Pain-Free Performance Management: Action Planning

My last post focused on setting goals with your team members. Once these goals are set, your next step is to make sure your team member has an action plan to achieve each of his/her goals. Your involvement in creating these action plans will vary depending on the goals and your team members' experience in achieving each of them.

I like to compare creating action plans to recent changes in my commute to school and work. In 2013-2014, I had a regular route that I took to drop my older son at school, then my younger son at his school, and then my drive to the office. I drove this same route over and over, so much so that I could drive the route with my eyes closed (although I never did!).

In 2014-2015, a new store was going up on one of the main roads I took every day on my commute, and the traffic patterns changed completely. This made it difficult to predict when I would drop my sons at school and when I would get to work, so I had to keep experimenting with new routes until I found one that was more reliable. There were a lot of false starts, but I eventually found a way that was rarely disrupted by construction and that allowed me to drop the boys off on time and get to work on time as well. In fact, my new route worked so well that I still use it even though construction has ended!

Let's look at how this compares to your team members and their experience with achieving goals. There are three main situations they will face:

1) your team member has achieved the same goal in the same way in the past, i.e., my daily commute before construction
2) your team member has achieved the goal in the past but must do so very differently now, i.e., my daily commute with construction

3) your team member has never achieved this goal before, i.e., my first experience traveling overseas

In scenario 1, a quick early check-in with your team member is likely all she needs to make sure she has a plan, to agree milestones and deadlines, and to discuss what to do if there are problems. Because your team member has achieved this goal in the past, she will know how to adjust her plan for most problems and will just update you on progress periodically. She will also recognize when a problem is so significant that it may prevent her from reaching the goal and will know to escalate this and get your help. Make sure your team member knows that if this happens, you want her to bring the issue to you and that you will lend support. Too much support will likely be annoying (think micromanagement). Who wants someone to ride with you to work every day to make sure you get there okay?

For scenario 2, think about using new technology or processes at work. In this case, you want to make sure you meet with your team member in advance to review his action plan, to talk through what will be different and to make sure he is comfortable with the new way of doing things. If he needs training or additional support, you can arrange that early instead of letting him learn through trial and error (like I did with my commute!). You also want to make sure your plan includes regular progress reviews to stay on top of challenges. In this situation, your team member may appreciate you riding along, but you need to discuss with him to find out.

For the final scenario - achieving a goal that has not been achieved before - I think back to when I traveled overseas for the first time. I was in college and had the opportunity to spend my junior year in France (I know... you feel very sorry for me!). Since I had never traveled overseas before, I spent a lot of time talking to other people who had made the trip before me, and my university prepared me with checklists and training to make sure I had a clear plan of what I needed to do and in what order. Having never done this before, I didn't know what I didn't know, so I really needed to tap into others' experience to help me.

Similarly, when you assign a goal to a team member that she has never achieved, you need to provide a lot more hands-on support with action planning than in the previous two scenarios. When I traveled overseas for the first time, I would have loved to have someone who had made the trip before ride along. I didn't have that, but I had lots of guidance from those people in advance. Similarly, you need to connect your team member with others who have achieved the goal before, if possible, and make sure that you have a plan for regular check-ins on progress. You will likely spend a lot more time problem-solving with your team member and connecting her with resources to ensure she is successful in achieving this goal. Just like me on my first trip, she will want a lot more support in this situation. Eventually, with practice, these goals will become as familiar and easy to achieve as my new commute has become for me.

Please let me know if you have any questions about action planning. In my next post, I'll focus on how to monitor progress against goals on an ongoing basis.