Plan your planning

1. How will you hold meetings? How will you set them up? Who will lead them? How much deciding power will they have? Who should be there and how can you make sure they will come?
2. Do you need a management structure to make the planning process work?
3. Give yourself a timeframe.
4. How can you be sure of covering everything you need to?
5. How can you make best use of internal and external consultation?
6. Make sure that all levels of the planning process are resourced. For example, if you have to pull people out of other work, you might have to pay their section budget for their time and/or transport.
7. Check that your planning guidelines provide for inclusion of appropriate statutory, legislative and practice provisions.
8. Write clear, fully documented planning guidelines and systems and make them accessible to all involved.