Stanard's action planning process provides organizations with a mechanism for using survey data for positive organizational change. The action planning process builds on the data collected during the survey process by providing a framework which highlights both the driving forces with the potential to move an organization in the desired direction, as well as the restraining forces which block progress and foster the status-quo.

During the action planning process, organizational members learn how to develop action plans that unfreeze the current state and move their particular workgroup in the desired direction. To the extent this process is managed effectively across divisions and organization-wide, positive organizational change is more likely to follow.

The survey cycle is an on-going process and is typically repeated every 18 to 24 months. Some action plans are more short-term in nature than others. Repeating the survey process can be an appropriate part of larger program evaluation to assess the success or failure of short-term action plans and to gauge progress on longer-term action plans.

After the key issues to be addressed by the work group have been identified, one of three different types of action plans or a combination of the three, may be used to resolve the issue. These three types and their definitions are listed below.

• Immediate Action Plans: These are action plans that take only one or two days to implement. Examples of immediate action plans include requesting existing information or coordinating a meeting with other people. For the most part, immediate action plans can be undertaken on one’s own or with minimal assistance from others.
• Short-term Action Plans: In general, short-term action plans can be created and carried out within 30 days but require a bit more organization than immediate action plans. These types of action plans take longer to carry out than immediate action plans because the issues may be more complex, or they may require input and attention from several people.
• Long-term Action Plans: Long-term action plans deal with complex organizational issues. As such, they often require that multiple work groups need to be consulted or work together. These action plans can take up to a few years to complete and are often intricately woven together with other long-term action plans to shape an organization’s future.

While it is useful to differentiate between action plans of different levels of complexity and duration, all three can be used to handle a key organizational issue. For instance, a short-term action plan might be comprised of several immediate action plans, and a long-term action plan might involve several short-term action plans. In essence, action planning provides individuals with a tool for achieving results by identifying what action must be taken to achieve the goal.

Immediate and Short-Term Action Planning

• Is it within your team, area or department?
• Is it within the budget?
• Is it within authority limits?
• Can it be measured?
• Can it be accomplished within 30 days or in a timeframe the group considers short-term?

Long-Term Action Planning

• Long-term action planning deals with location-wide global issues or issues that require planning and research
• Survey participants often feel global issues are never adequately addressed
• Collect global issues from groups, locations or departments while they develop action plans for their own long-term issues
• Summarize global issues
• Communicate which global issues have been identified and next steps to be taken
• Develop global action plans

Planning is one thing – the challenge comes in trying to implement the plan.

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