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Why Every Business Needs a Project Timeline Template in Word

Managing projects efficiently is crucial for the success of any business. A project timeline allows you to plan, track, and execute tasks in a systematic and organized manner. However, creating a project timeline from scratch can be time-consuming and challenging. This is where a project timeline template in Word comes to the rescue. In this article, we will explore the benefits of using a project timeline template in Word for your business.

Streamline Project Planning

One of the primary advantages of using a project timeline template in Word is that it helps streamline the process of project planning. With a pre-designed template, you don’t have to waste time formatting or structuring your timeline manually. The template provides you with an intuitive layout that allows you to input key project milestones, tasks, deadlines, and dependencies easily.

By having all the essential information organized in one place, you can ensure that your team stays on track throughout the entire project lifecycle. Additionally, visualizing the project timeline gives you a clear overview of how different tasks and activities are interconnected.

Enhance Team Collaboration

Collaboration is key when it comes to successful project management. A project timeline template in Word facilitates effective collaboration among team members by providing them with a shared platform to view and update progress. With real-time access to the template, everyone involved in the project can stay informed about task assignments and deadlines.

Moreover, using a common template ensures consistency throughout the organization by standardizing how projects are planned and executed. It eliminates confusion caused by different team members using disparate methods or formats for tracking progress.

Improve Time Management

Time management plays an integral role in completing projects on schedule. A well-designed project timeline template helps improve time management by allowing you to allocate resources effectively and set realistic deadlines for each task.

By visualizing all tasks on a single timeline, you can identify potential bottlenecks or overlaps early on and make necessary adjustments to avoid delays. The template also enables you to prioritize tasks based on their dependencies, ensuring that everyone is aware of the critical path and can focus on the most urgent activities.

Facilitate Stakeholder Communication

Effective communication with stakeholders is vital for project success. A project timeline template in Word serves as a valuable tool for communicating project progress and updates to stakeholders, such as clients, managers, or investors.

By sharing the timeline with stakeholders, you provide them with a comprehensive view of the project’s status, milestones achieved, and upcoming deliverables. This transparency fosters trust and confidence in your ability to meet project objectives.

Additionally, using a familiar software like Word makes it easier for stakeholders to review and provide feedback on the timeline. They can easily make comments or suggestions directly in the document, allowing for seamless collaboration between you and your stakeholders.

In conclusion, utilizing a project timeline template in Word offers numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes. From streamlining project planning and enhancing team collaboration to improving time management and facilitating stakeholder communication, a well-designed template simplifies the complexities of managing projects. Invest some time in finding the perfect project timeline template that suits your business needs, and watch your projects unfold smoothly from start to finish.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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Action Plan Templates: What, Why, How and Examples

By Joe Weller | May 25, 2016 (updated June 21, 2023)

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We've compiled free action plan templates for project managers, businesses, strategists, and other teams and individuals. We've included editable templates with example copy to help you get started breaking down your strategy into actionable steps to meet your goals.

Included on this page, you’ll find many helpful action plan templates, such as a business action plan template , a project action plan template , a work action plan template , and more.  Also, get tips for how to use action plan templates .

What Is an Action Plan? 

An action plan is a step-by-step strategy designed to accomplish a specific goal or objective. It outlines the specific actions to be taken, the resources required, the timeline, and the individuals or teams responsible for each task.

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What Is an Action Plan Template? 

An action plan template is a pre-designed format or structure that helps individuals or teams create an action plan. Use an action plan template as a framework to break down project goals into manageable steps, assign responsibilities, and track progress.

How Do I Write an Action Plan? 

To write an action plan, start by defining your project’s overarching goal, then break your goal down into smaller tasks, assign responsibilities, and set timelines for each task. Regularly monitor project progress, and adjust the plan as needed. 

To write an effective action plan, follow these steps:  

• Define Your Goal: Clearly state the objective or goal you want to achieve, ensuring it is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). 
• Identify Tasks: Break down your goal into smaller, manageable tasks that are necessary to achieve the overall objective.
• Set Timelines: Establish deadlines for each task, and determine the overall timeline for accomplishing the goal.
• Identify Resources: Determine the resources required to complete each task effectively, such as tools, equipment, and personnel.
• Assign Responsibility: Allocate responsibility for each task to a specific individual, team, or department.
• Download an Action Plan Template: Use an action plan template to organize tasks, set priorities, and track progress towards your goal. Download an editable action plan template to assist you in creating your action plan.
• Monitor Progress: Regularly monitor the progress made towards the goal and make necessary adjustments to the action plan.
• Measure Success: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress towards the goal.

Types of Action Plan Templates

There are several types of action plan templates available, all designed to assist individuals or teams in developing a structured plan of action to achieve goals or objectives. Pick the template that best aligns with your organization’s needs.

Explore these action plan templates to find the one that best fits your current project or goal: 

• Action Item Templates: Use an action item template when you need to keep track of specific tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines that are essential to completing a project or achieving a goal. These templates include a structured format for progress tracking, accountability assurance, and resource management.
• Corrective Action Plan Templates: Employ a corrective action plan template to diagnose and remedy issues or problems encountered during a project or within a business process. These templates aid in promptly and effectively resolving issues, diminishing the risk of future complications, and enhancing overall performance.
• Performance Improvement Plan Templates: Consider a performance improvement plan (PIP) template to guide underperforming employees in enhancing their work performance. A PIP template helps employees concentrate on particular improvement areas, while managers can provide support and guidance to facilitate better performance.
• Mutual Action Plan Templates: Use a mutual action plan template to encourage collaboration and consensus among individuals or teams with a shared goal. These templates offer a structured format for detailing specific tasks, timelines, and resources needed from each party, assigning responsibility, and tracking progress towards the shared goal.
• Marketing Action Plan Templates: Utilize a marketing action plan template when creating a comprehensive plan to reach marketing goals and objectives. These templates provide a structured format for detailing marketing strategies, tactics, timelines, and resources necessary to achieve these goals.
• Microsoft Word Action Plan Templates: A Microsoft Word action plan template is ideal when creating a customizable plan to achieve a particular goal or objective. This type of template saves time and effort by providing a pre-designed format that can be modified to meet individual needs and specifications.
• Excel Action Plan Templates: Implement an Excel action plan template to organize and track tasks, timelines, and resources. These templates can assist individuals or teams in overseeing progress towards their goal, adjusting timelines and resources, and ensuring the plan remains on track.

Parts of an Action Plan

A comprehensive action plan should include a clear goal, a breakdown of tasks, a timeline for completion, identification of resources and responsible parties, monitoring and evaluation plans, risk management strategies, and key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Although the specific parts may vary depending on the goal or objective at hand, an action plan typically consists of the following eight components:

• Goal or Objective: Write a clear and specific statement of the goal or objective to be achieved. 
• Tasks or Actions: Break down the goal into specific tasks or actions required to achieve the goal.
• Timeline: Create a timeline or schedule for completing each task or action and for achieving the overall goal.
• Resources: Identify the resources needed to complete each task, including personnel, materials, and equipment.
• Responsibility: Assign responsibility for each task to a specific person or team.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Develop a plan for monitoring progress towards the goal and evaluating the effectiveness of the action plan.
• Risks and Challenges: Identify potential risks and challenges that may impact the successful completion of the action plan, and devise strategies for managing them.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish specific metrics to measure progress towards the goal and evaluate the success of the action plan.

By including these components in an action plan, individuals and teams can ensure that their action plans are comprehensive, well-structured, and actionable.

Creating an Effective Action Plan

The best action plans are clear, specific, and flexible enough to accommodate changes. They should serve as a roadmap to help everyone involved in the project understand what needs to be done, who is responsible, and when tasks are expected to be completed.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you begin to draft your action plan: 

• Set an Feasible Goal: Start by selecting an achievable goal and clearly defining your objective. Balance its significance with feasibility, considering the timeframe and resources available to you.
• Brainstorm With Your Team: Engage your team when creating your action plan. Brainstorming can lead to a robust plan of action. In some cases, you might find valuable input comes from outside the immediate team.
• Opt for Concrete Action Steps: Opt for action steps that are concrete, measurable, and attainable. Aim for well-defined steps instead of vague notions.
• Assign Responsibilities Clearly: Determine who is responsible for each action step and who will provide support. While supporters assist in the process, they are not responsible for the final outcome of an action step.
• Set a Clear Schedule: Establish a clear schedule for completing each action step. Whether your ultimate goal is a short-term project or a multi-year endeavor, breaking down the timeline for each milestone is crucial.
• List Necessary Resources: Document all resources needed to complete your action steps. If you lack sufficient resources, include a strategy for their procurement.
• Regularly Review Your Plan: As your action plan unfolds, review and update it regularly. Make necessary adjustments based on the tracking of your plan's progress.
• Keep Key Stakeholders Informed: Communicate with key stakeholders about the plan's progress and its impacts as it progresses. Clear communication ensures everyone stays aligned and informed.

Simple Action Plan Template

Download a Sample Simple Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

Download a Blank Simple Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

This action plan template includes sections to plan for four goals, with the option to add more. Each goal further divides into action steps where teams can assign both a priority and a completion status to track progress. Include start and end dates for each action, along with any relevant notes. This template is suitable for various uses including project management, event planning, and achieving business goals.

Business Action Plan Template

Download a Sample Business Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

Download a Blank Business Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

This action plan template can be used as a supporting tool to reach the goals in a business or marketing plan. The goal is clearly stated at the top of the template followed by action steps below. This template provides sections to record necessary resources, potential challenges and final results. The final result of an action item could simply be a successful completion, or new steps may have been identified in the process. An action plan may have to be adaptive in order to reach business goals.

