Key words: PLANNING, PLAN, PLANNING, INSTITUTION, SYSTEM, FUTURE, PROCESS, GOALS, OBJECTIVES, IDEALS, INSTRUMENTS.
It is mentioned countless times that planning is the first stage or part of what is the structure of an administrative process, it is what immediately comes to mind when hearing this word, in the news, in professional talks, I have even, in the books. What globalized society presents to us is that yes, indeed, planning is a process, but that it does not necessarily apply to only administrative matters. What we mean is that planning is an activity that is always present in all the operations that an organization involves, professionally or not, even in our decisions and moments of our daily life. This article seeks an understanding of what planning is, its structure and the elements that are needed for its institutional application.as well as its usefulness in various moments and decisions of our life, through the basic questions that any individual must answer before making decisions, in order to visualize a desirable future.
Study of the future and conceptualization of planning
We often ask ourselves the reasons for things, this is how we provide answers to all the situations we face, but everything arises when we question ourselves, and now what follows? It is at that moment that the word planning becomes part of our questions and answers; what we do, we do it to satisfy individual and intrapersonal needs, as part of a society and discover the meaning and meaning of our fundamental purposes.
Likewise, from the primitive age of man, the need arose to know what to plan for, in order to solve problems, using resources at his disposal, with which he obtained the ability to reason, imagine and create his future, anticipating decisions for problematic situations; such as hunting animals in groups, looking to feed.
When we put the above into practice, it gives rise to what to plan, this when our situations have not occurred and we need to do something about it, that is, we plan different circumstances, actions and life goals, from an apprenticeship, a small meal, a trip, a meeting with friends, etc., even for various problems that arise.
Well, now that we know what to plan for and what to plan for, we have to think about how to carry out planning, how to plan. There are various approaches for us planners to follow up on what we are doing in our lives with the help of planning:
| APPROACHES | MAIN MANAGERS |
| Disconnected incrementalism | Braybrooke and Lindblom |
| Mixed exploration | Etzioní |
| Rational | Manheim, Banfleid, Mach and Simon |
| Normative | Friedmann |
| Transactive | Grabow and Heskin, Ackroff, Davidoff and Sch |
Thus, the concept of planning, with the passage of time, the evolution of personal and social needs, has been constantly changing. Starting with the ideas of planning or being planned, allowing or not the participation of individuals, participatory planning. Now, we are faced with the question of knowing what is planning, planning and planning.
Planning involves creating the future from the present, and therefore includes the anticipated establishment of objectives, policies, strategies, rules, procedures, programs, budgets, forecasts, etc. That is, if we want to achieve a university degree, planning involves the resources that we will have to endow ourselves to reach it (finish the upper secondary level -objective-, through preparation courses -strategies-, work to obtain resources, etc.., with the plan we define the decisions that we will need to fulfill in the course (concretion of resources), and finally, planning are the actions of the decisions to achieve a desired future, from the simplest to the complex (the concrete application of the resources and previous decisions),taking into account the current situation and the internal and external factors that may influence the achievement of the objectives. However, the concept of planning, from the institutional perspective, refers to participation, in order to solve interrelated problems, a system, a whole.
Planning takes a whole process in which it is necessary to adapt to the different needs that arise; In order to carry out planning, it is important to know what has to be done, based on what and how it will be carried out and what tools will be used to achieve this whole process. Below are the steps to follow in order to plan:
| Diagnosis | Knowledge of the reality of the context, to identify causes and effects of the benefits and problems of the place studied. |
| Scenarios | Elaboration of future, positive and negative situations without exceeding reality. |
| Purposes | Objectives and goals of each of the scenarios. |
| Media | Policies, strategies, programs, actions, budgets, that benefit the implementation of the chosen scenario. |
| Evaluation and control | Development of instruments to corroborate achievements and comparing them with the predetermined ones. |
It is essential that, regardless of the various planning methods and that we will discuss later (types and orientations), planning is structured with the previous steps.
Typology of planning and its orientations
With the continuous change discussed above, the first concepts are modified, because the different individuals who are studying or using it give them different perspectives and tools to adjust to the different needs that require planning.
There are four basic planning orientations, which are like the primary colors: that is, they rarely appear in pure form. When planning, within these mixes of orientations, one of them generally comes to the fore.
