Action Plan

Your route should plan ahead because this will help achieve better results and offers your route members a shared document reflecting what the members set out to achieve jointly for the coming year.

This Guide should be read along with the other factsheets on planning listed at the bottom of this page, since these offer many insights into planning in this Guide in the context of doing your annual plan.

Why it is important to compile an annual route plan

One of the very important results  of your route’s planning process will be to document the annual route plan so that you have a point of reference for use in the following:

• Assigning responsibilities to individuals – with a documented annual plan, Route Forum members can be kept accountable for the deliverables they took responsibility for.
• Confirming deadlines for achieving important milestones at different points in the year, which makes it possible to gauge progress and revise plans if needed.
• Providing individual members and specifically Route Forum members with the authority to act on behalf of the route.
• Defining a budget as approved by the members, where the anticipated income and allocated expenditure items for the route are specified.

What is involved in writing an annual plan?

Your annual plan is a documented record of the planning for the coming year ahead. It is the outcome of your route planning process, which could include a members’ workshop or other forms of membership consultation. 

In fact, it would most likely be counterproductive for the route’s leaders to produce an annual plan without involving the members.”The plan must be the members.” They must be motivated to contribute their time to the route.

In producing the annual plan, you should understand that planning forms part of the plan-do-review cycle and that planning is mostly preceded by reviewing what happened thus far, and is then followed by the doing.

Having noted that members’ inputs should be sought and – if possible – a route workshop should be organised, it must also be acknowledged that some individuals may be better than others at writing the document and compiling the needed information. For this purpose, it may work well to appoint a task team to compile a draft version of the planning documents, so that members and/or the Route Forum may inspect the implications of adopting the plans (as what must be done the coming year). This task team will report to the Route Forum on progress and challenges.

Who is involved in producing the annual planning?

The task team appointed to write the plan and the route leadership will be most active in the planning process and in producing the planning document.

The involvement of members, be it less than with Route Forum members, forms a key part of the process and – if possible –  a workshop should be organised for members to co-create the plan.

How to do annual planning for your route?

Your route will have many options to choose from in the format and approach of  compiling the annual plan. Some of the links at the bottom of this page will lead you to using tools like the Flow Canvas One-Page Planning Tool, which are well suited for planning in purpose-driven organisations.

Other Factsheets

Also see:

• Guide: How To Develop A Project Budget
• Guide: How To Approach Your Annual Route Plan
• Guide: How To Unite Your Route Behind A Shared Purpose or Vision
• Guide: How To Organise A Workshop For Your Annual Plan
• Guide: How To Compile A One-Page Plan

Many of the tasks that your Open Africa route will tackle will be projects – in other words, they will be activities with an aim, a beginning and an end. Short-term projects can last a few days or up to a few weeks, and will usually have only one or two objectives. For instance, it could be a brochure showcasing the route, its members and the surrounding area. Once the Route Forum has discussed the idea and a plan has been approved, it may only take a week or two to put the brochure together.

In this example, the objective is clear: a neatly printed, colourful and informative brochure that will encourage tourists to visit. There may also be another aim: to distribute the brochure to strategic places where potential visitors will pick it up.

To ensure that the project is carried out efficiently (without wasting time, money or resources) and on time, a plan is necessary. This will plot which activity will be done when, and by whom.

This Guide will explain how to prepare a plan for a relatively small project that needs to be completed in a short time. A plan is an important tool to help your route to run more professionally, efficiently and procedurally:

• It makes you more professional by ensuring that the right people are involved at the right times, to deliver a high-quality result in an orderly way.
• It makes you more efficient because you can research and decide (in advance) how everything should be done, and you can compare options until you find the best one.
• Being procedural means acting in accordance with the route’s policies and broad objectives – so that the organisation advances in the right direction and with the blessing and involvement of all members.

The main message of this Guide is that a good plan is the beginning of a good project; if the route fails to plan ahead when it implements its ideas, the result is usually a chaotic and costly activity that undermines the confidence of both the route’s members and its stakeholders.

Alongside this one, also read the Guides on How to Develop A Project Idea, How To Develop A Project Budget, and How To Manage a Short-Term Project.

