EDITOR’S PICK

Making a Plan Really Means Surviving Reality

The best schemes o’ mice and men / Gang aft a-gley.” That line appears in the poem “To a Mouse” by the Scots poet Robert Burns. Getting beyond the Scottish dialect, it means that no matter how much you plan, your scheme will rarely go the way you want it to. 

This is a particularly bleak view, and it may seem that it’s futile to make plans at all. In today’s business world, managers spend a lot of time creating plans, but too often, these plans don’t survive their first brush with reality. However, the failures are often not a fault of the plan itself—they can be attributed to a lack of execution. 

In its most recent research, AMA/MCE found that many managers are not focused on executing their organization’s strategy. AMA/MCE also discovered that nearly half of leaders feel disconnected from their organization’s strategic direction. 

Regina Jiron, in her article ”Why Strategies Fail to Become Reality,” points out that while managers are the linchpin between a company’s strategic aspirations and its operational achievements, without the right tools, support, and environment, even the most capable managers can falter. 

Michael Taylor, in “Aligning Employee Goals with Required Outcomes,” offers a framework to help get team members aligned enough that a plan can be successfully executed. 

AMA/MCE knows that cultivating a vision that prioritizes development and empowerment ensures that both the organization and its people thrive together. Reach out today to find out how to develop the skills your managers need to make plans a reality.