Project Action Plan Template for Word

Download a Sample Project Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs | Google Sheets | Smartsheet

Download a Blank Project Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs | Google Sheets | Smartsheet

Keep your project on schedule and evaluate its progress with this project action plan template. The template breaks down goals into separate sections along with their associated action steps. The timeline, expected outcome, ownership and evaluation methodology can be recorded for each action step. Save the project template as a PDF and print for easy sharing with a team.

Work Action Plan Template

Download a Work Action Plan Template for Excel | Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

Implement this detailed work action plan template to help ensure success in your improvement efforts. The template allows you to clearly outline each step of your work action plan along with important data. What resources are available or needed? Where are there points of resistance that need to be dealt with? What is your c ommunications plan for each step? Including all of these factors in your action plan will help implementation go smoothly.

Build a Real-Time Action Plan with Smartsheet for Project Management

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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10 Free Action Plan Templates and Examples in ClickUp, Excel, and Word

Content Partnership Specialist

May 11, 2023

Blueprint, action plan, roadmap— tomato, to-mah-to! 🍅

Whether you’re pursuing a professional goal , developing a product, or building a house, you always start with a detailed plan to guide your next steps.

But it’s a little easier said than done. 👀

Powerful project management software is the key to creating and overseeing comprehensive action plans. And choosing the right action plan template for your software is the key to saving time on this step-by-step process while making sure you cover all the bases! 🔑

Even simple projects and goals require organized action plans, and action plan templates provide the perfect framework to help you turn these plans into a reality! While there are tons of templates at your disposal, they each carry a unique set of features and value depending on the size of your team, project, or goal.

Instead of combing through pages and pages of search results, start here, with 10 of the best action plan templates for ClickUp , Excel, and Word. You can access each template directly from this blog, and did mention they’re all completely free? 💸

What is an Action Plan Template?

What features make for a good action plan template, 1. clickup action plan template, 2. clickup corrective action plan template, 3. clickup employee engagement action plan template, 4. clickup cybersecurity action plan template, 5. clickup smart action plan template, 6. clickup daily action plan template, 7. clickup action priority matrix whiteboard template, 8. clickup management action plan template, 9. microsoft word action plan template, 10. excel action plan template.

Your action plan is a detailed checklist of items that must happen in order to complete a project or reach a goal. You can make an action plan for virtually anything —and you probably already have!

Think of your action plan as a thorough list of every task included in a workflow or steps in a process. But what makes your action plan different than a simple to-do list is the amount of organization, information, and detail involved.

Your plan justifies the who, what, where, and when of your project and shows how each related task ties back to those ideas. This helps project managers streamline workflows and ensures that every action item is absolutely necessary.

Action plan templates take the “set up” out of setting up your roadmap. Your template may come in the form of a pre-built flowchart, list, document, or table where you can essentially plug and play your project’s information in the proper areas to guide your next steps in the process.

They’re excellent resources to have on hand for fleshing-out fresh ideas, during employee performance reviews when you’re planning professional growth, and so much more. Plus, action plan templates can be customized to more specific use cases and are designed to help you think more proactively and strategically about building processes .

What are the best features to look for in your next action plan template? In a nutshell, there’s a lot to keep in mind.

An action plan template helps you stay on top of your workflows and be more strategic about how you approach them. And since projects vary in complexity, industry, scope, and timelines, no two action plan templates will look or function the same. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re looking for the template that best suits your needs, rather than the one that’s just doing the most.

A good rule of thumb is to stick to these five qualities:

• Multiple views : The ability to choose the way you visualize and complete tasks will put the power back in your hands when it comes to structuring and executing your projects. Every team member works differently, and whether you’re a visual learner or prefer working from a list, multiple views make every person’s preference possible.
• Highly visual : Especially during brainstorming sessions and R&D, having the option to map out steps in a process is a major asset. Whether your team is using a digital whiteboard or mind map software , highly visual flowcharts and diagrams turn action planning into a more collaborative experience.
• Intuitive UI : Your template might have all the right features, but if the team can’t figure out how to use them, the value is gone! Make sure your action plan template is easy to navigate, customize, and edit.
• Collaborative and sharable : An action plan template can be for the entire team, not just the project manager. Everyone involved (including stakeholders) should have easy access to your template and the ability to add updates as needed.
• Tons of integrations : Integrations extend the functionality of your project management software and fill any feature gaps your template might have.

And that’s just to name a few! Your team or project might require a few other more specific features, but starting with these five will guarantee a powerful and useful business action plan template .

10 of the Best Free Action Plan Templates

Now that you’ve got the essentials down, it’s time to set your search in motion! Luckily, project management is kind of our thing. 🤓

We’ve done our homework to bring you 10 of the best project action plan templates for ClickUp, Excel, Word, and more. And the best part? You can download them directly from this blog without even spending a dime. 💰

Taking the time to create a plan with actionable steps can provide invaluable structure for simple to complex projects!

The ClickUp Action Plan Template sets the stage to review action plans daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly on a Whiteboard. This process will help make goal-setting easier by providing a simple way to structure the action items, determine deadlines and resources, and track progress toward your objectives. 

If this is your first time using a digital whiteboard , no worries! The Getting Started guide inside this template will walk you through how to set up your canvas. 🎨

A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is a structured action plan outlining the steps needed to address problems and improve the performance of a role, process, or system.

With the ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template , it’s easy to consolidate data and ideas so everything is in one place. The main elements of a CAP in this Whiteboard project action plan template are organized to shorten the time it takes from identifying a mistake to implementing a solution:

• Areas for Improvement : Identify the fields around your business operations or team performance that needs changes and attention
• Problems and Root Causes : Define the challenges, roadblocks, and supporting information of each to analyze and develop a solution
• Possible Solutions : Consider every factor involved in your corrective plan, and list down all the possible solutions to make a change for improvement
• Measure of Success : Define your success that’s measurable through key performance indicators or metrics that are applicable and beneficial to your team and overall operations
• Task Owners : Assign specific team members to every task 
• Timeline: Allocate enough time to prepare for transitions and improvement as you go through this template

The ClickUp Employee Engagement Action Plan Template is a Doc packed with examples to increase employee satisfaction and engagement. It offers step-by-step instructions to get the most out of your template to measure progress on common HR goals :

• Business strategy
• People strategy
• Strategic priorities
• Communication plans

And that’s just the beginning! You can assign tasks directly in the Doc or connect your employee action plan template to tasks and share it with stakeholders. This reduces the number of feedback channels and shortens the time it takes to approve a plan or assign tasks to team members. 

Pro tip : Use subpages to add training programs, reward systems, and other related activities to keep all your work in one place!

A Cybersecurity Action Plan is a written framework outlining the steps and resources required to improve security posture. TechTarget defines security posture as “an organization’s overall cybersecurity strength and how well it can predict, prevent and respond to ever-changing cyber threats.” 

A comprehensive cybersecurity action plan starts with an assessment of an organization’s current security posture —analyzing existing policies, procedures, systems, and infrastructure in order to identify any gaps or areas of vulnerability.

Based on this assessment, actionable steps can be taken to improve technical and non-technical aspects of security like implementing new technologies, processes, and practices. ⚙️

The ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template is a beautifully-designed Doc for any Security team to quickly customize for audience impact and understanding. As you go through the action plan process, you can collaborate with your team in real-time or async! 

Use this free template to easily protect your ClickUp Docs with the Privacy and Edit controls to prevent unwanted changes to the content of your Pages.

The ClickUp SMART Action Plan Template helps project managers break down complex tasks into more manageable steps while considering the barriers of time, resources, and expertise. 

The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. This template organizes each SMART goal category while providing helpful prompts for success! After you’ve filled out each category, highlight your text to create actionable tasks and assign a completion date.

From there, you can navigate between your Doc and tasks easily without opening more browser tabs. 

Need to tweak or make mental notes on your action plan? There’s a section in this template just for that—the Follow Through section. Jot down the review date, key accomplishments, improvement areas, and support needed to keep track of all your work! 

The ClickUp Daily Action Plan Template is a worthy rival to your coveted to-do list on your company-branded notepad. 

A daily action plan is a blueprint template for organizing and prioritizing tasks throughout the day. It helps us to stay focused and productive, while also helping us to better manage our time. The process involves creating a list of tasks that need to be accomplished each day, assigning a time frame for each task, and most importantly, committing to completing them within that time frame. ⏳

Individuals or teams will benefit from its organized layout and connected view of organizational goals. To begin, open the Getting Started guide within the project action plan template to make it your own so you can use it every day! 

Discover more to-do list templates !

An Action Priority Matrix is a visualization tool to help anyone assess and rank tasks based on how much effort is required and how important completing the task is for achieving the overall goal. 

The action priority matrix typically includes four sections: action item/task, importance level, timeline, and completion status. This allows teams to easily rank action items by importance so they can make sure important tasks are completed first and within the allotted time frame. 

Tasks with the potential to improve performance or mitigate risks should be given higher priority than those with no direct impact. Similarly, tasks with short-term deadlines should be treated as a higher priority than long-term goals in an action plan’s timeline.

The ClickUp Action Priority Matrix Whiteboard Template is perfect for project managers looking to optimize their action plans in order to improve performance over time. Teams can more easily identify which tasks need attention first while tracking progress along the way. The Getting Started guide in this template includes formatting tips and examples to get your Whiteboard action plan ready!

Check out more matrix templates and matrix structure examples .

