human and material resources. With this, you can identify a clear route to meet your objectives and confidently manage related tasks in the most effective sequence to attain your goal.

But creating an action plan from scratch could be time-consuming for you. Hence, the need for an action plan template.

Action plan templates are industry-specific, ready-made documents that you can instantly download and use. 

You need to use action plan templates because they not only help you stay motivated and track your progress toward your goals, but they also help you save time as you can adopt them very quickly.

Whether you’re working alone or with others, action plan templates guide you in all categories of your work and can be a reference for those who should be held responsible for each task. Using an action plan template helps you prevent delays and errors.

Action plan templates enable you to transform your vision into attainable objectives and tasks. 

How to Make an Effective Action Plan

To make an action plan, here are steps to consider:

Step 1: Define the problem

The first step to solving a problem is to understand what it is. By identifying the problem, you can assess the circumstances surrounding the problem and examine possible solutions.

At this point, you’ll consider all ideas and ask for feedback from your team and the parties interested in solving the problem. 

Step 2: Gather and analyze information

The next step is to gather and analyze the collected data to support or reject whether the problem exists or has a different root cause than you anticipated. 

You would figure this out by asking questions like: 

• What is the root source of the problem?
• What do others think about the situation? 

Step 3: Define and prioritize the problems

In cases where you find there are more problems than the ones you envisioned, there is a need to prioritize them so that you may focus on the most pressing issues first. 

Ask yourself the following questions to assist you in sorting the concerns:

• Which issue is likely to cause more problems?
• Which problems have the most considerable influence on the operation’s long-term financial stability?

Step 4: Write a goal statement for each solution

Now that you’ve identified the problems and gathered information associated with it, write out the goals’ statement for each solution using the S.M.A.R.T framework. Setting S.M.A.R.T. objectives or goals means the goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. 

You should then look through the solutions and analyze them for difficulties. If you identify any, then find a solution as you proceed.

Step 5: Put solutions into action—the action plan

Next is to itemize the actual steps to solve the issues. 

An action plan developed this way will let you complete your tasks effectively and efficiently. It will also transform your elusive goal or strategy into a people-oriented solution. 

Then create your resulting action plan. This should answer what, when, how, where, and who.

Step 6: Evaluate your process

Walk through each action’s process. Evaluating the process is the best strategy to determine if the goal and action plan effectively resolve the issue. 

Sticking to a well-designed monitoring technique will assist you and your team in determining when the action plan requires revision.

Chapter Two: Action Plan Templates for Excel

Excel is an intuitive tool for creating an action plan template. We’ve compiled some free action plan templates for Excel below, which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Work action plan template 

Click here to download the Work Action Plan Template

The work action plan template contains a list of actions you must complete to accomplish a simple project. In addition, it has sections documenting needed resources, possible difficulties, and results. 

You can use your action plan to structure tactics and modest stages toward reaching long-term objectives. 

• Corrective action plan template

The corrective action plan template lets you spell out the steps needed to deal with an issue disrupting your organization’s operations. 

Businesses can streamline their procedures and remove errors when they use these templates. Corrective action can take numerous forms, including training, product redesigns, and other enhancements. This template enables users to make a cohesive action plan. 

• Mentoring action plan template

A mentoring action plan template identifies the mentor and mentee relationship’s actions and goals. With this template, you’ll have the themes to focus on to help your mentee define their professional goals.

• Excel sales action plan template

The Excel sales action plan template helps you plan your sales targets using the built-in flexibility of an Excel spreadsheet. This sales plan template is segmented into 12 months and divided into product lines. 

It includes columns for last year’s performance, current sales goals, and outcomes. It also lets you create a yearly sales strategy and compare statistics across products and over time.

• Maintenance action plan template

A maintenance action plan template is a document that outlines what must be done to keep assets in a facility in good working order. The information in the template will assist you in ensuring that an asset is used to its full potential. You can keep track of maintenance schedules using the estimated time column, and check and record accountability when the task is complete.

Chapter Three: Action Plan Templates for Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most straightforward tools for making an action plan template. It provides you with easy-to-use features to achieve an easy-to-read, comprehensive document.

Here are some free action plan templates for Word, which you can

download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Project action plan template

The project action plan template provides you with a place to document the steps needed to finish a simple project or goal. In addition, it identifies the vital tasks you need to focus on to deliver your projects within timelines successfully. 

• Blank action plan template

The blank action plan template outlines a series of stages or activities that must be done to complete the work or task correctly. It helps you keep track of task accomplishments and the money and equipment needed to execute the action. 

• Sales action plan template

A sales action plan template outlines what you’ll do to meet your sales objectives, with an emphasis on the transactions and relationships you can build with clients.

Things included in this template are: 

• Who your top customer segments are
• Your revenue target
• How to structure your teams for success 
• Sample corrective action plan template

A sample corrective action plan template helps you lay out the process of prioritizing and correcting specific hazards or deficiencies in running your organization. In addition, it helps you to deal with any issue that may disrupt your workflow. 

It has sections to streamline your work process while eliminating errors.

• Startup action plan template

This startup business plan template includes the essential elements you’ll need to pitch investors and stakeholders on your business idea and strategy. 

