Ron Dimon - Connected Planning

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SECOND EDITION

Ron Dimon

Copyright © 2021 by Ron Dimon. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available:

ISBN 9781119485803(hardback)

ISBN 9781119485827(epdf)

ISBN 9781119485797(epub)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: © JamesBrey/iStock/Getty Images

For my mom and dad, Gwen & Colin “Bill” Dimon, who connected me to the world .

I've spent the last 30 years researching and writing within the organizational domain. During this time, I have educated nearly 70,0000 aspiring businessmen and women in the fundamentals and theories of management and leadership and how to put such knowledge into real-world practice. One concept that has been the focal point of my research and teaching involves the topic of self-leadership. Self-leadership is an empowerment process of leading yourself to overcome obstacles to your goals. In the same way that one needs to be self-leading to finish a grueling marathon, an organization must be self-leading in order to execute its plans in an efficient and effective manner. What drives self-leadership at all levels in an organization? The people within the organization of course—and those people must be involved in the planning occurring in an organization. Without a plan, an organization has no direction. Without a plan that involves employees at all levels of the company and thus encouraging self-leadership, an organization not only has no direction, but it has uncommitted employees that lack the passion and energy needed for success. As Dr. Laurie Buchanan once stated, “No involvement means no commitment—no exception.”

The planning system is where an organization defines and decides what it wants to accomplish and who will do the work to make the accomplishment happen. In a plethora of organizations, planning systems do not foster self-leadership. People are often drafted into a process that is disjointed, unorganized, manually tedious, and political. It is many times facilitated by different point solutions and legacy tools that don't speak the same language. Rather than debating the art of the possible for the business, teams often argue about the sources of data, assumptions, and drivers. The current planning system in numerous companies is a top-down, nonempowering drag on culture, morale, and organizational effectiveness. How is an organization able to leverage its planning system to overcome impending obstacles when the planning system is an obstacle itself? How is an organization going to remain competitive in the chaotic times of today? These questions suggest that in order to thrive, companies today need to think about planning in a different, innovative way—planning that encourages individuals to lead themselves and be part of the planning process. Connected Planning is a wonderful step in this direction.

In a Connected Planning environment, the answer to the question “what's possible?” comes from a much more democratic debate than what we are used to seeing, involving stakeholders at the top of the organization and the subject matter experts with boots on ground. This begins a cycle of collaboration and calibration that leads to new insights, enabling greater agility and resilience. In the words of a timeless proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”