Why is a project plan important?

A route works differently to a small business. As an owner of a small business, you can make most decisions by yourself and implement them in your own way. The route, on the other hand, needs management and for members to work together in a co-operative style, because the route is made up of members and is there to act in the interest of the members.

This means that more discussion is usually needed so that agreement can be reached on what activities should take place. Part of this discussion is about the planning, because members need to agree on how things are going to get done before they get done. So, a project plan is part of making sure that everyone is happy with an idea and the way it will be implemented.

It is also a good way for the route to mandate a person (or committee) to carry out important tasks in the interest of the route as a collective body. It improves the chances of success and ensures that the route works collectively towards its goals and objectives by co-ordinating everyone’s input and predicting where problems might occur.

What is a project plan, and how do you develop one for a short-term project?

A project plan is a map of how an activity will be implemented, bringing together the skills, money and other resources over a period of time to make it happen in an orderly fashion. Here we want to focus on how to plan for a short-term project – an activity that will take a matter of days up to a few weeks at the most.

Governance

A short-term project will usually consume less money than a medium-term or long-term project, and so will usually need fewer decisions to be made by the Route Forum; the more money is at stake, the more carefully the Forum must check and monitor expenditure and implementation. (For some guidance on turning an idea into an activity, read the Guide entitled How To Develop A Project Idea.)

But even a small project needs to follow a process of being considered and approved by the Route Forum or its designated subcommittee. Before it can make a final decision to allow a project and/or to commit route funds to it, it needs to see a step-by-step plan of how the project will roll out and where the money will be spent.

Timeline

Keeping the project on time will be important, especially if it only runs for a short period. What the project plan needs is a schedule – a timetable that says when each aspect of the activity will take place. So start by breaking up the project into smaller parts and placing them in order on a timeline. Give each task or activity a certain timespan during which it can be completed.

Below is a simple Gantt Chart that shows which activity takes place during which week; this example also shows who is responsible for that activity, and the available budget amount.

Budget

Breaking up the tasks also helps the project manager to research the various costs that the project will incur. These costs must be closely estimated by getting quotes from suppliers and service providers in writing so that you can hold them to these costs when the project goes ahead.

Working out the budget in advance is one of the main reasons for doing the plan; it allows the route to see what the project is going to cost before it takes a decision on whether it can go ahead.

People

When setting out the activities in a timeline, you should be able to estimate how many people are needed to get the job done in the time available. Assign a responsible person for each activity. If time is short, then you may need to get more people involved to complete it. This will then also affect the budget.

The plan is now able to help you to:

• Schedule tasks.
• Allocate tasks to responsible people.
• Monitor the project’s progress.

Responsibility and communication

The plan also needs to be clear on lines of responsibility, in other words, who is responsible for making what happen. Each task is usually given to the person or people with the relevant skills, and they are expected to complete the work in the required time and to manage those other people who are helping.

The person who takes overall responsibility is the project manager, who needs to ensure that all aspects of the project are being implemented according to plan. In a small organisation, that project manager will usually also be ‘hands-on’, doing a lot of the actual work themselves.

The project manager must also plan the lines of communication between everyone involved. For instance, everyone involved must know who to give certain information to, such as when a task is completed or when there is a problem, or when more help is required. In a small, short-term project, there may not be the time or need for written progress reports. But the manager needs to be doing much listening and much communicating.

Depending on the type of project, consider meeting (even only briefly) each morning with all involved to assess the previous day’s progress, to find solutions to any problems encountered, and to confirm what is to be done that day. If the team can only meet less often, consider meeting on a Monday morning to plan the week, and on Friday afternoon to assess progress.

Who is involved in project planning?

The Route Forum will need to oversee the planning and authorisation of projects, and may also have to appoint a project manager to take control of the planning and implementation process. The Forum’s Treasurer will usually have to help develop the budget and must then also help control the spending.

The route will also want to make use of the skills and capacity of its members, so there may also be a number of members involved. If possible, the route’s strategic partners will play a role in certain projects; they may contribute funding or they may help with implementation.