An executive summary, a financial overview, a marketing plan, specifics on product or service offerings, and more are all included in the template.

• Personal development action plan template

The personal development action plan template provides you with an assessment for personal growth in the context of professional goals, education, relationship, or self-improvement. This is usually based on awareness, values, reflection, goal setting, and planning.

• Non-profit action plan template

A nonprofit action plan template outlines your organization’s current state and lays out a strategy for the next three to five years. It also details your objectives and plans for achieving your organizational goals. 

You need to consistently update your charity business plan to reflect your changing goals and circumstances.

• Account action plan template

The account action plan template provides your sales team with practical and effective strategies for transforming major account relationships into long-term partnerships. 

It serves as a tool for the sales team to plan and manage the account and keeps critical developments up to date for management. It’s also used to maintain control of the account’s performance.

• Basic action plan template

The basic action plan template contains sections to focus on when achieving your fundamental goals. It allows you to create action stages that you can prioritize and keep track of when completing your project while you measure progress and evaluate performance. 

• Education action plan template

An education action plan template allows you to monitor the progress of a new educator through the set objectives toward a goal of achieving professional growth. Also, it provides instructional assistance and comprehensive assessment across educational boards. 

•   Sample action plan template

This sample action plan template allows you to manage your work and complete tasks on schedule. It provides you with information such as the purpose of your plan, instructions for using it, goals, and action items. 

It also allows you to add the timeframe for completion, who is responsible, resources, potential hurdles, communication strategy, evaluation method, and so on.

•   Simple action plan template

The simple action plan template allows you to keep track of the tasks that must be accomplished daily to achieve a larger goal. You can document your objectives, task list, success criteria, timeframe, and available resources. Each page has a label where you may enter information about your firm in addition to tables and images.

Chapter Four: Action Plan Templates for PDF

You can easily create your action plan templates in PDF format. We’ve compiled 20+ free action plan templates for PDF, which you can

•  Recruitment action plan template

The recruitment action plan template helps you recruit potential partners for your company. It includes responsibilities for recruitment and appointment, and recruitment timing so that potential partners are tracked and approached on time.

• Team action plan template

The team action plan template includes sections for listing team members and keeping track of attendance at multiple planning sessions. 

It also includes all of the necessary components for producing an effective action plan for a team with a straightforward layout that makes group work more accessible. 

•   Epilepsy action plan template 

The epilepsy action plan template includes a section for healthcare providers and patients to collect data about the patient’s health. 

This template encourages healthcare practitioners to use a shared decision-making approach that allows the person with epilepsy and their family to engage as partners in all healthcare decisions in a collaborative relationship.

•   Emergency action plan template

The emergency action plan template outlines detailed procedures for dealing with any work-related situation that is likely to occur. An emergency action plan is a written strategy that specifies the proper response to several unforeseen emergencies. 

This template makes it easy to create and share emergency action plans that include names and phone numbers for emergency personnel, utility company emergency contacts, and training plans.

• Business action plan template

A business action plan template lays out the needed resources to achieve a goal, creates a timeframe for completing specific activities, and determines the resources required to achieve the business’s aim. 

This template has sections for recording required resources, future challenges, and ultimate outcomes. Successful completion of an action item may be the end outcome, or you might have discovered more actions needed during the process. 

• Incident action plan template

The incident action plan template is a written document that outlines the incident objectives and the techniques used to manage them over the operating time. 

It contains critical information on who to contact in an emergency, task assignments, resources, and safety requirements, based on the incident objectives.

• 90-day action plan template

A 90-day action plan template contains a framework for onboarding, acclimating, and educating new team members. It establishes expectations for what the person is expected to do in the first 90 days including learning and performance objectives.

A 90-day action plan template helps you set short- and long-term goals for new employees.

• Affirmative action plan template

An affirmative action plan template defines your company’s attempt to provide equitable employment opportunities and encourage employee progress regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, or veteran status. Based on federal rules, affirmative action should be reviewed and updated at least once a year.

• Strategic action plan template

A strategic action plan template provides you with steps needed to achieve strategic actions. It allows you to mobilize the resources needed to carry out those activities to ensure timely task delivery. 

• Housekeeping action plan template

The housekeeping action plan template shows how to recruit and train housekeeping staff. It delineates the goals and objectives for training as well as the training stages. 

• Human resources action plan template

The human resource action plan template provides a continual process of systematic planning beforehand to ensure that the organization’s most important asset (quality employees) are used to their full potential. 

Human resource planning ensures that employees and jobs are a good match while preventing labor shortages or surpluses.

• Church emergency action plan template

A church emergency action plan template is a document that provides answers to all questions of what, where, when, how, and who in a church emergency event. 

The more detailed the plan is, the less valuable time will be lost in a calamity. In addition, this plan can provide information on a familiar gathering spot in an emergency, ensuring that no one is left behind.

• Physical fitness action plan template

The physical fitness action plan template allows you to complete the daily fitness routine. By completing the fitness action plan you reduce the chances of developing certain illnesses and diseases that may arise due to inactivity. Physical activity aids in the maintenance of healthy bones, muscles, joints, as well as weight management. 

• Company emergency action plan template

The company emergency action plan template documents all the critical and significant information to create a solid emergency action plan. This template comes with various headers, sections, and fields that you can modify to suit your company’s specific needs.

