Throughout this book, I’ve been reinforcing as much as I could that it’s about planning, not the plan. In this chapter I want to gather all the pieces together and drive that point home.

This chapter is about planning as management.

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Description

Plan vs. Actual Analysis It’s not just accounting, or the technical term variance. It’s about the management that results from it.
Management and Accountability It doesn’t happen automatically. Accountability is a matter of setting the right metrics and tracking performance. This should be part of the planning process.
Crystal Ball and Chain Realize that some people fear metrics and planning as something that will be used against them in the future. Avoid this problem by making sure it’s collaborative.
Set Expectations and Follow Up The secret of management is setting expectations and following up with reviews of performance. This is part of your planning process.
Tim BerryTim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.