How do you apply project planning to the route?

Most of the route’s activities must be planned, and to plan them as a project is good organisational discipline. It gets everyone (the Route Forum, the members and the other stakeholders) into the habit of thinking through ideas and opportunities before rushing into them. And it encourages everyone to implement these ideas carefully and efficiently through a planned process.

Try and plan ahead so that all your route’s projects for the year are incorporated into the annual route plan (read more in the Guide on How To Compile Your Annual Route Plan).

Practical tips

• Once the project idea has been accepted and the project has been given the go-ahead, have one meeting dedicated to brainstorm the best ways of implementing the project. Build the best strategies into your plan.
• Keep the project plan as simple as possible so that everyone understands and follows it.
• When thinking through all the steps (or tasks) in the project, think about what could go wrong. Ask the “what if..?” questions, such as “What if the building materials are delivered late?” Try to build a solution into the plan. Allow some extra time if you can for these sorts of contingencies.
• Put as much of the plan as possible into a visual format – diagrams and tables (such as the Gantt Chart) – and put these up where everyone can see them. Refer to them in your regular meetings.
• Adjust and adapt your plan as conditions change – don’t abandon it. Even when you run into problems, you still need deadlines to aim for.

Use of this Guide

This Guide can be used by the Route Forum to help clarify its role when wanting to get projects off the ground. It can also be used by route management, who will often be the ones to plan and implement projects. Members will also find the guide useful, because they need to be involved and they should understand the process.

Other Factsheets and Case Studies

Here are some other factsheets in the Open African Toolkit that can help you with developing and managing projects:

• Guide: How To Develop A Project Idea
• Guide: How To Develop A Project Budget
• Guide: How To Manage A Short-Term Project

Keimoes Arts & Crafts Co-operative

This Flow Canvas One-Page Plan was developed at the Open Africa Route Development workshop, held in Keimoes in August 2013.

Examples of the Flow Canvas One-Page Plan:

KIDeez

Examples of the Flow Canvas One-Page Plan:

ReadRight

The level of participation by your route members in route activities and projects is one of the most important factors that will determine your route’s success. Your members have access to many resources and, since they are involved in their own tourism businesses or initiatives, they are also likely to have insight into what approach would work best for the route. This is why organising a planning workshop is the best way for your route to identify what you should include in your annual route plan.

In this Guide, you will find advice on organising and structuring a route workshop as part of the process of compiling your annual route plan. The context and format of such a plan is covered in other Guides in this toolkit, which you should also consult while you are organising your workshop.

Why is the route planning workshop important?

While there are many ways to motivate members to participate and to get their inputs on what the route should be planning for, the most powerful way to involve members in planning is through a workshop.

The workshop format is perfect for bringing people together, engaging them through structured questions and educational exercises, and then recording their inputs in such a way that it shapes the annual route plan. It also gives the busy route members the assurance that they can dedicate a limited amount of time for their input to be included in the plans for the route in the coming year.

What is involved in running an annual plan workshop?

The better prepared you are for your planning workshop, the more likely you are to get strong involvement of members and the more likely you are to come up with good plans for your route. What follows is a summary of the most important aspects of preparing for a successful workshop.

Timing

The date and time that you select for your workshop is very important, since it will determine members’ participation levels. It is worth first identifying a few possible dates and checking with members how these fit with their programmes, and only to confirm the date after feedback was received.

The time you set aside for the workshop will depend on the extent of reflection and planning needed. For an annual planning workshop, it may be worth setting aside a full day and, if you anticipate that you need to reconsider the full extent of the route’s purpose and objectives, more than one day may be needed. However, it is possible to present a productive workshop in shorter periods, such as three or four hours, but if the time allocation is too short, it is likely to become a meeting, in which plans are discussed, rather than a workshop, in which new ideas are generated.

Venue

The venue selected for the workshop should offer a quiet space where members will not be distracted. It is preferable to host the workshop away from where members’ normal activities have the potential of interrupting their participation. It does not need to be luxurious, but comfort is a requirement.

