The Planning Process

Organizations need effective management to accomplish their goals with little to no setbacks. In their interactions with those they have power over, managers must act ethically. For managers to interact with clients, coworkers, and business partners, public speaking abilities are crucial. Evaluations of managerial and public speaking abilities are taken into account before any corporation or organization assigns management duties to any employee. A manager is in charge of making decisions for any company or organization, whether they are good or bad. In such a case, any information from and to the organization is communicated through a manager, like from the boss to the workers and vice versa. Management mainly relies on the ability of a manager to have good interpersonal relationships, with other organizations and even with the workers in the organization. Making decisions in times of crisis or when all other plans have failed truly puts managerial skills to the test. Consequently, the aim of the paper is to look at the importance of contingency planning in managerial posts.
I have discovered that always having a backup plan is wise when it comes to decisions concerning business. Contingency planning is the timely arrangement of responses for situations that may have a major impact on business. The truth is that there is no business that does not face a threat that will dearly affect its operations if it were to occur. Having a good response to such situation will prevent any negative impacts on the future of the business. Some of the negative impacts may include the loss of customers, lives, or important data and even the loss of a business altogether. Making a contingency plan should include anything that will disrupt the normal operations of business in any organization. Any plan should consider natural disasters which include things such as earthquakes and hurricanes since they occur without any warning. Businesses may face crisis through worksite accidents, employees on the job getting injured. However, in case of a contingency plan, an organization can handle the crisis well. I have realized that there exist situations such as when a senior staff member dies, or the damage of important information either through website hack or natural disaster, a manager must offer an alternative plan. Things at work might get destroyed accidentally, or there might be cases of theft due to mismanagement, and such situations require contingency planning from the manager in charge. For that reason, orders may need allocation for easy access in the future. Eventually, the managers should put into consideration the mentioned ideas when creating a contingency plan for any business or organization.
Through the information I gathered in my interview, critical thinking and creativity go hand in hand with contingency planning. When it comes to dealing with unknown situations or those that have not occurred before to a specific business like earthquakes, it remains important to know how to react on the spot. Creativity in such a case, comes in, in the sense that a person must create a scenario in their mind to depict what might take place if a hurricane or an earthquake were to happen. After creating this scenario in mind, a manager should be able to critically think about every possible solution. The solution should determine how to execute the idea with as minimal interruptions to the business operations as possible. As a manager, critical thinking must always remain the key element inthe decision-making process, since any wrong decision or planning will have dire consequences on a whole business. Effective analysis of any situation is imperative for managers to have control on circumstances that happen abruptly, through critical thinking. At times even the contingency plans fail, and during such events, critical thinking becomes necessary as the manager will have to offer creative solutions to address the problem at hand. In the case where the contingency plan for a fire outbreak is to use the exist, and some reason the actual day a fire breaks out the exit is not open, any manager should be able to think for a quick solution through critically thinking. Consequently, through critical thinking, the manager can give a creative solution that is spontaneous and help salvage the situation as fast as possible.
Integrating creativity into my day to day life will improve the quality of my life and the decisions that I make. In my planning process, I will ensure to use creativity for maximum results. Also, as part of learning, I will remain attentive such that I engage my mind to think creatively on whichever topic of discussion takes place. Involving myself with social communities where I can share my ideas and hear the thoughts of others ultimately stimulates my creativity by challenging my ideas. Consequently, I will emotionally invest in all my learning as in this way, my mind will be challenged to think creatively and make decisions that are effective.
Every rational decision comes from a critical thinker who is creative. It is important to use creativity in the process of decision making since it gives an in-depth understanding of the matters at hand. Creativity gives room to enlighten the decision maker on other problems that others might not see. I have learned that creativity remains important in situations where a manager does not have complete knowledge or understanding of the situation at hand. Also, creativity plays a major role in whichever decision that comes up, and a creative decision remains spontaneous and advantageous in situations that are unplanned. Everyone can think and make decisions creatively since it is important for organizations to stimulate such thinking amongst its employees.
In making a contingency plan, some requirement must be considered before making any decision. Looking into the potential problem areas in the business or organization will ensure a more specific approach. After a proper analysis and identification of possible risks and problem areas, prioritization of the risks should be considered. Not all risks are the same since they possess different disadvantages to an organization. With such an approach of risk prioritization, the most urgent and inconvenient risks are above every other risk. Create a contingency plan for the identification and prioritization of risks. A step by step plan on the timeline and how to react in the shortest time possible, how to communicate the plan to others and how the staff should carry on operations in case of a disruption. In the plan, there should also be a way to reduce the risks when they take place, mostly through insurance covers for natural disasters. In maintaining the plan is also part of the process of the contingency, making sure that all employees are aware of the plans. It is also important to have every employee know their role in the plan and ensure different storage spaces for the plan both hard copy and digitally. I now know that for any manager to be successful good decision making is important and for that, they must be a creative and critical thinker.