This ClickUp Management Action Plan Template is built to handle any project, but it’s especially helpful for larger or more complex situations. It provides a structured framework to explain your approaches while tracking progress!

The Doc comes with helpful tips and is organized by the following sections:

• Introduction to provide context on the problem
• Goals to list the plan’s success criteria and desired results
• Action Plan to detail specific tasks, projects, and team members
• Review and Approval to assign the responsible party

This detailed work plan template in Microsoft Word gives you an organized space to document a clear planning process. To track progress on your team action plan template, consider using a project management platform (like ClickUp) so you can bridge the necessary resources!

If you’re looking for free action plan templates in Microsoft Excel , we recommend this one! It comes with all the essential categories ( Action Item, Rank, Priority, Owner, Assigned, Due, Done, Status , and Notes ) to develop an effective action plan. 

Listing team members might become an administrative burden as roles change or new hires come on board. (Try the No. 6 ClickUp Daily Action Plan Template to avoid this issue!) 

You can also use this as a sales action plan template to keep track of budgets, progression, and sales employees. Using this as a sales action plan template could be a faster way to track your team’s work.

Explore other ClickUp action plan templates:

• Community Engagement Action Plan Template
• Real Estate Action Plan Template
• Fundraising Action Plan Template
• Construction Action Plan Template
• Outreach Action Plan Template
• Contingency Plan Templates

Turn Plans Into Action With a Template by ClickUp

Any of these 10 templates will start your project planning off on the right foot. But while they all share similarities, a select few stand out for their ease of use, customization abilities, power, and functionality…

Templates by ClickUp. 🙌🏼

ClickUp is more than your average project management tool—it’s the ultimate productivity platform and the only software powerful enough to centralize your work across apps into one collaborative hub.

In fact, ClickUp Whiteboards , Docs, and its 15+ unique project views are just a few of the reasons why teams across industries rely on ClickUp, and how it makes your action plans more valuable from start to finish.

Access the templates linked above and hundreds more from ClickUp’s Template Library , and tons of rich project management features across every pricing plan . Plus, ClickUp integrates with more than 1,000 other work tools to streamline processes even further.

Sign up for ClickUp today and watch your action plans come to life. 🏆

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65 Free Action Plan Templates For Excel, Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Docs

Last Updated on April 14, 2022 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

Featured Bonus Content: Get 65 Free Action Plan Templates! Click Here To Download It.

If you don’t want to spend years wishing you achieved your goals, you need to act on them now. The best way to do so is to have an action plan.

Having a long list of tasks to complete can be overwhelming. As you see the list grow, you may lose the motivation to do any of them. That said, if you have a step-by-step action plan that spells out your chores in achievable pieces, you can accomplish them without noticing.

Action plans assist in keeping track of your work progress. With an action plan in place, you’ll have an official start and end date, as well as an estimate of how long each step will take. You won’t have to spend mental energy each day trying to decide when and how to start. 

Also, you can use an action plan to keep track of your project budget and determine whether you need to change your time or resource estimates.

In this in-depth post, you’ll learn what an action plan is, why you need one, and how to make action plan templates on Microsoft Excel, Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Docs.

We’ll also answer some frequently asked questions about action plans. Finally, we’ll give you access to 65+ free, editable, and downloadable action plan templates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and Google Docs.

Let’s get started.

Chapter One: What is an Action Plan and Why Do You Need One?

Chapter Two: Action Plan Templates For Excel

Chapter Three: Action Plan Templates For Word

Chapter Four: Action Plan Templates For PDF

Chapter Five: Action Plan Templates For PowerPoint

Chapter Six: Action Plan Templates for Google Docs

Chapter Seven: How to Make an Action Plan on Excel, Word, and Google Docs

Chapter eight: action plan templates frequently asked questions (faqs), chapter nine: create and manage your action plans using sweetprocess.

Every situation benefits from having an action plan. It is a simple success roadmap if used judiciously. In your job, business, or personal endeavor, a well-designed action plan will highlight what to do at every point and assist you in tracking achieved tasks. 

For instance, do you want to switch to a tech career by a specific age? An action plan helps you consider your existing qualifications, identify your existing strengths, and point you to the courses you’re going to need to take to successfully achieve this transition. You can also include the top tech organizations you’ll hopefully transition into.  

If you’re working on a project, the action plan forces you to consider the number of resources you have at your disposal, the complexity of the project or objective at hand, and the level of detail necessary when executing the project. 

What is an Action Plan?

Action plans are communication tools that simplify complex tasks and initiatives. It is an organizational strategy framework for identifying steps that you must take to achieve a goal. 

When using an action plan, you should consider and map out specific tasks to help the organization set quality standards and save costs. This enables you to avoid trial and error as much as possible. 

An action plan is a social planning tool. With it, you can document actions that serve as a symbol of a company’s or nation’s accountability. 

For instance, an action plan might be used by a city to express plans to enhance a neighborhood. This could involve plans for adding green spaces, services, living streets, and better rail service.

Why You Need an Action Plan

Many companies have a growth strategy, but nothing gets done at the end of the day. This happens because they have no action plan to follow to provide a roadmap for how and when to complete each task. 

Your action plan is a working document that makes your strategy a reality. As a result, you achieve your tasks and allocate resources to your team for efficient job implementation.

You need an action plan so you can:

• Focus on specific goals

Action plans provide you with the framework to efficiently execute specific tasks, so you complete your work without distractions. 

• Logically complete tasks

It assists you in completing your tasks in a logical order and ensures that you do not overlook or miss any essential steps. 

• Effectively delegate tasks

Action plans make it easy to determine when you need to delegate or outsource tasks. The document quickly points you to what job to outsource and how to do it. That way, you’ll save time and effort as you’re able to delegate tasks that slow your progress or do not achieve the end goal for your business. 

• Efficiently keep records 

Having an action plan lets you document the time and resources you’ll likely spend on tasks. This way, you stay motivated and ensure that you complete your job in as short a period as possible.

• Avoid procrastination

With an effective action plan, you’ll avoid procrastination. This is because an action plan provides you with a visual map that documents achievement in a structured manner. As a result, it helps you see your progress when you need to complete each job faster. 

What You Should Include in Your Action Plan

Action plans are likely to fail for two reasons: You may not take action as written on the document, or you fail to include the essential points to make the path to success clear in the action plan.

When creating an action plan, here are the specifics to include to use it efficiently.

Define your goal

You need to understand your goal before creating an effective action plan. Having this at the top of your action plan motivates you to keep moving forward.

State the actions 

Write out the step-by-step actions that are involved in doing every task. This will help you to achieve your set goals and minimize decision fatigue.

List the persons in charge 

Mention the employees who will be handling each step. This introduces accountability to your action plan and creates a sense of responsibility in the mind of stakeholders.

Timeline 

You’ll be less likely to achieve your goals if you don’t attach your set goals to a particular deadline. Having a deadline for each step keeps you on your toes to effectively deliver your tasks.

Resources 

Identify the assets you need to allocate for each step. When resources are not available, your action plan will experience a delay. Therefore, in your action plan, ensure that you include plans to acquire the necessary resources to meet your project delivery deadline. 

Potential barriers 

Be mindful of the factors that can potentially hinder the completion of each step. Considering this will force you to have mitigation strategies in place for every foreseeable problem that arises.

Track your progress

It won’t be fair to realize that your goals won’t be met at the end of your task. You should track your progress to avoid this. Not tracking each process leads to mistakes and inefficiencies, and you’ll waste time going back to fix your errors. 

Why Use an Action Plan Template?

Are you a worker who wishes to enhance your job performance, or a project manager whose task is to delegate responsibilities to team members? 

You need an action plan to help organize human and material resources. With this, you can identify a clear route to meet your objectives and confidently manage related tasks in the most effective sequence to attain your goal.

But creating an action plan from scratch could be time-consuming for you. Hence, the need for an action plan template.

Action plan templates are industry-specific, ready-made documents that you can instantly download and use. 

You need to use action plan templates because they not only help you stay motivated and track your progress toward your goals, but they also help you save time as you can adopt them very quickly.

Whether you’re working alone or with others, action plan templates guide you in all categories of your work and can be a reference for those who should be held responsible for each task. Using an action plan template helps you prevent delays and errors.

Action plan templates enable you to transform your vision into attainable objectives and tasks. 

How to Make an Effective Action Plan

To make an action plan, here are steps to consider:

Step 1: Define the problem

The first step to solving a problem is to understand what it is. By identifying the problem, you can assess the circumstances surrounding the problem and examine possible solutions.

At this point, you’ll consider all ideas and ask for feedback from your team and the parties interested in solving the problem. 

Step 2: Gather and analyze information

The next step is to gather and analyze the collected data to support or reject whether the problem exists or has a different root cause than you anticipated. 

You would figure this out by asking questions like: 

• What is the root source of the problem?
• What do others think about the situation? 

Step 3: Define and prioritize the problems

In cases where you find there are more problems than the ones you envisioned, there is a need to prioritize them so that you may focus on the most pressing issues first. 

Ask yourself the following questions to assist you in sorting the concerns:

• Which issue is likely to cause more problems?
• Which problems have the most considerable influence on the operation’s long-term financial stability?

Step 4: Write a goal statement for each solution

Now that you’ve identified the problems and gathered information associated with it, write out the goals’ statement for each solution using the S.M.A.R.T framework. Setting S.M.A.R.T. objectives or goals means the goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. 

You should then look through the solutions and analyze them for difficulties. If you identify any, then find a solution as you proceed.