Ease of access is a requirement, but it is not a good idea to select a venue where members will be tempted to slip away to other attractions in the immediate vicinity.

Seating at the venue should preferably give all participants equal status. Use of a U-shaped table set-up or circle works well, even if two rows of tables are needed to accommodate everyone.

Organise the presentation equipment and flipcharts you will need beforehand and ensure that the needed power plugs are available and functional. Also remember to organise enough pens and paper for members who may need it.

Programme

The planning workshop task team should carefully consider the workshop programme and the desired outcomes. The activities included in the programme should lead proceedings towards the desired outcomes. The example of a workshop programme included in the toolkit should offer a good framework for your route to use as a starting point in deciding what you need to include in your planning workshop’s programme (see Resource: Template: Programme Outline For Annual Planning Workshop).

Activities and Exersises

The programme should be designed in such a way that there is natural flow of proceedings and ideas. This can be achieved by combining exercises and activities with individual writing, group chats, report-backs and open floor discussions. A balance in variation is the best way to ensure progress and to keep participation levels high. There are many online resources available to get tips on how to keep proceedings lively (a Google search will deliver many ideas), but do not overdo it – keep the balance right!

Facilitation

The purpose of the workshop is for the route to reflect on its past activities, to consider where it wants to go in the next year, and to allocate responsibilities. It is advisable to appoint a facilitator to keep engagement levels high and to ensure that the workshop covers what needs to be covered. For this reason, it works best to have a skillful facilitator who does not have a key role or any role in the route, if possible. In some instances, an Open Africa routes co-ordinator maybe available and may serve this role well.

Record-keeping

A workshop is not like a meeting, where minutes needs to be kept of the discussions and decisions. However, it is very important that the ideas, suggestions, initiatives, activities, objectives and any other relevant information that is generated is collected and recorded in a format that can be used in producing the annual route plan document. If flipcharts are used during the workshop, the newsprint sheets may be perfect for recording during the workshop, but they will have to be captured as text on a computer for use during the documentation of the plans.

Task allocation

A great workshop will come to nothing if you are not focused on capturing the tasks generated during the workshop and allocating these to individual members to complete by a specified deadline. One of the key tasks of the annual planning workshop will be the creation of a year plan document. Ideally, you would want to allocate this task to a person or task team known for attention to detail.

Who is involved in organising the workshop?

The route’s Chairperson should take a direct interest in the preparation for the annual planning workshop. However, he or she may not be the best person to facilitate the workshop, because of the important role he or she plays in the route’s activities. It may be best to appoint a facilitator for the workshop who is good at managing a process, understands the issues involved, and has an easy way of getting people to participate.

The Route Forum should identify a suitable date for the workshop that will suit most members. A task team should be appointed to prepare for the workshop, with the Chairperson, facilitator and two or three more members. This task team will be responsible for inviting and reminding members, setting out the workshop programme, organising the venue and catering, and all other aspects relating to the planning workshop.

Member participation is what the workshop is about, so they should be the focus of the proceedings.

The workshop programme may also include inputs or delivery of a presentation by an outside expert or official of an important associate organisation.

How to present the planning workshop in your route

The Route Forum sets the stage for the annual planning workshop and hands responsibilities to the task team. From then on, it remains the task team’s task to ensure that the preparation is done, that members attend, and that the proceedings run smoothly

Practical tips

• Clearly define the desired outcomes – the Route Forum should define the outcomes before the task team is appointed to prepare for and organise the workshop.
• Good preparation is essential – appoint a task team to plan for and deliver the event.
• Neutral facilitation is desirable – if possible, get a person outside the route to facilitate the workshop.
• Double-check logistics – workshops can be ruined by little things (power cords, noise outside, or any other unforeseen issues that may arise).
• Make it exciting for members – invite members and emphasise something new or exciting to motivate them to make an effort to come to the event.

Use of this Guide

This Guide focuses on the process of organising a planning workshop. It will help those who are organising the workshop.