• Discipline action plan template

A discipline action plan template contains the information necessary to maintain a company’s or organization’s standards of behavior. In the workplace, the purpose of discipline is to correct wrong behavior step-wise and document each step in the process. 

A disciplinary action policy can shield you from legal implications while also preventing issues from impacting your staff and company. 

•   Diving emergency action plan template

The diving emergency action plan template provides explicit instructions to help uneducated witnesses contact emergency personnel and provide them with details about diving accidents.

In an emergency, processing too much information wastes time. So information that includes a scuba-specific emergency hotline, standard emergency numbers, and diving locations are essential. 

• Personal mental health action plan template

The personal mental health action plan template makes personal health goals simpler for you, although planning personal health does take time and effort. 

Still, the template emphasizes the significance of prevention while also recognizing the critical role of mental health in achieving health for all individuals.

• Early years action plan template

The preschool or early years action plan template allows you to create the school action plan for your children, making it easier for them to learn and grow. 

As a teacher, you must establish an action plan for your students to benefit both the students and yourself.

• Library action plan template

The library planning action plan templates aid institutions in addressing broader shifts in how information is sought, accessed, and consumed so that students prepare ahead for success in an increasingly data- and knowledge-based world. 

Higher education institutions can use library strategic planning to save money, control rising student fees, and meet accreditation requirements.

• Presentation action plan template

The presentation action plan template provides a blueprint to prepare slides or collections of slides that you can use for a meaningful presentation. It includes layouts, colors, fonts, effects, background styles, and content to guide your presentation.

• Gender action plan template

The gender action plan template contains a road map for gender activities that a company or organization has adopted. 

Its goal is to make institutions’ operations more gender-responsive, transformative, effective, efficient, and successful by redressing existing gender disparities and redefining women’s and men’s gender roles and relationships through gender mainstreaming guidelines.

• Church mission action plan template

A church mission action plan template provides a hopeful and optimistic glimpse into the future. It’s the church’s inspiring, long-term plan for what they’ll be able to do, who they’ll help, and how they’ll be seen in the future. 

• Wellness recovery action plan template

A wellness recovery action plan template is a framework that teaches how to make positive personal adjustments in your feelings and how you respond to life’s obstacles. 

It is a self-designed preventive and wellness planning technique based on mutuality, self-determination, and the concept that resilience, recovery, and wellness have no bounds.

• Employee action plan template

An employee action plan template contains an incorporated performance planning process that maps out the steps an employee plans in order to achieve a particular goal or objective. 

It provides a process that an organization must develop to identify and prioritize their actions and identify quick and simple changes to demonstrate to employees that it is committed to implementing an action plan in response to employee engagement feedback.

• Family emergency action plan template

The family emergency plan template is a valuable document that helps you identify each family member’s roles in an emergency and guides you and your family members to work together as a team in the event of a disaster. 

It’s an essential aspect of any preparedness strategy and may help protect people’s lives, limbs, and property before, during, and after a disaster.

• Advertising action plan template

A marketing action plan template is a crucial tool that can assist your marketing department in determining the subsequent measures to take to improve the company’s marketing procedures. 

It has both a marketing strategy and an action plan. The vision, goals, and target audience of your organization are defined in the strategic component of the design.

• Printable action plan template

The printable action plan template provides you with a solid reference point for gathering and printing actual copies of action plans without the need for any special software or device. In addition, it gives ease in writing on them and highlighting essential portions of relevant themes. 

• Internal audit corrective action plan template

The internal audit corrective action plan template helps you adhere to the step-by-step instructions to conduct the financial inspection of your company. In addition, it allows you to determine cost-saving strategies and reveal spending deficiencies.

It is the state where you can discover the answer to your financial situation’s nonconformity. The strategy aims to avoid and regulate the recurrent problem. It addresses the issue at its source and reduces the likelihood of recurrence.

Chapter Five: Action Plan Templates for PowerPoint

PowerPoint helps you visualize your action plan. Here are some free and downloadable action plan templates for PowerPoint, which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Meeting minutes action plan template

The meeting minutes action plan template contains written notes taken during a meeting. They emphasize the essential subjects debated, motions made or voted on, and activities carried out. 

You can use the meeting minute template to keep track of your project or company meetings. This easy-to-follow, step-by-step template for minutes contains a formatting style that everyone in the conference will appreciate.

• Task action plan template

A task action plan template is a document that outlines the steps necessary to achieve your goal. A solid action plan will specify all of the required procedures to attain your goal and assist in reaching your target efficiently by giving each stage in the process a start and end date. It also breaks down the goal into short, quantifiable activities, which might assist in achieving your objectives. 

• Project planning timeline

A project planning timeline template encompasses the whole duration of your project, from beginning to end, and includes the dates of each deliverable and project milestone in chronological sequence. It allows the project manager to see all the tasks in one spot, making planning easy.

Chapter Six: Action Plan Templates for Google Docs 

Google Docs helps you create action plan templates for your business

from scratch. Here are some editable and downloadable action plan

templates for Google Docs, which you can download, tweak, and use for

your organization.

• Retention action plan template

The employee retention action plan template contains an easy-to-edit format to assist with adjustments to the employer-employee contract. Using retention action plan templates makes it easy to keep your valuable human resources team . 

