Definition A
Plan, (n). An outline; a draft; a map. A scheme for making, doing, or arranging; a project; a program; a schedule.
Definition B
Plan , (v). The act of developing an outline, draft, map. The act of developing a scheme for making, doing, or arranging something, etc.
The Problem of Confusing the Two
I invite you to take a long, hard at the fact that the word “plan” is both a noun and a verb. That may seem insignificant at first, but in the corporate world it is anything but insignificant. The confusing by leadership between the noun and verb meanings of the word ‘plan’ leads to difficulties of far-reaching proportions in the workplace. “Plan” as a noun is a thing, a document, a product, a blueprint, a map. “Plan” as a verb is a process, an action.
If you ask company owners the questions, “Is planning important?” the majority would answer that it is. Yet what “the planning process” means to most of them is that they must some how end up with a written document that they can thereafter refer it as “the plan.” This is exactly what “plan” means in the noun sense of the word. Consequently, most companies have one or more of the following:
• A strategic plan
• A business plan
• A sales and marketing plan
• An operation plan
• A product development plan
In many cases, a large sums of money have been invested to develop such plans. Yet most of them are not living, breathing entities. Odds are that they are sitting on a bookshelf collecting dust or are neatly filed away in some obscure drawer or cabinet, out of sight and all but forgotten.
So now, it’s a matter to plan or not to plan…??