Other Fact sheets

You may also want to take a look at the following Guides and Examples, which cover related topics:

• Guide: How To Unite Your Route Behind A Shared Purpose or Vision
•  Resource: Template: Programme Outline For Annual Planning Workshop
• Resource: List: Places To Find Tips On Running A Workshop (532)

Business planning can seem a daunting task. This is specially true when we think of the format of the document a bank may require to consider an application for business finance. As a result, we tend to avoid compiling a business plan when an outside party such as a financier is not asking for it.

But what if it was easy and quick to compile a business plan? What if we could do it on one page only, while it still addresses all the key elements of what we need to plan for? Would that be different? Would completing a plan such as the annual plan for a route not be something that would become possible to do?

In this Guide, you will be introduced to doing a one-page business plan by using the Flow Canvas Planning Tool. It offers a simple yet comprehensive method for completing a business plan that is summarised onto a single page.

Why is doing a one-page plan important?

In today’s fast-changing world, we need to plan for the next step towards our goals without always knowing the full path of getting to the desired destination. This is rather scary, since you must acknowledge that you will never know for sure exactly how things will pan out, even after completing your business plan.

All our plans and actions will not come to much and we will not accomplish what we aim for if we are not capable of dreaming with conviction in concert with developing and implementing our detailed plans. A one-page plan can link our dreams with our actions while showing us exactly what must be done next. When you have your plans summarised on one page, it becomes very easy to share with all the involved people, and for them to see where they fit into the bigger picture. It also serves as a handy tool to assess your progress and refine your plan, making changes to the one-page plan as the situation unfolds or as the conditions change. 

What is involved in doing a one-page plan?

The challenge you face in planning is to combine your dreaming with the nuts and bolts of the activities and actions required to achieve good results. Your task is to relate the various activities you are planning to your organisational purpose so that you are sure that what you do is in fact contributing to the reason for your organisation to exist. This is why you should start your planning process with confirming your organisational purpose (see Guide: How To Unite Your Route Behind A Shared Purpose or Vision). When you have clarity on your purpose (the reasons for why your route exists and what the vision is you have of the future), you are equipped to define what you need to do to achieve this, when and where you need to do it with whom, and how you will be doing it (see Guide: How To Understand Your Annual Route Planning). The one-page planning format will come in very handy when you do your annual route plan (see Guide: How To Organise A Workshop For Your Annual Plan). You may identify the best one-page planning tool for you. In this Guide, we refer to the Flow Canvas One-Page Planning Tool, since it offers an easy-to-understand yet comprehensive framework organised around nine straight-forward questions (see Video: How To Use The Flow Canvas One-Page Plan).

What is the Flow Canvas?

Think of business planning like artists would when setting out to create great paintings – they start with a clean canvas and a vision of what it is they would like to express. Then, within the confines of the canvas, they produce something of dazzling attraction that connects with the world out there, that gets people to respond, and that adds value to their lives. The same applies to business planning, where you create a “picture” of a business proposition that will add value to the lives of those who respond. The Flow Canvas provides a bit more structure to the picture/painting than an artist would – the “planning canvas” is divided into nine areas, each devoted to a specific question. In answering all nine questions, you complete the full picture of your route on a single page. The result is displayed on a one-page plan that everyone in the route can refer to in guiding their activities. They can all see what the route is setting out to achieve and how they fit into the picture.

How the Flow Canvas works

The Flow Canvas is based on three important principles. First, as with the surface of a canvas for painting, you must always cover the full extent of the two spacial dimensions – height (top-bottom) and width (left-right). On the Flow Canvas, these are called the Planning Polarities, and are organised as follows:

• Top-bottom: At the top of the canvas, you answer questions oriented towards Thinking & Visualisation (create focused benefits, innovate within your business idea, and improve the way things are done). The bottom is oriented towards Action & Manifestation of ideas (produce value, deliver your product or service, transact and make deals).
• Left-right: On the right of the canvas, you address questions oriented towards Differentiation & Visibility (be distinct and congruent, connect with the people you are meant to serve, and increase your desirability). while the left side is oriented towards Integration & Efficiency (utilise resources efficiently, lead/govern sustainably, and refine what you do).