The four orientations used in planning are:
Reactivist -Inactivist -Preactivist -Interactivist
Reactive gliders' orientation is past, they are people who do not want change and prefer things as they once were, resist progress, and are not in favor of technology. Reactive planning deals with its problems separately and not systematically, leaving many things aside or individual priorities. They have erroneous beliefs and all members rarely participate.
The inactive attitude is static, it does not agree with the change of things or their evolution, they have current satisfaction, they try to prevent change. They are usually prepared for crisis situations. Their goals are survival and stability.
The pre-activist orientation have a vision for the future, they hope that situations will pass soon since they believe that the future will be better than the past and the present; technology is their best ally, they think that this is the main cause of change in a positive way and they are usually very perfectionists.
The interactivist or proactive approach, seek to control the future, since they do not want to make the mistakes of the past or follow the same current path, they consider that the future is influenced by what we do and others do. For interactivists, the effects of technology will depend on the use that is made of it.
Planning System
Planning constitutes a series of steps, whatever their type or level:
Interactive planning model
What characterizes this planning model is that it is oriented towards obtaining control over the future, in a design of what you want to achieve and the alternatives to do it:
This model is also known as “the operating model of the company”, because its design impacts the function of the institution, necessitating the re-implementation of its objectives. This model, unlike the others, its principles and norms are developed in the interaction of its parts, but with some functional independence, but it is supported and involved in its different areas of operation. Take for example an IT company, where each operating area has a specific task, each area must know each of the six principles of interactive planning, all must be involved in the vision for the future, with a fixed commitment in their area and together with the others, as one, interrelating their goals based on communication,adapt to sudden changes in the market, take advantage of opportunities and, finally, if the company's objectives are to grow and publicize new services, an integration of the roles of all involved must be achieved.
In such a way that to achieve positive changes in the operation, interactive planning relies on its basic components: 1-Planning Subsystem, 2-Programming Subsystem, 3-Budgeting Subsystem and 4-Evaluation and Control Subsystem. The first is characterized by being an instrument for the transformation of the company, to achieve greater achievements and required changes. Analyze the national and international, economic and social political context where the company exercises the action. The second determines the programs that will have the utility of distinguishing the priorities of the company and the required strategies. The third performs the allocation of the necessary resources and finally the fourth analyzes the fundamental aspects of the company, comparing reality with the objective that was set,as well as the monitoring and supervision of the actions carried out in the previous subsystems.
Prospective Planning
Foresight is presented as a different and creative new way of planning the future, in contrast to traditional methodologies that start from the present-past to the future. The purpose of foresight is to adopt the future as an objective, in order to prepare the way, generating alternative perspectives of the desired futures (possible scenarios) and produce rules and values to achieve it, that is, part of the future, designing it.
In prospective planning its function is the opposite of traditional methodologies, the traditional one begins with the possible futures to select the most desirable, instead, the prospective, as a first moment, determines the desired future, and then designs the feasible futures and choose the most convenient.
Basic elements of prospective planning
The necessary elements for foresight go beyond common structural instruments, since they are ways of thinking and acting, a description for people who consider the future with the possibility of achieving it, designing and evaluating guidelines for individual and group development.
Thus, these elements are as follows:
- Holistic vision: set of everything, interrelation of processes to understand the whole system, when designing and building the future. We assume that you need to do an investigation of a certain municipality of Guerrero, you have to study each neighborhood in its urban and rural area (parts), politics, economy, social, etc. (processes) and their dependencies, interrelationships and the repercussions of the whole. Creativity: to design the future, in the future innovative and creative planners are required, to create instruments that make it possible to reach the desired future. The ability to give rise to new things and ways to use them. Participation and Cohesion: commitment and union of those involved. Exchange of ideas for problematic solutions and discussion of ends on the means to use;clarifies the motivations that drive people to participate in various activities. Prevalence of the process over the product: it is a clear, exact and precise idea of the designs or forecasts that will be carried out in the process, giving more importance to it, since that this tends to be minimized, due to the product or service. The product deviates the attitude of those involved. Convergence - Divergence: born from the effort of developing the first visions of the future, different values are found that must be discussed and find different points of view. An example would be the social development of a state, where the group expresses ideas to eradicate the problem, they will find similar ideas (convergence) and mixed ideas (divergence), a conflict that will generate different action profiles,Same discussions that will be presented later in the face of other similar problems, giving these confrontations a continuous cyclical process. Purpose of construction: it is achieved with the participation of decision-makers, that is, in a dynamic and realistic way, taking into account the values, support, commitment to the image of the future designed and the drive and motivation.
