515 Creating and Delivering Operational Plans

Unit Overview

515 Creating and Delivering Operational Plans is a unit within the CMI Level 5 module that focuses on improving the ability of leaders to achieve the desired levels of planning for organisational activities. Operational activities require effective planning to ensure that they are completed effectively and efficiently. Planning involves being able to set the resources that are designed for the specific duties and responsibilities that are being pursued by the individuals. It focuses on ensuring that the individual is able to use assigned resources to achieve the desired goals and objectives within the workplace.

Operational plans require the leader to effectively consider resources such as the time span that they have to complete the different tasks and responsibilities, the people involved in the operation process, and the specific activities, including the sequence of their operation. This makes creating and delivering operational plans an important element in improving the contribution of the organisation towards delivering on its mandate, including meeting the goals and objectives of the organisation. 

515 Creating and Delivering Operational Plans is a unit that is designed to ensure that the capabilities of the leaders to effectively create and deliver operational plans are improved. The unit aids the leaders to understand the critical principles that they should consider when crafting the operational plans that they need to implement in the organisation. The leaders are given the relevant techniques on approaches that they can use to support their plans with information. It ensures that the plans are backed with information for facilitating evidence-based practices within the organisation. This unit is taught in 22 hours of guided learning and contributes 6 credit values towards the completion of the CMI Level 5 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Leaders must be able to effectively adapt the standard and approaches that are set to govern the process of creating and delivering leaders within the workplace. The leader is required to ensure that the plans are based on functional principles that aim to achieve the desired goals and objectives in relation to meeting the needs of the organisation. The creation of plans requires the understanding of the available resources that the organisation can utilise to ensure that they meet the desired goals and objectives. They are also guided to understand the principles that they should use in effectively delivering the operational plans, which involve being able to handle the needs of the companies to ensure that they achieve the desired outcomes and results within the projects and processes planned for.

The unit is designed to meet the learning needs of the middle managers within the organisations. Middle managers form one of the main critical parts of the workplace, which involves being able to handle the different units and teams within the workplace. The unit is also applicable to other stakeholders; senior managers can use the content of the unit to better understand the strategic decisions from the context of the operational activities within the workplace. It also helps team leaders and members to understand the specific activities and operations within their areas of learning. With this unit, employees have an understanding of the goals, objectives, and principles to use within the workplace.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the relationship between an organisation’s strategic objectives and operational planning.

• Assess the approaches used in operational planning within the workplace

• Understand the legal and organisational factors that influence the operational plan

• Identify the ethical requirements that influence the process of creating and implementing an operational plan

• Create an operational plan that focuses on meeting the organisational goals and objectives

• Identify methods that can be used to manage and lead the delivery of an operational plan

• Identify techniques of problem-solving and decision-making in delivering an organisational plan

• Effectively monitor and measure the progress and outcomes of operational plans

Key Learning Areas

This unit aims at improving the ability of the learners to effectively create and lead the delivery of operational plans. The unit covers critical aspects that involve understanding the use of operational plans within the workplace. Some of the main areas of learning include:

Creation of Operational Plans

This area of learning helps the learners to understand operational plans. It helps them to build effective approaches and processes that are used to develop operational plans within the workplace. The learners are introduced to achieving the desired goals and objectives in relation to the needs of the organisation. The learners are also introduced to organisational factors that could impact the process of developing the desired goals and objectives within the workplace. They are guided to understand the ethical principles that they can use to archive the desired goals and objectives within the workplace in the area of learning within the organisation.

Managing and Delivery of Operational Plans

This area of learning focuses on understanding the process of effectively implementing and delivery on the implementation plan. The learners are introduced to the legal factors based on the UK Legal frameworks that guide the development of operational plans. The learners are introduced to the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act, among other frameworks that they are required to use within the workplace. The learners are also introduced to principles of collecting information that they should use to ensure that they align the operational plans developed to the organisational goals and objectives. They are also guided to understand the principles of problem-solving and decision-making techniques that can be used to address any issues that may exist within t eh workplace.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to develop effective approaches and strategies that are aligned with being able to effectively handle the practical and theoretical requirements in their areas of learning. The unit is taught through practical and interactive lessons and learning concepts. They are also taught to effectively understand the principles of handling practical settings within the workplace. Supervised practice and simulated exercises are used as critical approaches to evaluate the understanding of the learners. The written assessment is used in the summative assessment based on the concepts that have been learned within the unit.