Here is a 5-step planning principle to create a fail-proof Action Plan

Action planning is the first, major and important part of the fellowship period as without action planning we can’t step ahead and proceed further on the ground. Planning is the backbone of all the actions taken on the ground so it becomes important to make an action plan with the strategy which will help in creating a fail-proof action plan to achieve required goals. Here are the five steps of the planning principle:

1. Goal setting: To begin with planning, it is very important to see where this planning will lead us, so, the first step to starting with an action plan is goal setting. We have to set our intended goals around which the whole planning will revolve. We must keep in mind all the aspects i.e. internal and external while setting a goal. For instance, my goal can be I’ll do Cluster Academic Meeting (CAM) at the end of the month i.e. 30th. Now, We have a goal in mind so our whole planning of the month will be around this to achieve this goal at the end of the month.
2. Assessment: After setting a goal, we must keep a target which will help us assess the progress of our goal. Assessment becomes important as if we just keep going towards a goal and do not have any point to assess it, it may lead us to chaos as we will not be able to check if we have reached our goal or not. If we have a point to assess, we’ll move towards a goal with the proper direction and timelines in our minds. Taking forward the example from the above heading, our assessment point will be Invitations should be given to the teachers for meetings, logistics should be checked, the flow of the meeting should be discussed with the internal team and CHT, and champion teachers which are being identified by classroom observations should give some part in the meeting, etc. All this should be assessed on the 29th if we are having a meeting on the 30th. This bucket involves all the pre-steps which should be in mind and clear before planning towards any goal which will eventually become our assessing point.
3. Planning: After having an understanding of all the pre-steps, now the next step is to place them in our action plan as planning for our month. Planning is the major part of an action plan as it includes all the activities we will do to reach our goal within the given resources and energy. Planning should be in alignment with our actions as output from the first action leads us to the second action. It should not be like we are jumping directly to the third step and then again coming to first then it’ll waste our time, energy and resources. For instance, for having CAM on the 30th, we’ll plan our month in a way which includes Meeting CHT first and sharing with her the idea of CAM and our planning of involving various stakeholders around this and getting her insights to move further. Then doing classroom observations and recording various best practices and challenges of the teachers and so on. It involves step-by-step planning, when are we meeting whom with what agenda and what are we getting from it which will move us further towards our goal.
4. Check for progress: After planning for a month, it becomes important to keep a part in between which will keep telling us that we are progressing towards our goal. This can be weekly or bi-weekly reflections in which we’ll be able to reflect on our actions, and challenges and then accordingly do alterations in our action plan so that we can reach our goal in a definite time. For instance, for CAM, checking for progress can be to reflect on our smaller goals every week.
5. Adaptive: Being adaptive means keeping buffer spaces in the plan. We have to keep in mind the different expected challenges which can come in a way on the ground. For instance, while planning for CAM, we’ll keep the check on holidays so that we can alter our plan accordingly. One needs to be flexible while planning and also keep the spirits high to deal with the challenges coming out of the way.