Some of the standard components of the retention action plan include survey and exit interview analyses, the employer’s strengths and weaknesses, the retention plan’s purpose, and finally, the exact measures to be implemented.

• Reading action plan template

The reading action plan template outlines the steps you’ll take to reach your reading objective. This involves the reading exercise, rewriting the learned concepts through the recall process, and taking meaningful notes. Maybe you need to ace an exam or teach an idea to others; the reading action plan template is a tool to achieve reading success.

• One-page action plan template

A one-page action plan template allows every organization, particularly new start-ups, to quickly develop new versions of their business plan to keep track of the most recent assumptions and strategy changes. 

Sequential planning is essential when you’re starting your business plan. List your original assumptions, and then try to validate the assumptions. Most of your premises will be incorrect, and you will need to shift course.

• Employee engagement survey action plan template

As the name implies, an employee engagement action plan template provides a strategy that necessitates deliberate action. The goal of an employee engagement action plan is to help your team members become more engaged, have a better working environment, and increase staff retention. 

An employee engagement action plan is an essential process that organizations should go through to determine the activities to improve the organization’s structure. However, you must demonstrate the changes to your staff through employee feedback and meetings.

• Work action plan template

The work action plan template is a detailed work plan template that guides you in achieving success in your initiatives. The steps of the work plan, as well as critical data, are clearly described. The template also makes it easier to focus on the most vital issues like: 

• What resources are available?
• What resources are required? 
• What are the points of resistance you must address? 
• What is your strategy for each step’s communication?
• Change management action plan template

A change management action plan template can assist you in document management including tracking document owners and responsible parties. 

You’ll need a change management strategy to thrive in business. During the control and execution stage of your change management plan, this template describes all of your duties in managing and controlling change.

•   Company action plan template

The company action plan template sets out every piece of a standard business plan to help you develop your own. It includes space for companies seeking investment to add finance information. 

• Personal action plan template

If you want to achieve your goals systematically, use the personal action plan template. A personal action plan template can influence you to achieve more productive and efficient results. 

• Sales and marketing action plan template

The sales and marketing action plan template outlines how you intend to attract, engage, and convert prospects into paying customers. The template directs marketing and sales in their day-to-day actions, assisting them in defining agreed goals, and strategies for achieving them.

• Compliance corrective action plan template

Compliance corrective action plan template includes compliance action plans to ensure that your organization and staff follow the standards you’ve set for a work environment, as well as the standards set by local and national governments. 

The contents, such as actions and tasks, must be as precise as possible so that your team members understand what needs to be done right away.

• Easy action plan template

An easy action plan template consists of a list of actions or tasks that must be accomplished to achieve the goals you’ve set. This easy action plan template will guide you to get through the disorderly situation and help you reach your goals faster. 

• Stay interview action plan template

A stay interview action plan template includes a planned conversation that a leader has with each employee to understand the precise steps that must be taken to improve the organization’s engagement and retention.

•   Rescue diver emergency action plan template

The rescue diver emergency action plan template provides potential diving accident victims the aid and guidance to help themselves and assist rescuers during response.

• 100-day action plan template 

A 100-day action plan template provides you with a structure to onboard, accommodate, and educate new team members. It outlines expectations for what the person should do in the first 100 days, including learning and performance goals.

• 30-day action plan template 

A 30-day action plan template provides you with a structure for figuring out how to onboard and educate new team members . In addition, it defines expectations for the individual in the first 30, 60, and 90 days as they learn to manage social media.

• Case management action plan template

A case management action plan template allows case managers to record, plan and execute case actions. It includes the overall administration of cases and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of service needs.

• First aid action plan template 

The first aid action plan template assists you in dealing with a health crisis. Following it helps keep a person breathing, lessen their discomfort, or mitigate the effects of an accident or unexpected sickness before the ambulance comes.

You can take first aid training so you can recognize an emergency and provide basic first aid until expert help comes.

Below are some ways to make an action plan template. 

How to Make an Action Plan in Word

Word is a popular commercial word processor created by Microsoft. It is included in the Microsoft Office productivity package and is available as a standalone application.

You can create an action plan on Microsoft Word.

Here is how to do so:

• Open your Microsoft Word application

Select a blank document on your Microsoft Word application home tab and click on create. This will create a new Word application for you.

• Insert table into the document

Next is to click on the “Insert” tab, then select “Insert Table.” Create a table of five columns and five rows.

• Type text into your table

Insert text headers: Action, Who, Due Date, Status, and Additional Action to your table. 

Then, under each header, state the action you want to achieve, who’s responsible for achieving it, the due date for completing the action, its current status, and additional tasks or actions that may arise from that task.

Below is a video tutorial that walks you through how to do this:

How to Make an Action Plan in Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet tool available as a web, mobile, and desktop application. It’s perfect for creating an action plan and similar to Google Sheets.

This is the step-by-step process for creating an action plan in Excel.

• Open an Excel spreadsheet

Open your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and click on the “New” tab. Then double click on a blank document or click on the “Create” tab.

• Select a portion of the sheet 

Left-click, hold, and drag your cursor to the portion of the Excel spreadsheet that you want to use as your action plan.

