In the October issue, I started a series detailing 7 common mistakes of business planning and how to avoid them. In this installment, we explore Deadly Mistake #4: "Planning to a Calendar Year." If you missed the first three deadly mistakes, follow the link at the bottom left of this page and follow the newsletter link to "archive".

Deadly Mistake #4: Planning to a Calendar Year
With the playing field constantly changing, and often uncertain; organizations need to be more nimble in the way they plan, The plan should allow them to be adaptive to change, while remaining steadfast to their values and vision. With so much beyond their control, you should help your clients increase the level of certainty that their efforts contribute to their vision and values.

How can a planning process do all this if we force it arbitrarily into a calendar year? Sure, we need to have some structure and discipline, but we don’t need to let the calendar dictate our strategy and execution.

The Magic of December 31
Have you ever noticed that in many companies, the majority of their execution happens in the fall? The reason is the looming December 31 deadline when the annual plan runs out, and they promised everything would be done. Is it ideal for every one of these projects and initiatives to have a late fall execution, and a completion date of December 31? Of course not. Depending on the type of project, it would have made perfect sense to complete the project for February 15, or April 30, or July 1...you get the idea. The plan should adapt to the most sensible dates for each initiative, not the other way around. December 31 (depending on the sector we could also be talking about March 31 as a fiscal year end) is not a magic project execution date. On a stand alone basis, most projects would be executed more successfully on any other date.

Keep December 31 Open for New Years Eve Parties
When you compound the problems by the fact that so many projects are being executed in late fall for a December 31 deadline, the issues are even more pronounced. I can't think of a worst date for a project deadline than December 31 for a variety of reasons:

• It falls in between 2 major holidays; Christmas and New Year's Day.
• Most staff and managers would like to take some vacation time during the Christmas break.
• Most large companies put a freeze on systems implementations for at least the last week of December.
• Projects are competing with each other for all kinds of resources. I could go on.

Help your client create a nimble planning process based on a rolling 4 or 5 quarter horizon (or a rolling 12- 15 month), that allows execution to happen when it makes sense.

Do you have accountabilty for business planning? Could you use a proven, comprehensive planning process complete with tools templates and diagrams? Simply click on the link to the left, or paste this into your browser: www.planningbootcamp.com/CMA