Step 5: Put solutions into action—the action plan

Next is to itemize the actual steps to solve the issues. 

An action plan developed this way will let you complete your tasks effectively and efficiently. It will also transform your elusive goal or strategy into a people-oriented solution. 

Then create your resulting action plan. This should answer what, when, how, where, and who.

Step 6: Evaluate your process

Walk through each action’s process. Evaluating the process is the best strategy to determine if the goal and action plan effectively resolve the issue. 

Sticking to a well-designed monitoring technique will assist you and your team in determining when the action plan requires revision.

Chapter Two: Action Plan Templates for Excel

Excel is an intuitive tool for creating an action plan template. We’ve compiled some free action plan templates for Excel below, which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Work action plan template 

Click here to download the Work Action Plan Template

The work action plan template contains a list of actions you must complete to accomplish a simple project. In addition, it has sections documenting needed resources, possible difficulties, and results. 

You can use your action plan to structure tactics and modest stages toward reaching long-term objectives. 

• Corrective action plan template

The corrective action plan template lets you spell out the steps needed to deal with an issue disrupting your organization’s operations. 

Businesses can streamline their procedures and remove errors when they use these templates. Corrective action can take numerous forms, including training, product redesigns, and other enhancements. This template enables users to make a cohesive action plan. 

• Mentoring action plan template

A mentoring action plan template identifies the mentor and mentee relationship’s actions and goals. With this template, you’ll have the themes to focus on to help your mentee define their professional goals.

• Excel sales action plan template

The Excel sales action plan template helps you plan your sales targets using the built-in flexibility of an Excel spreadsheet. This sales plan template is segmented into 12 months and divided into product lines. 

It includes columns for last year’s performance, current sales goals, and outcomes. It also lets you create a yearly sales strategy and compare statistics across products and over time.

• Maintenance action plan template

A maintenance action plan template is a document that outlines what must be done to keep assets in a facility in good working order. The information in the template will assist you in ensuring that an asset is used to its full potential. You can keep track of maintenance schedules using the estimated time column, and check and record accountability when the task is complete.

Chapter Three: Action Plan Templates for Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most straightforward tools for making an action plan template. It provides you with easy-to-use features to achieve an easy-to-read, comprehensive document.

Here are some free action plan templates for Word, which you can

download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Project action plan template

The project action plan template provides you with a place to document the steps needed to finish a simple project or goal. In addition, it identifies the vital tasks you need to focus on to deliver your projects within timelines successfully. 

• Blank action plan template

The blank action plan template outlines a series of stages or activities that must be done to complete the work or task correctly. It helps you keep track of task accomplishments and the money and equipment needed to execute the action. 

• Sales action plan template

A sales action plan template outlines what you’ll do to meet your sales objectives, with an emphasis on the transactions and relationships you can build with clients.

Things included in this template are: 

• Who your top customer segments are
• Your revenue target
• How to structure your teams for success 
• Sample corrective action plan template

A sample corrective action plan template helps you lay out the process of prioritizing and correcting specific hazards or deficiencies in running your organization. In addition, it helps you to deal with any issue that may disrupt your workflow. 

It has sections to streamline your work process while eliminating errors.

• Startup action plan template

This startup business plan template includes the essential elements you’ll need to pitch investors and stakeholders on your business idea and strategy. 

An executive summary, a financial overview, a marketing plan, specifics on product or service offerings, and more are all included in the template.

• Personal development action plan template

The personal development action plan template provides you with an assessment for personal growth in the context of professional goals, education, relationship, or self-improvement. This is usually based on awareness, values, reflection, goal setting, and planning.

• Non-profit action plan template

A nonprofit action plan template outlines your organization’s current state and lays out a strategy for the next three to five years. It also details your objectives and plans for achieving your organizational goals. 

You need to consistently update your charity business plan to reflect your changing goals and circumstances.

• Account action plan template

The account action plan template provides your sales team with practical and effective strategies for transforming major account relationships into long-term partnerships. 

It serves as a tool for the sales team to plan and manage the account and keeps critical developments up to date for management. It’s also used to maintain control of the account’s performance.

• Basic action plan template

The basic action plan template contains sections to focus on when achieving your fundamental goals. It allows you to create action stages that you can prioritize and keep track of when completing your project while you measure progress and evaluate performance. 

• Education action plan template

An education action plan template allows you to monitor the progress of a new educator through the set objectives toward a goal of achieving professional growth. Also, it provides instructional assistance and comprehensive assessment across educational boards. 

•   Sample action plan template

This sample action plan template allows you to manage your work and complete tasks on schedule. It provides you with information such as the purpose of your plan, instructions for using it, goals, and action items. 

It also allows you to add the timeframe for completion, who is responsible, resources, potential hurdles, communication strategy, evaluation method, and so on.

•   Simple action plan template

The simple action plan template allows you to keep track of the tasks that must be accomplished daily to achieve a larger goal. You can document your objectives, task list, success criteria, timeframe, and available resources. Each page has a label where you may enter information about your firm in addition to tables and images.

Chapter Four: Action Plan Templates for PDF

You can easily create your action plan templates in PDF format. We’ve compiled 20+ free action plan templates for PDF, which you can

•  Recruitment action plan template

The recruitment action plan template helps you recruit potential partners for your company. It includes responsibilities for recruitment and appointment, and recruitment timing so that potential partners are tracked and approached on time.

• Team action plan template

The team action plan template includes sections for listing team members and keeping track of attendance at multiple planning sessions. 

It also includes all of the necessary components for producing an effective action plan for a team with a straightforward layout that makes group work more accessible. 

•   Epilepsy action plan template 

The epilepsy action plan template includes a section for healthcare providers and patients to collect data about the patient’s health. 

This template encourages healthcare practitioners to use a shared decision-making approach that allows the person with epilepsy and their family to engage as partners in all healthcare decisions in a collaborative relationship.

•   Emergency action plan template

The emergency action plan template outlines detailed procedures for dealing with any work-related situation that is likely to occur. An emergency action plan is a written strategy that specifies the proper response to several unforeseen emergencies. 

This template makes it easy to create and share emergency action plans that include names and phone numbers for emergency personnel, utility company emergency contacts, and training plans.

• Business action plan template

A business action plan template lays out the needed resources to achieve a goal, creates a timeframe for completing specific activities, and determines the resources required to achieve the business’s aim. 

This template has sections for recording required resources, future challenges, and ultimate outcomes. Successful completion of an action item may be the end outcome, or you might have discovered more actions needed during the process. 

• Incident action plan template

The incident action plan template is a written document that outlines the incident objectives and the techniques used to manage them over the operating time. 

It contains critical information on who to contact in an emergency, task assignments, resources, and safety requirements, based on the incident objectives.

• 90-day action plan template

A 90-day action plan template contains a framework for onboarding, acclimating, and educating new team members. It establishes expectations for what the person is expected to do in the first 90 days including learning and performance objectives.

A 90-day action plan template helps you set short- and long-term goals for new employees.

• Affirmative action plan template

An affirmative action plan template defines your company’s attempt to provide equitable employment opportunities and encourage employee progress regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, or veteran status. Based on federal rules, affirmative action should be reviewed and updated at least once a year.

• Strategic action plan template

A strategic action plan template provides you with steps needed to achieve strategic actions. It allows you to mobilize the resources needed to carry out those activities to ensure timely task delivery. 

• Housekeeping action plan template

The housekeeping action plan template shows how to recruit and train housekeeping staff. It delineates the goals and objectives for training as well as the training stages. 

• Human resources action plan template

The human resource action plan template provides a continual process of systematic planning beforehand to ensure that the organization’s most important asset (quality employees) are used to their full potential. 

Human resource planning ensures that employees and jobs are a good match while preventing labor shortages or surpluses.

• Church emergency action plan template

A church emergency action plan template is a document that provides answers to all questions of what, where, when, how, and who in a church emergency event. 

The more detailed the plan is, the less valuable time will be lost in a calamity. In addition, this plan can provide information on a familiar gathering spot in an emergency, ensuring that no one is left behind.

• Physical fitness action plan template

The physical fitness action plan template allows you to complete the daily fitness routine. By completing the fitness action plan you reduce the chances of developing certain illnesses and diseases that may arise due to inactivity. Physical activity aids in the maintenance of healthy bones, muscles, joints, as well as weight management. 

• Company emergency action plan template

The company emergency action plan template documents all the critical and significant information to create a solid emergency action plan. This template comes with various headers, sections, and fields that you can modify to suit your company’s specific needs.

• Discipline action plan template

A discipline action plan template contains the information necessary to maintain a company’s or organization’s standards of behavior. In the workplace, the purpose of discipline is to correct wrong behavior step-wise and document each step in the process. 

A disciplinary action policy can shield you from legal implications while also preventing issues from impacting your staff and company. 

•   Diving emergency action plan template

The diving emergency action plan template provides explicit instructions to help uneducated witnesses contact emergency personnel and provide them with details about diving accidents.

In an emergency, processing too much information wastes time. So information that includes a scuba-specific emergency hotline, standard emergency numbers, and diving locations are essential. 

• Personal mental health action plan template

The personal mental health action plan template makes personal health goals simpler for you, although planning personal health does take time and effort. 

Still, the template emphasizes the significance of prevention while also recognizing the critical role of mental health in achieving health for all individuals.

• Early years action plan template

The preschool or early years action plan template allows you to create the school action plan for your children, making it easier for them to learn and grow. 

As a teacher, you must establish an action plan for your students to benefit both the students and yourself.