• Give your area selection a border

After selecting, click on the icon as shown in the image below, then select “All Borders.” This will give the selected area a nice full border, making your selected area stand out from the entire spreadsheet.

As shown in the image below, type text in the headers of your table and label each as What, Who, When, Status and Comments.

Now you can fill in what your action is, who will be in charge of it, when the action should be completed, the status of the completion, and any needed comments.

This video tutorial below shows how to create an action plan on Microsoft Excel:

How to Create an Action Plan in Google Docs

Google Docs is a word processing tool that comes with Google’s free,

web-based Google Workspace suite. It’s perfect for creating an action plan template similar to Microsoft Word. Its sweet spot is that it allows you to share the document with your team easily.

This is the process for creating an action plan on Google Docs.

• Open Google Docs from Drive

Make sure that you log in to your Google accounts. Then, from Google applications, open Drive, then open Google Docs as shown in the image below. 

• Title your action plan

Give your action plan a befitting title. 

• Insert a table

Now click on Insert, then Table. 

• Type in header text

After that, type in the header text and label each, as shown in the image below.

Below is a video tutorial on how to create and share action plan templates with your team:

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about action plan templates.

How do I make a simple action plan?

To make a simple action plan template, you need to: 

• Determine your goals. State what you want to achieve with your action plan. 
• Write down your objectives. It will be challenging to track what you want to achieve if you don’t write it down.
• Establish a deadline. Setting a deadline is the next step.
• Make a checklist. Create a list of your actions. 

What is a good action plan template?

A good action plan template guides you to achieve your goals and objectives and evaluate your progress.

Is there an action plan app?

Yes, there are different action plan apps. Examples are the 90 Day Action Plan on Google Playstore, My Action Plan app on AppStore , and InPhase Assurance app. 

You can also use SweetProcess iOS and Android apps as an action plan software to create and manage your company’s processes, procedures, and policies.

How effective are action plans?

Action plans are effective because they make your goals clearer. They also aid in forming consensus toward a goal and foster a sense of responsibility and accountability. 

What is the main purpose of an action plan?

The main purpose of an action plan is to specify the resources you need to achieve your goals and provide a schedule for when you must perform certain activities. 

How do I write a better action plan?

To write a better action plan, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, then make the objectives quantifiable. After this, download the relevant templates specified in this article and tweak them to represent your required actions.

SweetProcess helps organizations document their company’s policies, procedures, and processes.

If you want your team members to achieve their goals on time and become more productive at work, you can use our software to do so.

Here are some companies who have leveraged the power of our software to manage their employees effectively and efficiently in one place.

Spark Marketer is a marketing agency for small- and medium-sized local businesses that want to leverage digital marketing to grow their businesses. Its dedicated team works closely with companies to navigate the digital space and achieve measurable results. 

The Nashville-based company has a track record of success working with chimney businesses in the home services space. It is committed to offering its clientele a custom experience and more than essential online services. They also create marketing campaigns focused on the unique attributes of each business to generate continuous income.

One of the biggest problems Spark Marketer faced was a lack of documentation. As a result, employees depended on tribal knowledge to get things done, which resulted in disorganization in the workplace. 

“When you’re doing work to a standard, then you can measure against that standard. Before, we would have these nebulous conversations when we had to let someone go: ‘Well, we don’t feel like you’re doing the job well.’ ‘Show me where I wasn’t doing it well, and I’ll change.’ This is horrible to admit now. I’m almost ashamed to say it but you know, there was no objectivity,” said Carter Harkins, co-founder of Spark Marketer.

Then they adopted SweetProcess to foster growth . Carter and his partner were introduced to SOPs by a business consultant, and they gave it a shot using Google Docs. However, they soon began to see the importance of documentation, and as their business began to grow, they realized that Google Docs was insufficient to sustain their growth. 

Carter said, “Growth causes you to think differently. You start realizing what got us to this point will not get us to where we want to go, so it’s time to shift gears. It’s time to look for efficiencies, so I started looking for systems that would help us document our processes more easily and more uniformly, and I just literally went out and started scouring the web.”

How SweetProcess Changed the Game at Spark Marketer

SweetProcess has a reputation as a results-oriented software. Like many businesses, the team at Spark Marketer has been enjoying the benefits of the system. Carter provides more details of how the software has improved operations at his organization.

1. Simplified process documentation

Capturing the right amount of information makes the difference in business process documentation . On the other hand, your processes may not be of much help if they are overly detailed and clustered—this is often the case when you use manual tools such as Google Docs for your documentation. 

“In a Google Doc format, you’re grabbing an entire section of text and moving it up above and just trying to organize things, but with SweetProcess, it’s super simple to break things out into new tasks and reorder them so that everything flows in a much more natural way.

2. Decentralized knowledge base

Documenting business processes goes beyond writing a bunch of information. There is a need to sieve out relevant information from the shaft and make it easily accessible by team members using a knowledge base software . 

“The ability to group things into procedural or process-based groupings has been a real change for us. For example, in Google Docs, it was just turned into one folder that was shared with everybody, and nobody knew exactly how to find what they needed.”

All that time spent by employees looking for specific information for their tasks could be used better, and SweetProcess made that possible. 