Second, as proven in nature, working in a cycle is the most efficient and logical way of achieving results. There must be flow within a cycle so that progress unfolds evenly from the one stage to the next, without bottlenecks or leakage. This is the Flow Cycle. Third, when a cycle is completed, it leads to a new cycle. Progress is achieved through learning from what was concluded, thus achieving upward movement, forming a rising spiral of growth. The cycle revolves around the centre of the business canvas, from where it moves up and clockwise around until it reaches the top again, ready to proceed to the next cycle. This growth path is called the Spiral of Intention, since it revolves around the central question of why the business exists – its purpose or intention – with each new cycle building on the previous.

Using the Flow Canvas as a planning tool

The Flow Canvas is a organisational planning tool based on answering nine questions. It is as easy to apply to both high-level strategic planning and specific activities. You can ask the questions about the business as a whole, or you can apply it to a project, or even a specific task. The starting point is the route’s reason for existence – its Purpose – which is the glue that keeps together all the route’s complexities. A clearly defined Purpose shapes the route culture, its relationships with other parties – in fact, every aspect of the organisation’s DNA. The other eight questions follow the Flow Cycle through the Planning Polarities, so that all the dimensions of the organisation are addressed.

 The Questions To Answer

On the canvas, the core question of Purpose is appears in red. The answer to this question does not normally shift much over the medium term. It is lasting! It is not at the centre of the canvas without reason – it has a direct and ongoing influence on all the other questions. The core question is:

• Why does your business exist? We can call this element of the Flow Canvas ‘Purpose’.

When the core question is clearly answered in the planning process, you can move on to what is called the four primary questions, indicated in yellow. In answering these questions, it is best to start with clarifying your business idea or focused niche, based on (and as a direct expression of) the answer to the core question. Then move on to when and where you will deliver value. This will unlock clues as to who the customers are you are meant to serve and how you will contribute to ecological sustainability and create ongoing profitability. The four primary questions are:

• What gives you a unique focus within your niche? Call this element Focus.
• When and where do you deliver value to whom? Call this element Transaction.
• Who are the ‘fans’ you connect with and where are they? Call this element Audience.
• How do you lead/govern and sustain profits? Call this element Culture.

With the primary questions answered, you can move on to the secondary questions, indicated in green. The secondary answers are “bridges” that connect the primary answers with each other. The four secondary questions are:

• What are you noticed and remembered by?  Call this element Attention.
• What are the promises your ‘fans’ respond to? Call this element Desire.
• How do you organise your teams, systems and money? Call this element Delivery.
• How and when do you measure your performance? Call this element Improvement.

Interestingly, it is common for the nine questions to influence each other during planning. As a result, the process of answering the questions remains dynamic – when a new question is answered, it is important to revisit the previous answers to see if the newly gained insights do not influence the previous answers to such an extent that they must be refined or changed. There are many subquestions tied up in each of these questions, which are best dealt with in specific teams to provide detailed answers. However, the one-page Flow Canvas becomes a very handy summary of what the route really is about!

Who is involved in compiling your one-page plan?

The format of the one-page Flow Canvas Plan is easy to understand because it summarises the route plan and shows the relationships between the nine elements of the plan. This makes it easy to involve all your route members in the planning process. You may be well served in organising an annual planning workshop to compile the route’s year plan (see Guide: How To Organise A Workshop For Your Annual Plan). While input from all members is great to ensure that everyone shares the direction the route is taking, it is still the Route Forum’s task to steer the process, to summarise the input from members, and to fill the gaps. When the one-page plan is done, it is also the Route Forum’s job to go into detailed planning for those aspects where more specific information is needed, such as the route budget or specific projects.

How to use your one-page plan in your route?