• Library action plan template

The library planning action plan templates aid institutions in addressing broader shifts in how information is sought, accessed, and consumed so that students prepare ahead for success in an increasingly data- and knowledge-based world. 

Higher education institutions can use library strategic planning to save money, control rising student fees, and meet accreditation requirements.

• Presentation action plan template

The presentation action plan template provides a blueprint to prepare slides or collections of slides that you can use for a meaningful presentation. It includes layouts, colors, fonts, effects, background styles, and content to guide your presentation.

• Gender action plan template

The gender action plan template contains a road map for gender activities that a company or organization has adopted. 

Its goal is to make institutions’ operations more gender-responsive, transformative, effective, efficient, and successful by redressing existing gender disparities and redefining women’s and men’s gender roles and relationships through gender mainstreaming guidelines.

• Church mission action plan template

A church mission action plan template provides a hopeful and optimistic glimpse into the future. It’s the church’s inspiring, long-term plan for what they’ll be able to do, who they’ll help, and how they’ll be seen in the future. 

• Wellness recovery action plan template

A wellness recovery action plan template is a framework that teaches how to make positive personal adjustments in your feelings and how you respond to life’s obstacles. 

It is a self-designed preventive and wellness planning technique based on mutuality, self-determination, and the concept that resilience, recovery, and wellness have no bounds.

• Employee action plan template

An employee action plan template contains an incorporated performance planning process that maps out the steps an employee plans in order to achieve a particular goal or objective. 

It provides a process that an organization must develop to identify and prioritize their actions and identify quick and simple changes to demonstrate to employees that it is committed to implementing an action plan in response to employee engagement feedback.

• Family emergency action plan template

The family emergency plan template is a valuable document that helps you identify each family member’s roles in an emergency and guides you and your family members to work together as a team in the event of a disaster. 

It’s an essential aspect of any preparedness strategy and may help protect people’s lives, limbs, and property before, during, and after a disaster.

• Advertising action plan template

A marketing action plan template is a crucial tool that can assist your marketing department in determining the subsequent measures to take to improve the company’s marketing procedures. 

It has both a marketing strategy and an action plan. The vision, goals, and target audience of your organization are defined in the strategic component of the design.

• Printable action plan template

The printable action plan template provides you with a solid reference point for gathering and printing actual copies of action plans without the need for any special software or device. In addition, it gives ease in writing on them and highlighting essential portions of relevant themes. 

• Internal audit corrective action plan template

The internal audit corrective action plan template helps you adhere to the step-by-step instructions to conduct the financial inspection of your company. In addition, it allows you to determine cost-saving strategies and reveal spending deficiencies.

It is the state where you can discover the answer to your financial situation’s nonconformity. The strategy aims to avoid and regulate the recurrent problem. It addresses the issue at its source and reduces the likelihood of recurrence.

Chapter Five: Action Plan Templates for PowerPoint

PowerPoint helps you visualize your action plan. Here are some free and downloadable action plan templates for PowerPoint, which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

• Meeting minutes action plan template

The meeting minutes action plan template contains written notes taken during a meeting. They emphasize the essential subjects debated, motions made or voted on, and activities carried out. 

You can use the meeting minute template to keep track of your project or company meetings. This easy-to-follow, step-by-step template for minutes contains a formatting style that everyone in the conference will appreciate.

• Task action plan template

A task action plan template is a document that outlines the steps necessary to achieve your goal. A solid action plan will specify all of the required procedures to attain your goal and assist in reaching your target efficiently by giving each stage in the process a start and end date. It also breaks down the goal into short, quantifiable activities, which might assist in achieving your objectives. 

• Project planning timeline

A project planning timeline template encompasses the whole duration of your project, from beginning to end, and includes the dates of each deliverable and project milestone in chronological sequence. It allows the project manager to see all the tasks in one spot, making planning easy.

Chapter Six: Action Plan Templates for Google Docs 

Google Docs helps you create action plan templates for your business

from scratch. Here are some editable and downloadable action plan

templates for Google Docs, which you can download, tweak, and use for

your organization.

• Retention action plan template

The employee retention action plan template contains an easy-to-edit format to assist with adjustments to the employer-employee contract. Using retention action plan templates makes it easy to keep your valuable human resources team . 

Some of the standard components of the retention action plan include survey and exit interview analyses, the employer’s strengths and weaknesses, the retention plan’s purpose, and finally, the exact measures to be implemented.

• Reading action plan template

The reading action plan template outlines the steps you’ll take to reach your reading objective. This involves the reading exercise, rewriting the learned concepts through the recall process, and taking meaningful notes. Maybe you need to ace an exam or teach an idea to others; the reading action plan template is a tool to achieve reading success.

• One-page action plan template

A one-page action plan template allows every organization, particularly new start-ups, to quickly develop new versions of their business plan to keep track of the most recent assumptions and strategy changes. 

Sequential planning is essential when you’re starting your business plan. List your original assumptions, and then try to validate the assumptions. Most of your premises will be incorrect, and you will need to shift course.

• Employee engagement survey action plan template

As the name implies, an employee engagement action plan template provides a strategy that necessitates deliberate action. The goal of an employee engagement action plan is to help your team members become more engaged, have a better working environment, and increase staff retention. 

An employee engagement action plan is an essential process that organizations should go through to determine the activities to improve the organization’s structure. However, you must demonstrate the changes to your staff through employee feedback and meetings.

• Work action plan template

The work action plan template is a detailed work plan template that guides you in achieving success in your initiatives. The steps of the work plan, as well as critical data, are clearly described. The template also makes it easier to focus on the most vital issues like: 

• What resources are available?
• What resources are required? 
• What are the points of resistance you must address? 
• What is your strategy for each step’s communication?
• Change management action plan template

A change management action plan template can assist you in document management including tracking document owners and responsible parties. 

You’ll need a change management strategy to thrive in business. During the control and execution stage of your change management plan, this template describes all of your duties in managing and controlling change.

•   Company action plan template

The company action plan template sets out every piece of a standard business plan to help you develop your own. It includes space for companies seeking investment to add finance information. 

• Personal action plan template

If you want to achieve your goals systematically, use the personal action plan template. A personal action plan template can influence you to achieve more productive and efficient results. 

• Sales and marketing action plan template

The sales and marketing action plan template outlines how you intend to attract, engage, and convert prospects into paying customers. The template directs marketing and sales in their day-to-day actions, assisting them in defining agreed goals, and strategies for achieving them.

• Compliance corrective action plan template

Compliance corrective action plan template includes compliance action plans to ensure that your organization and staff follow the standards you’ve set for a work environment, as well as the standards set by local and national governments. 

The contents, such as actions and tasks, must be as precise as possible so that your team members understand what needs to be done right away.

• Easy action plan template

An easy action plan template consists of a list of actions or tasks that must be accomplished to achieve the goals you’ve set. This easy action plan template will guide you to get through the disorderly situation and help you reach your goals faster. 

• Stay interview action plan template

A stay interview action plan template includes a planned conversation that a leader has with each employee to understand the precise steps that must be taken to improve the organization’s engagement and retention.

•   Rescue diver emergency action plan template

The rescue diver emergency action plan template provides potential diving accident victims the aid and guidance to help themselves and assist rescuers during response.

• 100-day action plan template 

A 100-day action plan template provides you with a structure to onboard, accommodate, and educate new team members. It outlines expectations for what the person should do in the first 100 days, including learning and performance goals.

• 30-day action plan template 

A 30-day action plan template provides you with a structure for figuring out how to onboard and educate new team members . In addition, it defines expectations for the individual in the first 30, 60, and 90 days as they learn to manage social media.

• Case management action plan template

A case management action plan template allows case managers to record, plan and execute case actions. It includes the overall administration of cases and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of service needs.

• First aid action plan template 

The first aid action plan template assists you in dealing with a health crisis. Following it helps keep a person breathing, lessen their discomfort, or mitigate the effects of an accident or unexpected sickness before the ambulance comes.

You can take first aid training so you can recognize an emergency and provide basic first aid until expert help comes.

Below are some ways to make an action plan template. 

How to Make an Action Plan in Word

Word is a popular commercial word processor created by Microsoft. It is included in the Microsoft Office productivity package and is available as a standalone application.

You can create an action plan on Microsoft Word.

Here is how to do so:

• Open your Microsoft Word application

Select a blank document on your Microsoft Word application home tab and click on create. This will create a new Word application for you.

• Insert table into the document

Next is to click on the “Insert” tab, then select “Insert Table.” Create a table of five columns and five rows.

• Type text into your table

Insert text headers: Action, Who, Due Date, Status, and Additional Action to your table. 

Then, under each header, state the action you want to achieve, who’s responsible for achieving it, the due date for completing the action, its current status, and additional tasks or actions that may arise from that task.

Below is a video tutorial that walks you through how to do this:

How to Make an Action Plan in Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet tool available as a web, mobile, and desktop application. It’s perfect for creating an action plan and similar to Google Sheets.

This is the step-by-step process for creating an action plan in Excel.

• Open an Excel spreadsheet

Open your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and click on the “New” tab. Then double click on a blank document or click on the “Create” tab.

• Select a portion of the sheet 

Left-click, hold, and drag your cursor to the portion of the Excel spreadsheet that you want to use as your action plan.

• Give your area selection a border

After selecting, click on the icon as shown in the image below, then select “All Borders.” This will give the selected area a nice full border, making your selected area stand out from the entire spreadsheet.

As shown in the image below, type text in the headers of your table and label each as What, Who, When, Status and Comments.

Now you can fill in what your action is, who will be in charge of it, when the action should be completed, the status of the completion, and any needed comments.

