Peter Capezio

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Powerful Planning Skills : Envisioning the future and making it happen

An anonymous quote opens this book and succinctly summarizes why Powerful Planning Skills will prove useful: "To do great, two things are necessary: a plan and not quite enough time." This book is for those who suffer from the latter because they don't have the former, which allows for a large potential audience. A great deal of information is packed into short, punchy chapters. Like most self-improvement books, this one opens with a few chapters that help the reader understand the nature of planning and plans and analyze his or her personal planning style. Readers will recognize themselves as perfectionists, chaotics, referencers or trendsetters. The fourth chapter defines the basics of planning, and outlines an eight-step process for developing a disaster-proof plan. Helpful in this chapter is a case study involving Becky and her work group, who have been charged with seeing their department through a certification process. Each stage in their planning is documented, and the author uses the case study to point out the most common planning mistakes. The next several chapters provide tools for critiquing a plan as well as planning for chaos and change. An overview of commonly used business tools, such as Gantt charts, Pareto analyses and flowcharts, finishes the text. Exercises, case studies and sample plans are used throughout to illustrate the concepts. Capezio rightly points out that people seldom receive praise for their planning skills; it is only the lack of these skills that draws attention. For thoselooking to convert a weakness to a strength, this book can provide a quick antidote to the lack-of-planning-skills blues.