The nine questions of the Flow Canvas form a cycle (see the arrows in the graphic above). The cycle explains the flow from one stage to the next, as it is anticipated to unfold. You may note, however, that it is not a requirement to follow the sequential flow through the phases of the cycle when you do your planning. In fact, it is recommended that you first focus on the elements on which you have the most clarity after you have clarified your Purpose. The following sequence explains how the nine elements of the Flow Canvas follow each other in the Flow Cycle:

• PURPOSE: Your Purpose explains why your route (or organisation) exists and the difference you are making in the world. Purpose is different to the rest of the elements on the Flow Canvas insofar as your Purpose is lasting – with the others you attend to the activities for the next cycle of your plans. Your Purpose remains constant through many cycles and provides you with ongoing direction.
• FOCUS: Your Focus clarifies your uniqueness in terms of the specific idea that makes your route different from other destinations, and the distinctive value you create within your niche. Your Focus is all about the benefits you offer, rather than the people you serve, through what you do in your route.
• ATTENTION: While your focus clarifies your uniqueness, it is the element of Attention through which you explain this uniqueness and the benefits you offer to the outside world. You are noticed through delivering a congruent message, appropriately positioned so that you are recognised where it matters.
• AUDIENCE: Your Audience are the people who benefit from what you offer. They are your biggest supporters. Since this element is about identifying who the people are you are meant to serve, it is also important to clarify who those people are you are not meant to serve – you cannot be everything to everyone!
• DESIRE: When you have attracted the attention of your audience, you need to draw them closer so that they cannot resist what you are offering. You achieve this by planning for the element of Desire, where you remove the objections and obstacles in the way of easy transacting with you.
• TRANSACTIONS: The element of Transactions is where you exchange value. It is turning the benefit described in your Focus into a value exchange. Here, you describe where and when you will be transacting with whom. However, it is about confirming the transaction but not delivering the value yet.
• DELIVERY (also known as RESOURCES): The element of Delivery is about making good on what was promised. It is all about organising your teams, systems and money. This element is about meticulous planning of your operations, logistics and resources.
• CULTURE: Your Culture is about functioning as a sustainable organisation and the values underpinning your governance. Here you clarify how you organise yourself and control your internal environment to maintain efficiencies.
• IMPROVEMENT: With the Improvement element you identify the best ways for you to measure your performance so that you ensure that you keep contributing to your Purpose. You also identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the flow of your Flow Cycle by quantifying key measures for each of the elements. The aim is to get better before you enter the next cycle.

In following the above sequence, you will see how the one element progresses to the next, which should not be surprising, since it follows the natural path of shifting energies, as described in ancient Chinese thinking about achieving good flow (see Guide: How To Understand Your Natural Strengths). This offers you a good picture of how the sequence of your planned organisational development will unfold. However, as noted, you are not obliged to follow this sequence when planning. You may move from the elements clearest to you to those you are less clear about. The big benefit of this dynamic influence between elements is that the clarity you have with one may help you define your plans for an element you may feel less confident about.

Other Fact sheets

You may also want to have a look at the following Guides and Examples covering related topics:

• Guide: How To Unite Your Route Behind A Shared Purpose or Vision.
• Guide: How To Understand Your Annual Route Planning.
• Guide: How To Understand Your Natural Strengths.
• Resource: Video: How To Use The Flow Canvas One-Page Plan.
• Example: One-Page Flow Canvas Plans.

Other resources to use

There are several resources to your disposal to make use of:

• The Flow Canvas One-Page Planning Tool: www.flowcanvas.com
• Five Energy Dynamics: www.flowfinders.com/energy

Your route is likely to implement projects fairly often to promote your area and members. These will usually cost money to implement, and so a budget will be necessary to ensure that the project is affordable and can be fully implemented with the available money. The project budget will need to be separate from the budget that you use to manage the route itself, so that you know how much can be spent and when.

This Guide explains how to prepare a budget for a specific project, considering what the project will involve (what tasks need to be carried out), how long it will last, and which project tasks need to be paid for from the project budget.

The central message here is that financial management is a key part of managing projects successfully. You will need to manage the funding for every project carefully, especially when the funding is from an outside donor with whom you want to build a longer-term relationship.

A number of other Guides may be useful on related topics, such as How To Manage A Short-term Project and How To Develop And Manage A Route Budget.

Why is a project budget important?

