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Key points
- In order to create a comprehensive resource plan, always build in enough turnaround time to acquire each necessary resource.
- Talk through every aspect of the “supply chain” for each resource you need with your boss, including what assistance you might need from others.
- Identify potential workarounds in the event you can't get all the resources you need.
Resource planning can be one of the most stressful aspects of work. How do you effectively plan ahead, accounting for every requirement and possibility?
To do resource planning right, you need to follow three basic steps—and involve your boss in every one of them in order to make sure you get the resources you need to succeed in your job.
1. Make sure you know what resources you’ll need to complete your project.
I’ve learned from training so many people that the following list covers just about any potential resource need you might need to accomplish your projects—no matter what that project is. Use this list as a tool to help you in your discussion with your boss. Ask if you need, or need to adjust, any of the following resources?
- Workspace
- Supplies
- Materials
- Equipment
- Transportation
- Information
- Operation
- Maintenance
- People
- Talent
- Training
- Communication
- Cooperation
For every assignment, task, responsibility, and project, there will be some resource categories on that list that are not relevant. Maybe some of the resource categories will be irrelevant to most of your work. If so, take a moment to think of the resources that are required to get your work done and create a list that you can use in your one-on-one management dialogue.
Whether you use the list above or one of your own creation, the one resource that you’ll always need is time. In order to create a comprehensive resource plan for any task, responsibility, or project assigned to you, always build in enough turnaround time for every resource acquisition. This means allowing enough time to process, receive, and prepare your resource request. Creating this timeline is critical, but most of the time, in order to create an accurate timeline for your resource planning, you’ll need to do what I call “supply chain research.”
2. Research the “supply chain.”
If your boss doesn’t have this information, can they at least help you figure out who might?
Some resources are a whole lot easier to come by than others. Once you’ve figured out with your boss what resources you need in order to complete your project, you need to find out whether the resources are available and, if they are, from what source and at what cost. What is the process to get these resources?
Talk through every aspect of the “supply chain” for your resources: What sources should you check to find out whether the resource is available? What process should you follow to get the resource? What turnaround time should you expect? What should you do in the event you run into roadblocks? What do you need to do if you need to purchase the resource—is there a budget for that?
So often, what you need to do your job will be resources that don’t cost money exactly but instead require the informal cooperation and assistance of another person, internal or external. Often you will need something from a person with whom the precise nature of your working relationship is not entirely clear.
In your one-on-one management dialogue, talk with your boss to anticipate together what cooperation and assistance you might need from other colleagues—internal and external—to get a project or task completed. Talk through the following questions: Exactly who should you ask for what, when, and how? What is the precise nature of your working relationship with each person upon whom you may need to rely? What level of cooperation and assistance is appropriate and reasonable to request? In each case, is there more than one person to whom you could turn for cooperation and assistance? What should you do if you are having trouble getting cooperation and assistance from one person or another?
Another key issue that you should discuss with your boss on an ongoing basis is getting his or her help identifying the people in the organization who can assist you in getting the resource you need—and then help you develop strong relationships with them.
3. Identify possible workarounds.
If you don’t have access to the resources you need to do your job, you need to work around that resource gap and do the job as best you can without it.
Resource workarounds almost always follow four steps, progressively:
1. Seek a substitute source for your resource. If a book you need to complete a research report isn’t available at your local bookstores, then you might look for it in another store further away or perhaps online retailers. Perhaps the price point and turnaround time are such that you might choose yet another source for this resource, the book you need, like used bookstores or online sellers of used books.
2. Seek a substitute resource. In the theater example above, in the absence of the original cast member to play the role, the producer relies on an understudy. If there are no understudies, cast members try to understudy each other.
3. Innovate. Come up with a method of completing the task that doesn’t involve the resource you originally felt you needed.
Necessity is the mother of invention. If you don’t have the resources to do the job properly, you might have to devise a way to do the job differently. Maybe that different way of doing the job will be a huge improvement.
4. Sometimes, in the face of a fundamental resource gap, there is nothing you can do but try harder. In the absence of necessary resources, your only choice might be to employ much greater time and energy to make up for the missing resource. Don’t underestimate the value of this one because sometimes it is truly the only workaround available. In that case, adjust the plan, accounting for the extra time and energy the project will now require.
