Tracking vs. Planning vs. Managing

Tracking vs. planning vs. managing. It's amazing that these three words are not only similar, but the tools that are used for these three are nearly identical as well. Unfortunately, from a management point of view, the outcomes are dramatically different depending on which one of these you are actually doing. 

Tracking is measuring what you’re doing, documenting what’s going on, having regular team meetings to check on progress, and perhaps knowing in your gut that things are okay. Tracking is a backward looking activity that may or may not give you the data that you need to figure out where to go. 

Here’s a great Planning example: I realize that by March of next year, I need to have certain things done. And I realize that it's going to be complicated because I have different groups. So what I do is say, let me make a Gantt chart, or let me make an action plan, where everybody can understand what they need to do to get there. If I'm really good at planning, I'm actually going to think about dependencies, and I'm going to think about how to make sure that all resources are available at the time they need to be available. 

The reality is that those resources aren't going to be available when they're supposed to be, nothing is going to be on time, and you will only get a third of the way through the ‘Plan’ because stuff happens. 

What are you going to do now? Most people are going to go right back to tracking, which is when you're going to see that you're off track, you're going to document that you're off track, and you're going to change your goal - this is what we call disaster. So, what do we really need to achieve the goal that we planned on time, and with the resources we already have? 

Let’s talk about  Managing - this means that you have a plan, and that you’re tracking, but more importantly, you must drive your meetings from a management point of view, which is to look forward at risks and to look in detail at what is and isn't being achieved on schedule. And, to figure out how to immediately change resourcing allocations in order to be sure that you are going to achieve what you need to achieve on track. That is Managing, and it is not easy.

The experienced team at Market Operandi have lived these challenges and we can unequivocally share that this is one of those times when you don’t want to make all of the mistakes yourself. We can help you navigate these processes with training, coaching, and systems so that you implement the right process at the right time.