“SweetProcess not only standardized the format but made it easy to create the teams that we needed so that you only see the processes that you need to see, which makes it so much easier for people to go find what they need.”

Another company, Zen Media , is a public relations (PR) firm specializing in the tech niche. Established in 2009, the Dallas-based organization captures key moments in a brand’s life and turns those moments into the talk of the town. Plus, they have a track record of offering results-driven PR services to B2B and B2C brands worldwide. 

The new generation PR agency gives brands their desired level of exposure and ensures that this translates into money. It uses various techniques to measure the performance of its PR campaigns to understand their efficiency and round up the numbers. 

When Stephanie Chavez resumed her role as the company’s chief marketing officer, she found out that they had a series of great products that catered to their client’s needs but lacked operational structure underneath this excellent performance. 

“We were always producing great products and doing a great job for our clients; that wasn’t debatable. What was debatable was the ‘how can we streamline?’ and so that was one of the first things that I noticed,” Stephanie said. 

In the absence of a central knowledge base , employees relied on tribal knowledge to get by. Little could be done when the people who knew how to perform specific tasks were indisposed, holding the organization hostage. 

“What happens if one of the employees is out or sick? Every client is a little bit different—the way we research their content topics and their hashtags and whatnot, they are all different,” she said. 

Having noticed the structural gap in the organization, Stephanie was keen on finding the right system to resolve the problem. She found her answer when she attended a marketing class organized by a friend on LinkedIn. He recommended SweetProcess as an effective tool for streamlining business operations , and she checked it out. 

“Anthony talked about SweetProcess, and I thought, well, I’m going to check that out, and it’s been really wonderful. I have each department go through it, and we have a list of all the things that they do that are repeatable each month so that I can make sure, ‘Hey, what did you put in this month? Let’s run through it and make sure it makes sense to everyone.’”

How SweetProcess Raised the Bar at Zen Media

Read on to see exactly how SweetProcess facilitated the growth at Zen Media.

1. Employee onboarding and training

Hiring more employees is necessary as a business grows, but it is a challenge for many organizations to bring new hires up to speed with the processes and procedures in place. The team at Zen Media now enjoys a seamless onboarding process thanks to SweetProcess. Rather than going through a rigorous onboarding process, they direct new employees to the standard operating procedures in the system to get all the information they need about their duties.  

“When we hire new interns or employees, I send them to a whole bunch of the SweetProcess steps that we have, and I just send in the email, link it, and say watch all these, go through these processes, and that’s the very first onboarding process.”

Employee training on SweetProcess is not a one-off. New and established team members can always go back to the system if they doubt any process or procedure.

2. Quality control and assurance 

Achieving desired results at the workplace is more feasible when team members operate on the same level and produce consistent results. Beyond creating uniformity in organizational output, quality assurance and quality control help to win customer trust and loyalty as the customers are sure to get great results repeatedly. SweetProcess has helped the company work consistently as a team rather than individually. 

“It helps from a consistency perspective because everyone might be doing something a little bit differently, and I think it’s really hard to scale. Think about McDonald’s: if everyone in every franchise were making their hamburgers a little bit different, it wouldn’t be McDonald’s because you couldn’t expect the same thing every time. So by having everyone on the same page with SweetProcess, they can have a more efficient and predictable result.”

Want to improve efficiency in your team? 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess today to create

and manage action plans at your organization. The best part? You do not need to add your credit card details to use the software for free.

An action plan helps you to achieve your goals. It transforms your vision into attainable results that boost your company’s growth. It also assists you in staying focused and success hungry. 

In this post, you’ve learned what action templates are and why you must use them to speed up your workflow instead of creating from scratch.

We also showed you 65 free action plan templates which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

Want to choose the action plan templates that are best to use for your

company? 

Click here to download the templates relevant to your industry , and get ahead of thousands of other businesses who have to build them from scratch. 

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Article • 9 min read

Action Learning Sets

Solving problems by doing and discussing.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor.

"A problem shared is a problem halved," as the saying goes. Action Learning Sets work on this basis, and build on it by bringing people with experience of a problem together to explore possible solutions, try them out, and develop them further.

A new solution isn't the only outcome, either. Participants learn from their fellow set members' practical experience of trying to solve parts of the problem, and by reflecting on the ideas shared in the group.

In this article, we'll look at how you can use Action Learning Sets to solve problems and help people learn from them.

What Are Action Learning Sets?

Professor Reginald Revans developed Action Learning Sets in the mid-1940s. He wrote extensively about them in his 1983 book, " ABC of Action Learning ."

Revans' approach was applied first in the U.K., and then in Belgium. According to later research , Revans' work in Belgium significantly improved the country's productivity. In the 1990s, action learning was reintroduced into the U.K. by consultants working in the banking industry.

The idea behind Action Learning Sets is that adults learn best when they can talk with one-another, reflect, and plan. Revans summed this up in the steps of his Action Learning Cycle (see figure 1, below):

Figure 1 – The Action Learning Cycle

Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Books UK. ABC of Action Learning. Reg Revan, Copyright © 2011 and Routledge.

Action Learning Sets put this theory into practice.

When used in a business context, they bring together small groups of people to think about a problem, try out solutions, and discuss and question the results. These people repeat the Action Learning Cycle until they've developed a good solution.