This video tutorial below shows how to create an action plan on Microsoft Excel:

How to Create an Action Plan in Google Docs

Google Docs is a word processing tool that comes with Google’s free,

web-based Google Workspace suite. It’s perfect for creating an action plan template similar to Microsoft Word. Its sweet spot is that it allows you to share the document with your team easily.

This is the process for creating an action plan on Google Docs.

• Open Google Docs from Drive

Make sure that you log in to your Google accounts. Then, from Google applications, open Drive, then open Google Docs as shown in the image below. 

• Title your action plan

Give your action plan a befitting title. 

• Insert a table

Now click on Insert, then Table. 

• Type in header text

After that, type in the header text and label each, as shown in the image below.

Below is a video tutorial on how to create and share action plan templates with your team:

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about action plan templates.

How do I make a simple action plan?

To make a simple action plan template, you need to: 

• Determine your goals. State what you want to achieve with your action plan. 
• Write down your objectives. It will be challenging to track what you want to achieve if you don’t write it down.
• Establish a deadline. Setting a deadline is the next step.
• Make a checklist. Create a list of your actions. 

What is a good action plan template?

A good action plan template guides you to achieve your goals and objectives and evaluate your progress.

Is there an action plan app?

Yes, there are different action plan apps. Examples are the 90 Day Action Plan on Google Playstore, My Action Plan app on AppStore , and InPhase Assurance app. 

You can also use SweetProcess iOS and Android apps as an action plan software to create and manage your company’s processes, procedures, and policies.

How effective are action plans?

Action plans are effective because they make your goals clearer. They also aid in forming consensus toward a goal and foster a sense of responsibility and accountability. 

What is the main purpose of an action plan?

The main purpose of an action plan is to specify the resources you need to achieve your goals and provide a schedule for when you must perform certain activities. 

How do I write a better action plan?

To write a better action plan, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, then make the objectives quantifiable. After this, download the relevant templates specified in this article and tweak them to represent your required actions.

SweetProcess helps organizations document their company’s policies, procedures, and processes.

If you want your team members to achieve their goals on time and become more productive at work, you can use our software to do so.

Here are some companies who have leveraged the power of our software to manage their employees effectively and efficiently in one place.

Spark Marketer is a marketing agency for small- and medium-sized local businesses that want to leverage digital marketing to grow their businesses. Its dedicated team works closely with companies to navigate the digital space and achieve measurable results. 

The Nashville-based company has a track record of success working with chimney businesses in the home services space. It is committed to offering its clientele a custom experience and more than essential online services. They also create marketing campaigns focused on the unique attributes of each business to generate continuous income.

One of the biggest problems Spark Marketer faced was a lack of documentation. As a result, employees depended on tribal knowledge to get things done, which resulted in disorganization in the workplace. 

“When you’re doing work to a standard, then you can measure against that standard. Before, we would have these nebulous conversations when we had to let someone go: ‘Well, we don’t feel like you’re doing the job well.’ ‘Show me where I wasn’t doing it well, and I’ll change.’ This is horrible to admit now. I’m almost ashamed to say it but you know, there was no objectivity,” said Carter Harkins, co-founder of Spark Marketer.

Then they adopted SweetProcess to foster growth . Carter and his partner were introduced to SOPs by a business consultant, and they gave it a shot using Google Docs. However, they soon began to see the importance of documentation, and as their business began to grow, they realized that Google Docs was insufficient to sustain their growth. 

Carter said, “Growth causes you to think differently. You start realizing what got us to this point will not get us to where we want to go, so it’s time to shift gears. It’s time to look for efficiencies, so I started looking for systems that would help us document our processes more easily and more uniformly, and I just literally went out and started scouring the web.”

How SweetProcess Changed the Game at Spark Marketer

SweetProcess has a reputation as a results-oriented software. Like many businesses, the team at Spark Marketer has been enjoying the benefits of the system. Carter provides more details of how the software has improved operations at his organization.

1. Simplified process documentation

Capturing the right amount of information makes the difference in business process documentation . On the other hand, your processes may not be of much help if they are overly detailed and clustered—this is often the case when you use manual tools such as Google Docs for your documentation. 

“In a Google Doc format, you’re grabbing an entire section of text and moving it up above and just trying to organize things, but with SweetProcess, it’s super simple to break things out into new tasks and reorder them so that everything flows in a much more natural way.

2. Decentralized knowledge base

Documenting business processes goes beyond writing a bunch of information. There is a need to sieve out relevant information from the shaft and make it easily accessible by team members using a knowledge base software . 

“The ability to group things into procedural or process-based groupings has been a real change for us. For example, in Google Docs, it was just turned into one folder that was shared with everybody, and nobody knew exactly how to find what they needed.”

All that time spent by employees looking for specific information for their tasks could be used better, and SweetProcess made that possible. 

“SweetProcess not only standardized the format but made it easy to create the teams that we needed so that you only see the processes that you need to see, which makes it so much easier for people to go find what they need.”

Another company, Zen Media , is a public relations (PR) firm specializing in the tech niche. Established in 2009, the Dallas-based organization captures key moments in a brand’s life and turns those moments into the talk of the town. Plus, they have a track record of offering results-driven PR services to B2B and B2C brands worldwide. 

The new generation PR agency gives brands their desired level of exposure and ensures that this translates into money. It uses various techniques to measure the performance of its PR campaigns to understand their efficiency and round up the numbers. 

When Stephanie Chavez resumed her role as the company’s chief marketing officer, she found out that they had a series of great products that catered to their client’s needs but lacked operational structure underneath this excellent performance. 

“We were always producing great products and doing a great job for our clients; that wasn’t debatable. What was debatable was the ‘how can we streamline?’ and so that was one of the first things that I noticed,” Stephanie said. 

In the absence of a central knowledge base , employees relied on tribal knowledge to get by. Little could be done when the people who knew how to perform specific tasks were indisposed, holding the organization hostage. 

“What happens if one of the employees is out or sick? Every client is a little bit different—the way we research their content topics and their hashtags and whatnot, they are all different,” she said. 

Having noticed the structural gap in the organization, Stephanie was keen on finding the right system to resolve the problem. She found her answer when she attended a marketing class organized by a friend on LinkedIn. He recommended SweetProcess as an effective tool for streamlining business operations , and she checked it out. 

“Anthony talked about SweetProcess, and I thought, well, I’m going to check that out, and it’s been really wonderful. I have each department go through it, and we have a list of all the things that they do that are repeatable each month so that I can make sure, ‘Hey, what did you put in this month? Let’s run through it and make sure it makes sense to everyone.’”

How SweetProcess Raised the Bar at Zen Media

Read on to see exactly how SweetProcess facilitated the growth at Zen Media.

1. Employee onboarding and training

Hiring more employees is necessary as a business grows, but it is a challenge for many organizations to bring new hires up to speed with the processes and procedures in place. The team at Zen Media now enjoys a seamless onboarding process thanks to SweetProcess. Rather than going through a rigorous onboarding process, they direct new employees to the standard operating procedures in the system to get all the information they need about their duties.  

“When we hire new interns or employees, I send them to a whole bunch of the SweetProcess steps that we have, and I just send in the email, link it, and say watch all these, go through these processes, and that’s the very first onboarding process.”

Employee training on SweetProcess is not a one-off. New and established team members can always go back to the system if they doubt any process or procedure.

2. Quality control and assurance 

Achieving desired results at the workplace is more feasible when team members operate on the same level and produce consistent results. Beyond creating uniformity in organizational output, quality assurance helps win customer trust and loyalty as the customers are sure to get great results repeatedly. SweetProcess has helped the company work consistently as a team rather than individually. 

“It helps from a consistency perspective because everyone might be doing something a little bit differently, and I think it’s really hard to scale. Think about McDonald’s: if everyone in every franchise were making their hamburgers a little bit different, it wouldn’t be McDonald’s because you couldn’t expect the same thing every time. So by having everyone on the same page with SweetProcess, they can have a more efficient and predictable result.”

Want to improve efficiency in your team? 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess today to create

and manage action plans at your organization. The best part? You do not need to add your credit card details to use the software for free.

An action plan helps you to achieve your goals. It transforms your vision into attainable results that boost your company’s growth. It also assists you in staying focused and success hungry. 

In this post, you’ve learned what action templates are and why you must use them to speed up your workflow instead of creating from scratch.

We also showed you 65 free action plan templates which you can download, tweak, and use for your organization.

Want to choose the action plan templates that are best to use for your

company? 

Click here to download the templates relevant to your industry , and get ahead of thousands of other businesses who have to build them from scratch. 

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Action Plan Templates Word

Write Your Own SMART Goals Strategy For Your Business and Projects With Our Free Action Plan Templates in Word. Our Creative and Impressive Doc Templates Contains a Completed Content and Superb Clip Arts That Any Company Employees Will Love. So Be More Productive By Downloading a Template From Template.net today!

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A company needs a document that can help achieve its objectives. If you are running a company, and you are in need of such document, we got you! A document called action plans are used to keep track of the steps that are needed to be done to complete a project or a task. To aid you in making yours, acquire one of our ready-made Action Plan Templates that can help you successfully have the job done. You can download any of these templates in all versions of Microsoft Word. It includes well-written sample content that you can highly-edit to fit your preferences. Secure a copy for yourself now!  

How To Create An Action Plan In Word?

