The joy of post it note planning

In a world of Asana, Instagantt, Slack and Trello planning is being revolutionised. Technology is giving birth to tools that are improving productivity and supporting the shift to agile. These tools are great at keeping everyone aligned and on track but they don’t necessarily mean people are 100% engaged in the plan they are trying to deliver. Plans are often built by a single person and then presented back to the team often without much debate or refinement. I’ve sat in many a meeting when someone unveils a MS Project gantt chart only for everyone’s eyes to roll. You immediately know that the plan will only ever be reviewed by that one PM.

This is where post it notes planning comes in. It’s basic, simple, fun and will help build a collaborative plan that everyone has fed into. It tends to work best for teams that work together in a single location but I’ve also tried it via a Zoom call and it worked perfectly.

So, how’s it done?

First, you need a good facilitator. Someone who is good at planning, listening to others and directing people to a successful outcome. Secondly you need your assets including some brown paper, post it notes, Sharpie markers and coloured sticky dots.

Then just roll out your brown paper on the floor and mark down the timeline your project or programme will run for. You might want to show weeks, months or quarters depending on the granularity you need. I often start with quarters as a way of bundling activities which you can then explore in a more detailed monthly or weekly view later.

Start getting everyone writing down the actions they think need to happen. As you do discuss each task or activity and agree on where it sits on the plan. The great thing about post it notes is that you can move it all around. You can also amend tasks, add new ones or throw them away.

Once you have your plan start putting owner’s names against each one. You might want to outline others who might be involved. Use your coloured sticky dots to indicate the other people taking part in each task.

The whole process is very 1990s but it works wonders in getting people behind a plan. A plan they have built from scratch, debated and refined. Of course, you can put the finished and agreed plan straight into Instagantt but the process of creating a plan using craft tools will make project success even more likely.

Plus, it’s much more fun than staring at a MS Project screen as a poor PM tries to navigate everyone through it. For those remote working the same approach applies albeit via Zoom or Skype. I’ve tried doing it with Google docs and it’s a great tool to get to the very same destination.

Technology will continue to refine how we plan projects and programmes but nothing can beat taking a scrappy and fun approach to start with.

If you want to know more about how we help clients plan projects and programmes built for success then visit www.strategyactivist.com