Revans chose the term "set" to differentiate action learning work from other kinds of group work – and in particular, from more therapeutic approaches. If you find this word confusing, consider using "group" or "team" instead.

Revans' theories have largely stayed the same since their inception, but they have been further developed by researchers looking into how they can be applied in different situations – for example, in virtual environments .

Why Use Action Learning Sets?

Action Learning Sets differ from many other good approaches to problem solving (such as Root Cause Analysis , Cause and Effect Analysis and Simplex ) in that they're useful where you need to "feel your way" to a full solution through repeated cycles of work or experimentation.

Action Learning Sets also foster good work relationships , as people work closely to find the best approach to a problem.

They rely on conversation, criticism, and challenge within the group. This can make some people feel uncomfortable, but it can also encourage innovation and creative thinking on a more general basis.

When to Use Action Learning Sets

You can use Action Learning Sets to explore problems that are complex, that lack an apparent solution, or that would benefit from people's shared experience. You can also use them to look at long-term problems that need to be addressed with ongoing efforts.

For example, imagine that you want to address the high levels of stress that people experience in a specific role. You could create an Action Learning Set made up of people in that particular job. Everyone in the set will share the need to address this issue, and they all have a stake in the outcome.

How to Organize an Action Learning Set

Follow the steps below to organize and run an Action Learning Set. In these steps, we assume that you will be responsible for presenting the problem to the set. (In Revans' terminology, you are the "issue bringer.")

Step 1: Confirm the Topic to Address

Your first step is to confirm that the issue or problem you need to address is appropriate for an Action Learning Set.

Consider these questions:

• Is this issue open-ended?
• Can you take action on this issue?
• Does this issue affect a wider group of people?

If you can't answer "yes" to all of these questions, you may want to consider a different problem-solving approach .

Step 2: Appoint Set Members

Next, choose participants who have a stake in the problem at hand, as they will be more likely to take responsibility for their actions and advice.

Try to choose participants with a variety of backgrounds, and make sure that members take part voluntarily, so that they have a genuine interest in solving the problem.

Limit your set to five or six people: this will give everyone a chance to participate.

Step 3: Appoint a Leader

Some people find that it's helpful to appoint a set leader or facilitator . This person will need excellent listening skills , and they must be able to keep discussions on track.

Other people believe that learners lead themselves best. Revans himself took this view: he felt that, sometimes, inexperienced set leaders could interfere with, or even limit, the set's achievement.

One solution is to use a set leader for the first few cycles, and then let group members decide whether to continue with this approach or lead the set from within.

Step 4: Choose a Setting

Action Learning Sets are often most effective when they take place in an unfamiliar setting. This can break members out of established ways of thinking, and give them a fresh perspective.

Step 5: Run the Session

Use Revans' Action Learning Cycle as a basis for your set. As we show above, the four steps are:

Let's look at each step in more detail.

First, present the problem. Set members should then ask questions about the issue, check assumptions, and discuss potential solutions.

They may want to use CATWOE , Starbursting or the Six Thinking Hats technique to explore the issue from a variety of angles.

Once they have completed the first round of the cycle, members will need to use this stage to reflect on their progress and the obstacles they have encountered, as well as the issue itself.

After the initial discussion, talk about what each person has learned from it. Consider these questions:

• What new ideas or information did we discover?
• What assumptions did we dispel?
• What past mistakes can we learn from and avoid in the future?
• What barriers, if any, do we still face, and how has our view of them changed?
• What are our options for moving forward?
• What new approaches do our experiences suggest?

The learning phase is vital. Without it, the Action Learning Set could be just another project team tasked with solving a problem.

Your goal in this phase is to identify activities that could help resolve the problem, and develop an effective plan to undertake them.

If appropriate, each set member can agree to carry out or manage one of the proposed solutions and report on it at the next meeting.

Agree when your next meeting will be, and who will report on which tasks.

Now it's time to take action. Between meetings, everyone must work on their agreed activity, and monitor it so that they can report back to other set members.

In your next meeting, start the Action Learning Cycle again. Listen to members' reports, and examine what worked, what didn't, and what action members need to take now. Then, schedule another meeting to reflect and discuss your newly agreed action.

You can agree to a set number of meetings (after which the set will disband) or you can continue the action learning process until everyone is confident that the problem has been fully resolved.

Professor Reginald Revans developed Action Learning Sets in the mid-1940s, and wrote about the approach his 1983 book, " ABC of Action Learning ."

In business, you can use Action Learning Sets to bring together small groups of people to brainstorm and challenge an issue. They take action, meet to reflect on their results, and refine their approach until they solve the problem.

Action Learning Sets strengthen work relationships and improve teamwork. They can unite professionals with diverse backgrounds and experience to solve problems, and tackle complex issues.

International Foundation for Action Learning (n.d.) 'Where Action Learning Comes From and Where it's Going,' [online]. Available here . [Accessed 9 December 2013.]

International Institute of Management (n.d.) 'Reg Revans,' [online]. Available here . [Accessed 9 December 2013.]

Revans, R. (1983). ' ABC of Action Learning ,' Farnham: Gower.