Phases of foresight
- Regulations: selection of goals, image of the future; Vision of the logical future (what I can do, desirable future (what I want or hope to do).Definitional: decision-making taking into account reality (how is the: is the result of the previous two, where the distance is questioned between the present, its properties-model of reality). Confrontation We want and logical reality (convergence, general framework of planning development) Strategic determination and feasibility: this is where the way the future will be built and the ways to make it.
Techniques and instruments of prospective planning
The techniques and instruments mentioned below are categorized by qualitative, quantitative, mixed and instruments.
| QUALITATIVE | |||||||
| ANALOGIES | TREE OF RELEVANCE | COMPASS | SEARCH CONFERENCE | ALTERNATIVE IMAGES | SYSTEMATIC INTUITIONS | KJ | CONTEXTUAL MAPPING |
| They are based on experience; analysis of past problems with those that may arise in the future, with similarities. | With a hierarchical structure, set a goal and establish the means to achieve it, through stages (ramifications). | Supports evaluations and policy planning to summarize the pros and cons in favor of the results. | Achieve new dimensions of the problems, which generate instability in the participants, through innovative options. | Way of managing the future, focusing on those involved. | Creative, it represents an opportunity to discuss individual aspects and overcome myths reasoning reality. | With it, a scientific and systematic approach to the problem is obtained. | In the long term, addresses are identified and selected; relevance, power and usefulness of the means to reach the future. |
| QUANTITATIVE | ||
| BAYESIAN STATISTICS | MONTE CARLO | ECONOMETRIC TECHNIQUES |
| Decision making regarding a problem state, knowledge of the probabilities. | Prevent a solution to the problems, using probabilistic variables, analyzing reality. | Dynamic construction of reality, testing the relationships between random variables. |
| MIXED | ||
| TECHNOLOGICAL FORECAST | SIMULATION GAMES | DECISION MATRIX |
| Anticipation of intrusion of technologies that can become threats for benefits obtained. | Transfer of information through communication between participants in order to motivate them and prepare them for future experiences. | Order information units and combine them horizontally and vertically, analyzing the consequences of future interactions. |
Finally, there are the instruments of prospective planning, some of them we have already applied in various school activities, without realizing the importance of this type of planning:
- Questionnaire Semantic differential Gutinan scale Likert scale Thurstone scale Lecture Round table with questioner Interview Poster Promotion of ideas
Conclusions
After having managed to develop how planning arises in our lives, how to do planning, what steps we must carry out and what our orientations may become, the different concepts of planning are presented to us, which is certainly diverse, but used to be able to carry out personal planning more easily, using the different techniques and instruments that were approached, and thus, go on sharing it with the people that we will interact with in the future.
When in the past we did not manage to carry out different daily and professional activities, including educational ones, or the results were not as expected, as we expected, well, this is where planning should be implemented. As originally discussed, planning is the first step in our process into the future, the first step we take to meet our needs of all kinds, and the best way is to answer the basic questions of planning.
Finally, this complex but necessary process begins with the needs we have and must achieve a solid base to support proper planning. In such a way that the types of planning will depend on the goals, objectives and ideals to be achieved, and when we finally complete these elements, it is time to establish our mission and vision of our desired future, be it for our professional and school life., as for our human and full life.
References
fccea.unicauca.edu.co/old/tgarf/tgarfse60.html
definicion.de/planeacion/
definicion.de/cualitativo/#ixzz46sOpupLa
definicion.de/cuantitativo/#ixzz46sPM5Phn
Glossary
Qualitative.- Adjective oriented to reveal what are the characteristics of something. Quality of something.
Quantitative.- adjective that is linked to the quantity. This concept, on the other hand, refers to a quantity, a magnitude, a portion or a number of things.
Download the original file
