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The total system, inclusive of all the modules below (described above)

This basic component of team performance is best summed up by the phrase, one team, one direction. Achieving this requires a shared vision. The entire company, and all the teams and the individuals which make it up, must be pulling in the same direction. Every member of every team needs to accept responsibility for that part of the company over which they have some control.

To achieve a unified sense of direction there needs to be agreement at all levels on what the organisation values, what it does, where it is headed and how it plans to get there. The first step requires clarity, focus and agreement about the organisation's values, vision and mission.  Values, vision and mission on their own, however, do not equal a unified sense of direction.  They are organisational tools used sometimes well, and sometimes not so well, to create a sense of direction. A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

The purpose of this section is to help you assess how your organisation is currently operating.

This module will help you:

• Identify how your organisation is currently operating in terms of the strengths and weaknesses the organisation possesses in the internal environment, and the opportunities and threats it faces in the external environment;

• To enable you to develop a strategy that will utilise your organisations strengths; manage its weaknesses; take advantage of the opportunities in the environment and minimise the impact of the environmental threats.

Clarifying where the organisation is going in the future, and analysing where it is now is important.  The rest of the business plan will revolve around closing the gap between where the organisation wants to be and where it is now.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

Once you have worked out where the organisation wants to be in terms of a vision, mission and values, and dealt with where the organisation is now in terms of an environmental scan, you then need to deal with how the organisation gets from where it is, to where it wants to be.

Strategy is the overall game plan or map to help direct the organisation from where it is to where it wants to be.  Strategy is usually expressed in medium term (1 to 3 year) statements or goals about where the organisation is going.

A good strategic plan, which includes a vision, provides the blueprint for coordination, direction and teamwork.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

The role of a team, and the individuals within that team, is derived from expectations which are placed on that team. The people who have expectations of a team are known as customers or stakeholders and they could include owners, external customers, internal customers, the government, team members, suppliers, and the team's leader or manager.

A firm understanding of the customer's and stakeholder's identity is essential for achieving results. You can't satisfy customer and stakeholder needs unless you know exactly who the customers and stakeholders are.  A team's or individual's effectiveness depends on the clarification of customer and stakeholder expectations since it is impossible to meet expectations that are unclear.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

Suggested modules to complete together with this one: How to develop Outputs and Performance Measures; Target Setting

The process of translating strategy into daily action begins with stakeholder identification, followed by a rigorous process of identifying stakeholder expectations.  This module on how to develop outputs and performance measures are the first two steps in a three-step process.

Outputs are the value-added end results of a process which are produced by an individual or a team for an internal or external customer.

Performance measures are units of measure used to assess whether outputs are achieved.

This module shows how to develop outputs and performance measures.

Step three, Target Setting is dealt with in a module of its own.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

Suggested modules to complete together with this one: Total Stakeholder Satisfaction, Target Setting.

Note: This module should be completed together with How to develop Outputs and Performance Measures for a complete understanding.

Targets are written aspirations for what the organisation must achieve in the short term to achieve breakthrough performance in its strategic goals. Targets are expectations of short term achievement along the long term strategic path the organisation has chosen.  They are short term milestones, identifying where they expect to be weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, along the road to strategic goal achievement.

Targets define, in precise terms, particular levels for the delivery of outputs.  They tell us what we should achieve in terms of quality and quantity, as well as the time frame for the achievement of the target. Targets drive, measure, control and improve performance.  They are a key contributor to organisation success.

This module shows how to set targets against outputs and performance measures.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

Any target-setting system is only as successful as the results it achieves after it has been implemented.

To achieve targets, resources and action plans are required.

Resources could include the equipment, materials, skills, people and money needed to achieve targets.

Action plans refer to a step-by-step plan which will lead to the achievement of a target.

This module concerns itself with defining the resource requirements and putting the plan into action.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

This module will not teach you how to develop financial statements, rather, it will teach you how to develop financial plans.  The difference is that financial statements tell you what is/was at a particular time.  Financial planning uses this information to plan what will be.  Financial planning involves using the information in financial statements to improve the quality of your business plans, and to run your business more successfully. The aims of this module are twofold: 1) to ensure that you have clearly thought through the financial underpinnings of the business, and 2) to give you the tools to plan, monitor, control and run your business more effectively.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

The business planning process is ongoing.  This module discusses when and how you should evaluate your planning system to ensure that it is a living document - your organisation's blueprint - referred to regularly for guidance and direction.

A workbook component is included to help you apply the concepts.

Implementation: Guidelines and pitfalls provides guidelines for implementation and pitfalls to avoid when implementing any performance improvement/change management system into an organisation. This module is based on the experience gained and the lessons learned from over 20 years of hands-on implementation in the field.

Case Studies and team models is  a selection of case studies written by Australian organisational teams that have implemented our business planning process as well as model examples of some of the relevant basic components of team performance pertaining to business planning, selected from live teams.