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An A3 Report is a Toyota-pioneered practice of getting the problem, the analysis, the corrective actions, and the action plan down on a single sheet of large (A3) paper, often with the use of graphics. At Toyota, A3 reports have evolved into a standard method for summarizing problem-solving exercises, status reports, and planning exercises like value-stream mapping.

But it is much more than a sheet a paper with facts and figures. It is a management process  learned through dialogue about concrete problems. It does this by means of a dialogue between a lean manager and a subordinate who learns lean management and leadership as she solves an important problem.

This process of solving problems while creating better employees—A3 analysis—is core to the Toyota management system. An A3 report guides the dialogue and analysis. It identifies the current situation, the nature of the issue, the range of possible counter- measures, the best countermeasure, the means (who will do what when) to put it into practice, and the evidence that the issue has actually been addressed.

The lean leader’s job is to develop people. If the worker hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught. Training Within Industry Report (Washington, DC: War Manpower Commission, Bureau of Training, 1945).

Effective use of the A3 process can facilitate the shift from a  debate  about who owns what (an authority-focused debate) to a  dialogue  around  what is the right thing to do  (a responsibility-focused conversation). This shift has a radical impact on the way decisions are made. Individuals earn the authority to take action through the manner in which they frame the issue. They form consensus and get decisions made by focusing relentlessly on indisputable facts that they and their peers derive from the gemba.

As a result, A3 management can best be understood as neither “top-down” nor “bottom-up.” The process clarifies responsibility by placing ownership squarely on the shoulders of the author-owner of the A3, the individual whose initials appear in the upper right-hand corner of the paper. This person may not have direct authority over every aspect of the proposal. Yet this owner is clearly identified as the person who has taken or accepted responsibility  to get decisions made and implemented .

Example A3s

The Many Facets of A3

• A standard paper size:  At its most fundamental, “A3” is the international term for a sheet of paper 297 millimeters wide and 420 millimeters long. The closest U.S. paper size is the 11-by-17-inch tabloid sheet. 
• A template:  Many companies and individuals use an A3-sized document pre-printed with the steps needed to conduct lean problem-solving or improvement efforts, with generous white space for “A3 owners” to record their progress. While they refer to this document as a template, an “A3” is not a template.
• A storyboard:  As users record their problem-solving or improvement project’s progress, the A3 becomes a storyboard used to facilitate communication, collaboration, and coordination with other stakeholders affected by the goal the A3 owner is working toward (e.g., solving a problem or improving a  process ). By having all the facts about the effort in one place, logically presented and summarized, the A3 owner is better able to gain buy-in from other stakeholders for recommended process changes. 
• A report:  Once the A3 problem-solving effort concludes, the A3 storyboard serves as a report of the problem-solving or improvement initiative, including the facts and data gathered, hypotheses considered, countermeasures tried, experiment results, corrective actions taken, and the overall thinking of the A3 owner and stakeholders. At Toyota and elsewhere, A3 reports have evolved into a standard method for summarizing problem-solving exercises, status reports, and planning exercises like value-stream mapping.  
• A problem-solving methodology (or process):  Most lean practitioners know “the A3” as a problem-solving process guided by specific steps or questions. The left side of the A3 focuses on various elements of the problem or current condition, and the right on the countermeasures considered, tested, and chosen that resolves the issue or creates a higher standard.
• A management discipline (or process):  At a higher level, lean leaders, managers, and supervisors use “the A3” as a means by which they oversee and guide subordinates while simultaneously helping them develop their  lean thinking and practice  — particularly lean leadership and problem-solving — capabilities. With A3 management, leaders challenge their direct reports to solve a problem. Then, with the A3 report guiding the dialogue and analysis, leaders coach them through the problem-solving process. Importantly, leaders coach by asking questions versus providing answers, ensuring responsibility remains with the subordinate to solve the problem by pursuing facts and building consensus. Through this interaction, subordinates address the issue, allowing them to make progress toward the objective and, in so doing, learn the lean approach to leadership and management and gain problem-solving capability.
• A3 thinking (or analysis):  Most A3 coaches and advanced lean practitioners refer to “the A3” as a thinking process. In this case, the term refers to a systematic approach to resolving problems or improving  work  processes. Someone can follow this systematic approach, regardless of whether they are guided by or record their findings on an A3 document.
• An alignment tool:  Advanced lean organizations that have incorporated lean thinking and practices throughout their operations use “A3s” as part of their  strategy deployment  and execution efforts. In this case, the A3 process ensures a standard approach to managing and  coaching  people, all directed toward solving problems that help achieve corporate objectives.

Additional Resources

How Do I Start My A3?

When asked “where do I start to write my A3,” David Verble responds “don’t start by writing.” His piece, the first in a series about getting started, offers lessons he has learned about the nature of thinking, and a productive way to start the A3 by recognzing it as a thinking process. 

Don’t Present Your A3: Share Your A3

When asked “where do I start to write my A3,” David Verble responds “don’t start by writing.” His piece, the first in a series about getting started, offers lessons he has learned about the nature of thinking, and a productive way to start by recognizing it as a thinking process. 

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Intro to Problem Solving

Problem-solving is critical to every position in every industry. In this course, you will learn to grasp the situation at the gemba (where the work is done) and use all of your senses to understand what is truly happening.

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