The 30-60-90-Day Action Planning Framework is an approach that enables you to plan your community activities over the short and medium term, that is, over the next 30, 60, and 90 days.
Dividing activities into chunks makes planning more manageable and ensures that longer term activities do not get delayed or overwhelmed by a lot of short-term activities.
To create a 30-60-90-day action plan, first define your goals in the context of three key areas: purpose, people, and practice, and then plan activities in relation to those goals.
As the name implies, this tool is a framework that enables you to plan your community activities over the short and medium term, that is, over the next 30, 60, and 90 days.
Why create a 30-60-90-Day Action Plan?
Dividing your activities into chunks makes your planning much more manageable. It enables you to clearly define what it is to be done and when. It ensures that longer term activities do not get overwhelmed by a lot of short-term activities.
Secondly, many times longer term activities, especially events, involve a lot of shorter-term activities leading up to those events, and the 30-, 60-, 90-day approach can elegantly account for those. For example, let’s assume you are looking at a February, March, April time frame, and you have a 120-person online event in April (in the 90-day period) where representatives of several countries need to share information about urban policy responses to climatic disasters. Some of the preparatory activities might include a save-the-date email (a 30-day period activity), and the actual invitation (a 60-day period activity).
How do you create a 30-60-90-Day Action Plan?
First you define your goals, then plan the activities to achieve those goals. Do not have an activity just for the sake of having an activity. Even a relaxing social or get-together should have a community goal such as deepening social ties and trust, or networking.
Purpose – are you still on track with where you want to go? Or do you have to pivot and change direction? And what activities would help you move along either of those directions?
People – do you have the right people on board? If you do, do you need to create greater engagement and what kind of activities would help that?
Practice – do you have the most appropriate convening venues or have circumstances and for example, forced you to move to more online and fewer in-person events? Is there new technology that you want to take advantage of to increase contributions to the community.
Once, you are clear on your goals, and only then, should you start planning your activities.
Plan Activities
The beauty of the 30-, 60-, 90-day approach is first that you can plan both your short-term and longer-term activities without planning too far out with all the uncertainties that long-term planning entails.
First, add the longest-term event especially if it’s a major event, and then backfill the supporting activities that HAVE to happen.
Next, start with the regular monthly activities, activities that you MUST do, for example, the monthly newsletter or the monthly webinar.
Then add those activities that are the highest priorities and which align most closely with your goals.
Finally, make adjustments to the plan. For example, you might have too many activities planned for the 60-day time period. Try and move some of those up into the 30-day period, or push them out to the 90-day time period.
The level of detail should be just enough to give you an idea of your commitments and where the clashes and overloading occur. For the actual implementation of each activity, you will need more detailed tools that allocate delivery dates, resources, and responsibilities to specific individuals.
The following is an example of a completed 30-60-90 day activity plan.
Notes:
A true 30-60-90 day approach is not a static mechanism. For example, if your 30, 60, and 90 days cover February, March, and April, then when you get to March, your 30, 60, and 90 days now will cover March, April, and May, and with the previous example of an event in April, you 90-day activities will include your post-event activities like posting presentations on the web site and arranging for follow-up discussions with the presenters.
Some activities might occur in each of the 30-, 60-, 90-day periods, for example, the monthly newsletter. However, no matter how the activities are scheduled, by including them in the matrix you can ensure that you have sufficient resources, time, and people to carry out all those activities, or move them out to less-heavily scheduled time periods.
Blog » Developing the Action Plan for a Community of Practice
Developing the Action Plan for a Community of Practice
Summary:
Resources:
Action Planning Template
What is a 30-60-90-Day Action Planning Framework?
As the name implies, this tool is a framework that enables you to plan your community activities over the short and medium term, that is, over the next 30, 60, and 90 days.
Why create a 30-60-90-Day Action Plan?
Dividing your activities into chunks makes your planning much more manageable. It enables you to clearly define what it is to be done and when. It ensures that longer term activities do not get overwhelmed by a lot of short-term activities.
Secondly, many times longer term activities, especially events, involve a lot of shorter-term activities leading up to those events, and the 30-, 60-, 90-day approach can elegantly account for those. For example, let’s assume you are looking at a February, March, April time frame, and you have a 120-person online event in April (in the 90-day period) where representatives of several countries need to share information about urban policy responses to climatic disasters. Some of the preparatory activities might include a save-the-date email (a 30-day period activity), and the actual invitation (a 60-day period activity).
How do you create a 30-60-90-Day Action Plan?
First you define your goals, then plan the activities to achieve those goals. Do not have an activity just for the sake of having an activity. Even a relaxing social or get-together should have a community goal such as deepening social ties and trust, or networking.
Define Goals
When defining goals, you should consider the three areas that constitute the CoP Framework: Purpose, People, and Practice.
Purpose – are you still on track with where you want to go? Or do you have to pivot and change direction? And what activities would help you move along either of those directions?
People – do you have the right people on board? If you do, do you need to create greater engagement and what kind of activities would help that?
Practice – do you have the most appropriate convening venues or have circumstances and for example, forced you to move to more online and fewer in-person events? Is there new technology that you want to take advantage of to increase contributions to the community.
Once, you are clear on your goals, and only then, should you start planning your activities.
Plan Activities
The beauty of the 30-, 60-, 90-day approach is first that you can plan both your short-term and longer-term activities without planning too far out with all the uncertainties that long-term planning entails.
First, add the longest-term event especially if it’s a major event, and then backfill the supporting activities that HAVE to happen.
Next, start with the regular monthly activities, activities that you MUST do, for example, the monthly newsletter or the monthly webinar.
Then add those activities that are the highest priorities and which align most closely with your goals.
Finally, make adjustments to the plan. For example, you might have too many activities planned for the 60-day time period. Try and move some of those up into the 30-day period, or push them out to the 90-day time period.
The level of detail should be just enough to give you an idea of your commitments and where the clashes and overloading occur. For the actual implementation of each activity, you will need more detailed tools that allocate delivery dates, resources, and responsibilities to specific individuals.
The following is an example of a completed 30-60-90 day activity plan.
Notes:
A true 30-60-90 day approach is not a static mechanism. For example, if your 30, 60, and 90 days cover February, March, and April, then when you get to March, your 30, 60, and 90 days now will cover March, April, and May, and with the previous example of an event in April, you 90-day activities will include your post-event activities like posting presentations on the web site and arranging for follow-up discussions with the presenters.
Some activities might occur in each of the 30-, 60-, 90-day periods, for example, the monthly newsletter. However, no matter how the activities are scheduled, by including them in the matrix you can ensure that you have sufficient resources, time, and people to carry out all those activities, or move them out to less-heavily scheduled time periods.
This article is part of the WBG Communities of Practice Toolkit licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The toolkit features practical resources to help you develop impactful Communities of Practice. 📖 Learn more about the Toolkit. ▶ Access the Toolkit.