Planning and goal setting are the keys to ensure that you have success in anything you do. An action plan is a document that lists what steps must be taken in order to achieve a specific goal. They provide direction and promote action toward goal-related activities. It contains specific objectives that optimize the operations of a company. The purpose of an action plan is to clarify what resources are required to reach the goal, formulate a timeline for when specific tasks need to be completed and determine what resources are required. We have made a simple list of tips to guide you in making yours. 

1. Make Use of Our Action Plan Templates

Making use of a comprehensive template gives you convenience in writing your own action plan. By using a template, you will be able to create a detailed and systematic action plan. So, follow this step and you will not forget any important part of the plan. We have a list of Action Plan Templates for you. Choose the best template that suits closest to what your company prefers. You can also check out different categories of documents that your company might need. We have different plans such as business plans and sales plans , Have the freedom in exploring our templates

2. Identify The Specific Objectives

In developing action plans, you have to determine the specific objectives of your company. Make sure you write them in a specific manner as much as possible. Make sure to brainstorm and make an plan outline. This way, you are sure that you are not missing the important parts of your plan. Outlining the objectives will provide you a good flow in writing the whole document. Remember, have it specified as much as possible. 

3. Get To Know The Different Departments

Organizations with employees from different departments who work together on projects can benefit from sharing information and asking questions. Through getting to know the departments, you will have a better idea of what each department does. List down everything that you need to know, including their assigned tasks and responsibilities. Interview the members. Make sure to make a checklist on what department you are done focusing on so that the information will not get interchanged. 

4. Make The Plan Measurable

It is important to have measurable goals so that you can track the progress report and make the employees stay motivated. Plan on something realistic. In setting your objectives, make sure that it is possible to achieve. You would not want it to become unbelievably way out of the company's standards. Your goals should stretch your company's abilities but still remain possible. 

5. Make A Schedule

Every goal has a target date so that you have something to focus on and something to work on. Make a timeline for each goal. This action will not only affect the overall production of the company but also the sales will stay up. 

Top 10 Best Action Plan Templates for Project Planning in 2023

Having a proper plan is the key to any successful project. Planning can be time-consuming but it is the key to ensuring that you are able to achieve your project goals and reduce any possible issues or setbacks that you may encounter.

An action plan provides a clear outline to planning and executing tasks. It also ensures that everyone involved in the project is on the same page.

Instead of spending some time researching and creating an action plan outline, there are ready-to-use action plan templates for different use cases and projects that can help you get started. 

To help you find the right one for your project or team, we listed down the 10 best action plan templates that you can use for ClickUp, Excel, and Word. Check out our list below!

1. ClickUp’s Action Plan Template (Editor’s Pick)

ClickUp is the ultimate productivity platform designed to centralize all of your work across apps into one dynamic and collaborative work hub. Teams of any size and across industries turn to ClickUp for its wall-to-wall solutions for managing everything from complex work projects to handling smaller tasks such as action plans.

If you’re in the process of creating an action plan for bigger projects, ClickUp’s Action Plan Template will help you get started. Create an action plan that will help you organize and set the stage for your entire project or task. This template can help you stay focused with your goals and have a clearer structure of your process.

Use this template to layout actionable items, set deadlines, oversee resources, and track your overall progress and goals. This ClickUp template comes with a Getting Started Guide to guide you with setting up the template.

Main Elements of this Action Plan Template

ClickUp’s Action Plan template includes:

• Flexible whiteboard that you can customize according to your needs
• Divide items between To Do, Doing, or Done for better organization
• Use elements such as sticky notes to quickly make notes and add context to your action plan board

How to Use This Template

Highly effective teams can use the ClickUp’s Action Plan Template to to manage their projects and stay focused with their goals

First, hit “Get Free Solution” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite your team to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Finally, have your team add important details to the pre-built Custom Fields, such as links to drafts or project information to get the most complete details of your projects and tasks.

Try the Template

Get started with ClickUp’s Action Plan template for free, no credit card required

2. ClickUp’s Corrective Action Plan Whiteboard Template  

ClickUp's Corrective Action Plan Whiteboard template is a useful tool for teams or individuals who need to address issues or problems that arise during a project. This template provides a clear process for identifying and resolving issues, which helps to minimize the impact of unforeseen events on the project timeline.

The Corrective Action Plan Whiteboard template is designed to help users develop a plan of action quickly and efficiently. The template includes several sections which guide users through each step of the process. Using the Corrective Action Plan Whiteboard template can help teams to communicate more effectively and collaborate on solutions. 

Main Elements of this Corrective Action Plan Template

• Allows users to create a visual representation of the problem, identify the root cause, and develop a corrective action plan
• Users can change the colors, fonts, and styles of their whiteboard, add custom fields, and create custom workflows to fit their needs
• offers several reporting options that help teams to track progress and ensure that corrective actions are completed on time

Add this Corrective Action Plan Whiteboard Template to your ClickUp Workspace

3. ClickUp’s Employee Action Template

ClickUp's Employee Action Template is a tool designed to help managers or HR teams to track and manage employee performance and development. It includes sections for setting goals, tracking progress, and providing feedback, which helps to improve employee engagement and productivity.

Using the Employee Action Template can help managers to communicate more effectively with their team members. The template provides a shared space where managers and employees can collaborate and work on goals. This helps improve communication and ensures that everyone is working towards the same objectives.

Main Elements of this  Employee Action Template

• Includes several sections, including Goal Setting, Feedback, Development Plan, and Performance Review
• Users can add custom fields, create custom statuses, or automate repetitive tasks using rules and triggers
• Reports allow users to identify potential issues early on and take corrective action as needed

Try the Employee Action Plan Template today

4. ClickUp Employee Engagement Action Plan Template

ClickUp's Employee Engagement Action Plan Template is a tool designed to help organizations improve employee engagement and retention. It provides a structured approach for identifying areas of improvement, setting goals, and implementing action plans, which helps to create a more engaged and productive workforce.

The Employee Engagement Action Plan Template. These sections guide users through each step of the process, from analyzing survey results to implementing action plans. Using the Employee Engagement Action Plan Template can help organizations to improve employee morale and productivity making it a powerful tool for improving employee engagement and retention.

Main Elements of this Employee Engagement Action Plan Template

• Includes several sections, including Employee Survey Results, Areas of Improvement, Goals, Action Plans, and Follow-Up Actions
• Includes a section for analyzing survey results, which helps organizations to identify areas where employee engagement is lacking
• Add custom fields, create custom workflows and automate repetitive tasks using rules and triggers

Increase your employee engagement with this action plan template

5. ClickUp’s Cybersecurity Action Plan Template

The Cybersecurity Action Plan Template by ClickUp helps users identify potential vulnerabilities, threats, and risks. Users can also prioritize risks based on the likelihood and potential impact of an attack. This data can be used to develop an action plan that prioritizes efforts and resources to mitigate the most significant risks.

Overall, the ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan template helps organizations improve their cybersecurity and protect against potential threats. Its focus on risk assessment, action plan development, implementation, and monitoring, coupled with customization options, makes it an ideal tool for organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity processes.

Main Elements of this Cybersecurity Action Plan Template

• Action Plan Development section, which guides users through the process of developing an action plan
• Implementation section allows users to monitor the execution of the action plan to ensure that it is being executed as intended
• Monitoring section provides an ongoing process for tracking risk mitigation progress

Create a Cybersecurity Action Plan using this template

6. ClickUp’s Marketing Action Plan Template

ClickUp's Marketing Action Plan Template provides marketing teams with a ready-to-use document to plan and execute their campaigns more efficiently. The template includes sections for campaign planning, setting goals, and tracking progress. The template also helps users with identifying the target audience and messaging, which helps teams to create campaigns that resonate with their audience. 

Using the Marketing Action Plan Template can help teams to communicate more effectively and collaborate on solutions. The template provides a shared space where team members can communicate and collaborate. Its focus on data-driven decision-making, customization options, and reporting features make it an ideal tool for marketing campaign planning and execution.

Main Elements of this Marketing Action Plan Template

• Organize and plan marketing campaign elements such as Campaign Goals, Target Audience, Messaging, Tactics, Budget, and Metrics
• Generate and create custom reports to track the status of the campaign goals, metrics, and budget

Create a Marketing Action Plan using this ClickUp template

7. ClickUp’s Internal Communication Strategy and Action Plan Template

ClickUp's Internal Communication Strategy and Action Plan Template is great for teams or organizations working on improving their internal communication among team members.Use this template for identifying communication needs, setting goals, and implementing action plans that help improve communication.

The Internal Communication Strategy and Action Plan Template include several sections, including Communication Goals, Target Audience, Communication Channels, Content Strategy, Implementation, and Monitoring. These sections guide users through each step of the process, from identifying communication needs to measuring success.

Main Elements of this Internal Communication Strategy and Action Plan Template

• Section for identifying target audiences, which helps organizations to understand their communication needs better
• Use template to develop a content strategy, select appropriate communication channels, and set goals for communication efforts
• Provides a shared space where team members can collaborate on communication goals, provide feedback, and track progress

Complete your Internal Communication Strategy and Action Plan with this template

8. ClickUp’s Management Action Plan Template

ClickUp's Management Action Plan Template is a tool designed to support any type of project or task. Managers or project leaders can use this template to improve their processes. 

Using the Management Action Plan Template can also help managers to communicate more effectively with team members.Set a clear process for setting goals, tracking progress, and providing feedback to improve management effectiveness.

The Management Action Plan Template includes several sections, including Goal Setting, Task Management, Performance Review, Feedback, and Development Plan. These sections guide users through each step of the process, from setting goals to reviewing performance. The Template is an ideal tool for managers looking to improve their processes and achieve better outcomes.

