1.5 Action Planning

Time: ~20 minutes

What You'll Learn

• How to turn a root cause into a set of concrete actions
• How to prioritize when everything feels urgent
• How to assign owners, set timelines, and account for resource constraints
• The difference between a plan that looks good and a plan that actually works

Key Concepts

You now know the situation (Chaos Audit), the people (Stakeholder Map), and the real problem (Root Cause). Now you need a plan that addresses the root cause while working within the constraints of reality.

Action Planning teaches you to:

1. Generate possible actions — What could you do to address the root cause?
2. Prioritize ruthlessly — Impact vs. effort, quick wins vs. structural changes
3. Assign ownership — Every action needs a person, not a team or a department
4. Set realistic timelines — Account for dependencies, resources, and existing workload
5. Identify constraints — Budget, people, time, politics — what limits what you can do?

Why This Matters

A plan without priorities is a wish list. A plan without owners is a suggestion. A plan without timelines is a dream. This lesson teaches you to build plans that actually get executed because they account for the messy reality of how work gets done.

How to Start

Open Claude Desktop and say:

start lesson 1.5

Claude will help you build an action plan for your scenario, complete with priorities, owners, timelines, and constraints.

Skills You'll Use Later

• Prioritization framework (directly feeds the leadership update)
• Constraint awareness (makes your plan credible)
• Owner assignment (makes your plan actionable)