The worst danger in developing a plan is not having it implemented. That’s a waste. You must make sure a plan is properly distributed and accepted within its target management group. That’s what we mean by publishing a plan. So you’re about ready to print your plan. Please make sure to run it through a final critical edit. Then, make sure to publish it so that commitments made by managers are clearly known and acknowledged. In this case, publishing means distributing the plan where all the managers can see it. People who make commitments as part of the plan need to see those commitments on record. They need to know that the plan will be tracked and that the difference between planned and actual results will be calculated and discussed.
Always, always edit your plan. Misspelled words and number errors will certainly not impress your readers. Or perhaps create a decidedly negative impression on them. Read it over again. Have some other people read and review it for you. Sometimes you don’t see the errors that others will because you are too close. Check the numbers in your charts and tables. Make sure they match each other, and go back and check the references to numbers in the text. People often change numbers after writing objectives, which results in conflicting information. For example, your text might set sales objectives of $500,000, but your plan tables show sales projections of $400,000. If you can, tighten your text. Shorten it, get to the point, and make it sharper.