Main Elements of this Management Action Plan Template

• Set SMART goals to establish clear objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
• Add custom fields, create custom workflows, and automate repetitive tasks using rules and triggers
• Generate custom reports that show the status of management goals, performance reviews, feedback, and development plans

Create a Management Action Plan using this template

9. Word Project Action Plan Template

This work action plan template for MS Word serves as a guide for planning and executing a specific project or task. It outlines the steps required to achieve a particular goal, including timelines, resources, and responsibilities. 

Use this simple yet flexible work action plan template to clarify objectives, prioritize tasks, and allocate resources effectively. It also helps to ensure that everyone involved in the project or task is working towards the same goals and understands their individual roles and responsibilities.

Main Elements of this Word Action Plan Template

• San be used in various contexts, including business projects, marketing campaigns, event planning, product development, and HR initiatives
• Identify potential risks and challenges and take corrective action as needed
• Ensures that everyone involved in the project or task is aligned with the objectives and has the necessary resources and support to succeed

Download this template here

10. Excel Action Plan Template

Get an action plan document with the flexibility of an Excel spreadsheet with this template. This sales plan template is segmented into 12 months and divided into product lines. It includes specific columns for recording information such as last year’s performance, current sales goals, and outcomes. The template also lets you create a yearly sales strategy and compare statistics across products and over time.

Main Elements of this Excel Action Plan Template

• Tables, charts, and graphs also makes it easy to visualize progress and identify potential issues 
• Generate custom reports that show progress, budget, and performance metrics
• Add or remove columns, change fonts and colors, and create formulas to automate repetitive tasks

Get this template here

Best Tips to Use Your Action Plan Template

Having an action plan template is a tool to help you organize your tasks and stay focused on your objectives. While most templates are flexible and can be customized to help you better create a clear structure for your actions, there are a lot of ways to make the most out of each action plan template.

Make the best use of your template with these simple steps:

• Define your objective: Clearly identify the goal or objective you want to achieve. It should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
• Establish deadlines or target dates for each task. This helps create a sense of urgency and ensures progress is made consistently.
• Identify resources: Identify the resources required to complete each task. This includes people, materials, tools, equipment, and any other necessary resources. Note them down in the action plan template.
• Review and adapt: Regularly update and review the action plan to ensure it remains relevant and aligned with changing circumstances. 
• Communicate and collaborate: Share the action plan with all relevant stakeholders to foster collaboration and ensure everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities. Regularly communicate updates, milestones, and achievements to maintain transparency and keep everyone motivated.

Find the Best Action Plan Template with ClickUp

ClickUp offers a wide variety of customizable templates for various use cases, including project management, marketing, HR, and more. These templates provide a structured framework for creating an action plan, making it easy to get started with projects and plans right away.

Aside from its library of templates, ClickUp aligns with any workflow because it's built to be entirely customized for all types of users. 

Stay on top of your project at all times with ClickUp's growing set of advanced features including Docs, Dashboards, and 15+ views that help teams track progress, monitor work, and manage workloads from virtually anywhere. 

Sign-up and try ClickUp for free today!

Did we miss your favorite tool in this article? Suggest it here!

Work from anywhere

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• Business Templates
• Sample Action Plans

FREE 35+ Sample Action Plan Templates in MS Word

Businesses irrespective of their nature or the kind of products or services they deal in thrive on a well-planned approach. A lack of a proper plan can amount to a total disruption of the day to day functioning of the organization. It can also jeopardize the company’s need to enhance its revenues and make more profits. You may also see action plan templates .

Sample Action Plans In Word

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• Google Docs

Size: A4, US

Earthquake Action Plan Template

Reconciliation (Accounting) Action Plan Template

This is why most organizations hire experts who formulate special plans for the various projects and functions that go on in the company. Known as action plans, following these ensure that the organization would function without any unnecessary mix-ups, confusion or delays.

3-Year Action Plan Template

Economic Action Plan Template

Asthma Action Plan Word Format

Written asthma action plan.

School Asthma Action Plan

Size: 47 KB

Lesson Plan in Action Word

Smart lesson plan in action.

Sample Lesson Plan in Action

Size: 16 KB

Action Plan Format in Doc

Corrective action plan format.

Size: 10 KB

Safety Action Plan Format

Size: 14 KB

Smart Action Plan

Blank smart action plan.

Size: 109 KB

Career Action Plan Doc

9 year career action plan doc.

Size: 82 KB

Sample Career Action Plan Doc

Size: 101 KB

Corrective Action Plan

Corrective and preventive action plan.

Business Corrective Action Plan

Size: 428 KB

An action plan is a step by step plan to be undertaken when working on a project or managing a function. The plan comprises of all the important tasks that should be accomplished to complete a project successfully. However, just listing down the tasks is not enough. One needs to make sure that the tasks are carried out in a systematic manner and at the most opportune time.

This is where the action plan comes into play. This is a document where the concerned authority lists down steps that should be followed to complete a project in a perfect manner. Thus, this plan comprises of the people who are involved in the project, what they are supposed to do, when should they do their tasks etc. An action plan however need not be just for an organization. It can also be used to designate the various steps for an individual working on a project. This could be anything from passing an exam to inventing something. In such cases, the individual is required to list all the steps that he thinks would help him to fulfill a particular task and help him gain the desired results.

The advantage of an action plan is not just confined to the fact that it helps to define the steps for fulfilling a task. It also helps the person in charge to keep a tab on the progress of the project and where the people involved in the project lie, as far as their performance is concerned. Thus, using this plan can actually help people to understand where they stand while also being an encouragement to them to improve.  Action plan also gives the user an idea about the amount of time he or she can spend on a particular task.

Action Planning Form

School action planning form.

Team Action Planning Form

Sales Action Plan Doc

Sales manager action plan example.

Strategic Action Plan

Action plan for anti-corruption strategy.

Size: 160 KB

Group Strategic Action Plan

Size: 20 KB

Emergency Action Plan

Retail emergency action plan.

Size: 1,023 KB

Emergency Action and Recovery Plan

Size: 402 KB

Sample Action Plan Doc

Sample environmental and social action plan doc.

Sample Quality Improvement Action Plan

Size: 22 KB

Behavior Action Plan in Word

Behavior action plan for student.

Behavior Management Action Plan

Designing a good action plan is really not as easy as it seems. It actually requires a lot of forethought. It should be noted that a bad action plan can be a serious deterrent to a project and can even ruin its outcome. Hence, to ensure that an action plan is a good one, it is imperative that these criteria be a part and parcel of it.

• Specificity – When designing the steps for an action plan, it is very important that the person in charge is specific about all the steps. Vague directions would just not do. He should specify what and how a particular step should be carried out. the In case of teamwork, it is also advisable to name the person who would be responsible for each step.
• Measurable Results – The results that one gains from an action plan should be measurable and these should be specified in the plan document. After all, this is how the person responsible for keeping a tab on the progress of the plan would be able to gauge every step and decide on its success. It is also important to ensure that each step is defined based on the results that it will bring and the way these will contribute to the project.
• Consent – Though the action plan may be designed by one person, it is extremely important that all the people working on the project are in agreement with the steps. This is what will ensure the success of the project as a whole.
• Time Bound – Every step of an action plan should be time bound as this will ensure the completion of the project well within the stipulated time.
• Realistic – An action plan is ought to be realistic. The persons working on it should have goals that are achievable and steps that are well within their abilities.

Project Action Plan Doc

Project action plan worksheet.

Size: 146 KB

Project Management Action Plan

Size: 43 KB

Safety Action Plan Doc

Health and safety action plan.

Size: 96 KB

Outdoor Safety Action Plan

Fire Action Plan Word

Fire emergency action plan.

Size: 15 KB

Fire Safety Action Plan

Size: 79 KB

School Action Plan

Eco-schools action plan doc.

Size: 97 KB

Action Plan for School Improvement

Size: 305 KB

Incident Action Plan Doc

Hics incident action plan.

Size: 84 KB

Critical Incident Action Plan

Action plans have an important role to play in the success of a business which is why most organizations swear by this methodology. However, even individuals can reap benefits by developing an action plan. Take a look at some of the main reasons why one should develop an action plan for business or otherwise.

• Clear Idea of the Goal – Sometimes in all the frenzy and tension of completing a project, people tend to forget about the ultimate goal which they are working for. They should even get side tracked due to competition or other problems. However, having an action plan means that the people involved in the project are always aware of what they are working towards and thus would in no way lose their focus due to other inconsequential things.
• Responsibilities are assigned – With an action plan in place the person in charge of the project can easily assign the responsibilities to the people working on it, in a systematic and organized manner. This way, he can be sure that no one makes an excuse about being unaware of their actions or goals. This also makes it easier for the leader to designate a time for each step, thus ensuring that there are no unnecessary delays.
• Breaking Tougher Goals into Simpler Tasks – Not all goals are easy to achieve. But, if there is an action plan, it becomes easier to accomplish these. Wondering how? Well, with an action plan, you can break a task into many smaller, less complex steps, thus making it easier for the people to reach the goal. As they accomplish one step at a time, they surely find this easy.
• Keeping a Tab on Progress – If you don’t have a plan, it would not be possible to keep a tab on the work in progress. However, when you have an action plan, you designate steps to every individual along with the time. This surely simplifies the whole tracking process as you would always know who is on the track and who is behind schedule.

An action plan can help in completing a task or project in a systematic, uncomplicated manner. This is why experts recommend the use of these plan for business as well as personal projects.

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