For every project that is going to take money to implement, a budget is both necessary and important, for these reasons:

• In the early stages of the project, it helps to work out whether or not the project is affordable. Rushing into an activity before working out the costs is risky, since it may drain cash that was meant for other things, or the activity may simply fail because the money ran out before it could be completed.
• Working out a budget in advance allows you to take the idea to outside funders as a proposal – to apply for a grant or sponsorship.
• A budget helps to structure the implementation of a project, forcing you to get accurate estimates from suppliers and clarifying your deadlines for procurement and delivery.
• By summarising all the costs in a budget, it is easier to see in advance whether a project is value-for-money, as you can more clearly compare the cost with the expected impact or return.

What is a project budget and how is it used?

A project budget is a week-by-week or month-by-month forecast of how much money is to be spent on which cost items. Usually, after a project is approved, a certain amount of money is made available (either from the route or a donor), and this forms the basis of the budget. All expenditure is then drawn from this amount, and the budget ensures that the spending does not exceed the available amount.

It therefore looks similar to a route’s annual budget for operations, but will be focused on what needs to be done to complete the project.

Project plan

The project plan will outline what needs to done, setting out which tasks need to be tackled first, which tasks must follow, and which tasks can be carried out at the same time. What the project budget does is to provide the costs of each of these tasks, activities or jobs – and indicate when the money will have to be paid out to get those tasks completed.

The simple project expenditure budget below illustrates how this could be done with a small building project that will last from January to June:

 Project expenditure budget

By adding another column called ‘Actual’ to record what is actually spent each month after the project starts, you can compare the budgeted figure to the actual figure and quickly see any overexpenditure or underexpenditure.

This is useful to get an early warning of overspending, so that the reasons can be investigated and the problem can hopefully be solved before it happens again. Below is the sample simple project budget with a column for actual figures (only January to March are shown here, so that the contents of the table are easier to see).

Table comparing Budgeted and Actual spending

Budgeting for income

Some projects may not be lucky enough to start off with a lump sum in the bank ready to be spent – the money may have to come in installments, with just part of the total required being available at the start and rest arriving later. In this case, the project budget must include an Income column, which will show how much money is available each month. The project schedule will then have to be planned according to what can be afforded each month.

Who is involved with the project budget?

With most projects, there must be a person who will take overall responsibility for planning what must be done, coordinating the input of everyone involved, and implementing the plan. This person – usually the project manager – will also be responsible for the project budget, although the route’s financial manager will also need to be involved to help develop the budget and to sign off the final budget (on behalf of the Route Forum).

The project manager could also put together a budget team made up of the key people implementing the project (who may include contractors or other outside experts). Every week, the budget team can meet to confirm that they are sticking to their specific budgets, or to raise any concerns about the financial side of their particular aspect of the project.

How is a project budget used by the route?

Any project that a route wants to tackle will have to be discussed, investigated and passed by the Route Forum before it can go ahead. The Route Forum will also have to see the project budget, to check that it is coherent, reasonable and affordable.

The Project Manager will need to present both the project and its budget to the Route Forum and to make any changes that are considered necessary. Again, the financial manager will usually be involved in helping research and write up the budget.

Practical tips

• Do the project plan first. This will give you a better idea of what needs to be done at every stage of the project, and the order in which the various tasks must be tackled. Then it is easier to see how much needs to be spent, and when it will be spent.
• Be clear on what the main costs will be. Research the rates that people will charge for their inputs, for instance, and speak to suppliers and consultants so that your estimates can be accurate.
• Be prepared to change the figures you have put into the budget. If the total cost is too high, you will need to trim costs somewhere and find other ways to get it done for less.
• It is likely that certain costs will occur that you did not expect, so allow for a reasonable contingency in the budget (an extra amount that you may or may not need).

Use of this Guide

This Guide can be used by the manager of a project and the financial manager of the Route Forum, to help ensure that the implementation of the project can be done with the resources that are available. Route members can also use this information in their own businesses, as most of them will have projects of their own to do from time to time.

Other Guides

Here are some other titles related to finance and budgeting:

• Guide: How To Develop A Project Plan For A Short-term Project
• Guide: How To Manage a Short-term Project
• Guide: How To Develop And Manage A Route Budget
• Guide: How To Open A Route Bank Account