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The 4 Ackoff
Planning Styles
THE FACES OF PLANNING THE ORGANIZATION’S SUCCESS
STHEFANY GUADALUPE REYNA RANGEL
ITI 801
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Introduction
Planning is an essential stage on any organization’s success. The most difficult
part of starting a new strategic plan is the part of the company’s approach. To do so, the
consultation of prev ious planning documents that the organization may have
implemented in the past as the fundamentals to follow and pav e the correct w ay to
achiev ing success. How ever, the identification of sev eral elements such as cultural
background, previous outcomes, among others, are considered to be a critical element
on w ithin the organization’s successful results.
This document is expected to describe some of the 4 main stages of
chronological planning in order to understand and identify some management styles on
this area of the planning process.
Reactive planning
When focused on this style, the manager looks back to “The Old Days”. This style
is focused on the rev ision of prev ious strategies in order to rev ert the current outcomes
gotten by the new processes to implement the former strategies, so that the obsolete
outcomes w ill become successful again. I n addition to encouraging the past to revive
the old strategies into the present, these managers are afraid of the future, attempting
to prev ent the future by applying these techniques.
Inactive planning
I n spite of the prev ious style, inactive planning is reality-oriented. The preservation
of the present is the major premise. Managers identified w ith this planning style w ould
rather to maintain a separation among the past, the present and the future. The realistic
tints of these planning strategies suggest that the reality is better than any other tense. All
changes made in this time may affect drastically to the present, therefore these should
be av oided as much as possible.
Preactive planning
As one of the most traditional and popular techniques on any planning
strategies, predicting the future is the mission of preactiv e managers. Mining the w ay to
a better future based on their foreseen expectations, managers identified w ith this style
are believ ed to be focused only on the future of the company, putting apart the prev ious
successes of the organization and the future constraints their decisions may get to it. Using
techniques as Top-dow n their methods and techniques to prepare properly to the future
situations may be challenging to any point of the manager’s planning process.
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Proactive planning
While the rest of the planning styles does not affect directly the direction of the
organization, proactive planning does affect it. This planning style is activ ely involved on
the creation and reconstruction of the new future of the organization. Not only the
manager gets inv olved on the task of rebuilding, but also the company itself gets the
right to control the expected outcomes of this new futures, built by the manager. The
control of any action either in the present or in the past, is merely a w ay to reshape the
future, and therefore the main outcomes of the strategic planning.
References
Ph.D., J. E. (2009, December 8). Industrial Safety and Hygiene News: SYSTEMS THINKING: Management
types & planning styles. Retrieved from SYSTEMS THINKING: Management types & planning
styles: https://www.ishn.com/articles/89256-systems-thinking-management-types-planning-
styles-1
Wirth, R. (2009, July 9). EnTarga: Approaches to planning. Retrieved from EnTarga:
https://www.entarga.com/stratplan/approaches.htm
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