Other than "head on" what is the best route to take when creating action plans for a sales team (2008 planning session coming up very soon, and yes it's a little late to be doing). I don't recall any of the casts covering this specifically and wondered how similar to performance management this topic may be.
How to attack action planning?
Route66,
Do you have goals? If you don't, that's the place to start. Without purpose, action is just a bunch of running around.
Goals podcasts:
http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/12/how-to-set-annual-goals-part-1-of-…
http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/01/how-to-set-annual-goals-part-2-of-…
http://www.manager-tools.com/2008/01/how-to-set-annual-goals-part-3-of-…
If you have a goal and are trying to determine what actions to take to achieve the goal, I recommend brainstorming with your group to begin listing everything that [u]could[/u] be done to achieve the goal. That brainstorm list is a great starting point to begin developing an action "plan".
I love the M-T brainstorming tool and use it regularly to generate a starting list of "ideas" for developing pretty extensive project plans.
Brainstorming Podcasts:
http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/07/brainstorming-part-1-of-2/
http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/07/brainstorming-part-2-of-2/
Cheers,
CC
How to attack action planning?
I think brainstorming to set the goals and how to achieve the goals is a great idea. I also wanted to say that brainstorming has the added benefit of creating buy-in. Nothing like letting people set their own goals and methods to overcome resistance in advance.