Daily Reports

September 30, 2003

Last Revised:  May 23, 2012 4:50 PM

Strategic Plan

There is an old tradition in Vibrant Life -- one I would like to revitalize here in in the NEW YEAR starting this New Year's Eve, December 31, 2008, when I am looking forward with great reason to a great new year.

Each staff member is requested to send a "daily report" to me, to report on the production he had for that day -- the successes.  This is direct to me -- it does not get sent through anyone else, nor is any one Report from more than one person.  The report has no required format, but should include the date being reported on.

This is NOT a communication line where the person should ask questions or expect any reply -- it is just a daily report.  I will read them all.

Also, it is not a report as covered by "Completed Staff Work," here. That Report is much more formal and detailed.

Within the LRH Management System there is this reference: The Daily Report ..

usually contains what you have done on post today and what outnesses have been spotted and what outnesses you handled. You can say whatever you wish also. (Orders Of the Day 10 Apr 72)

Infrequently I might send one back with a question or comment.

What should be in such a report?

Things that are DONE, not things in motion, not yet done.  It is often true that you might spend all day and not then see what was actually DONE during the day -- there will be other items, I'm sure.  They are what belong in a Daily Report.

1. I went to the Post Office is not a done, but a doingness.

1. sent out 1,000 promo pieces is a done. A "done" describes a "product" associated with your post.

1. I delivered 1,000 promo pieces, stamped and addressed, to the post office. That's a done.

Report the statistics associated with your post.  Statistics are always a quantity of "dones."

Example:

Five Orders Packed

or

Five Orders Packed with VSD of $1,204.44

That's better.

Send them to me by eMail.

If you miss a day? Send double the next day.

If you miss several and are overloaded, don't worry about it, just start with a new beginning when you can.

As LRH says, "Production is the basis of Morale," and you should be proud of your daily accomplishments and eager to share your wins -- I'll enjoy receiving them.

If there is some unusual event, such as the very high VSD for the week ending March 19, 2008, surely several different Staff Members should have been aware and should have eagerly written a report with the news and background for that event.

There is another common "report" done by Staff Members who are Gung Ho, working with personal intention to increase their own stats and the stats of the Company.

It is called the "Battle Plan."

The Hubbard Management System includes this about "Battle Plans."

A "battle plan" is defined as:

A list of targets for the coming day or week which forward the strategic planning and handle the immediate actions and outnessses which impede it.

Some people write "battle plans" as just a series of actions which they hope to get done in the coming day or week. This is fine and better than nothing and does give some orientation to one's actions. In fact someone who does not do this is quite likely to get far less done and be considerably more harassed and a"busy" that one who does. An orderly planning what one intends to do in the coming day or week and then getting it done is an excellent way to achieve production. But this is using "battle planning" in an irreducible minimum form as a tool.

Let us take up definitions. Why is this called a "battle plan" in the first place? It seems a very harsh military term to apply to the workaday world of admin. I did not select this term. It sort of grew up by itself amongst Sea Org executives. But it is a very apt term.

A war is something that happens over a long period of time. The fate of everything depends on it. A battle is something which occurs in a short unit of time. One can lose several battles and still win a war. Thus one in essence is talking about short periods of time when one is talking about a battle plan.

This goes further. When one is talking about a war, one is talking about a series of events which will take place over a long period of time. No general, or captain for that matter, ever won a war unless he did some strategic planning. This would concern an overall conduct of a war or a sector of it. This is the big upper level idea sector. It is posed in high generalities, has definite purposes and applies at the top of the Admin Scale (HCO PL 6 Dec 70, Personnel Series 13, Org Series 18, THIRD DYNAMIC DE-ABERATION.

Below strategic planning one has tactical. In order to carry out a strategic plan one must have the plan of movement and actions necessary to carry it out. Tactical planning normally occurs down the org board to an army and is normally used to implement strategic planning. Tactical planning can go down to a point as low as "Private Joe is to keep his machine gun pointed on clump of trees 10 and fire if anything moves in it."

"Middle management" -- the heads of regiments right on down to the corporals are covered by this term -- is concerned with the implementation of strategic planning.

The upper planning body turns out a strategic plan. Middle management turns this strategic plan into tactical orders. They do this on a long range basis and a short term basis. When you get down to the short term basis you have battle plans.

. . .

One can see then that a battle plan could exist for the ED or CO of an org which would have a number of elements in it which in their turn were turned over to subexecutives who would write battle plans for their own sectors which would be more specific. Thus we have a gradient scale of the grand overall plan broken down into segments and these segments broken down even further.

. . .

There is one thing to beware of in doing battle plans. One can write a great many targets which have little or nothing to do with the strategic plan and which keep people terribly busy and which accomplish no part of the overall strategic plan. Thus a battle plan can become a liability since it is not pushing any overall strategic plan and is not accomplishing any tactical objective.

So what is a "battle plan"? It is the doable targets in written form which accomplish a desirable part of an overall strategic plan.

. . .

It is a test of an executive whether or not he can competently battle plan and then get his battle plan executed.

L. Ron Hubbard

Founder

Source: HCO Policy Letter of 22 August 1982, Battle Plans, page 749, OEC Vol 0.

Since the ED, Clifford Woods, is now working with his own weekly Battle Plan, I encourage you to read his plan and help him implement it -- one day starting to do your own Battle Plan.

 

 

 

 Official

Quotes from L. Ron Hubbard are copyright 1994 © by the L. Ron Hubbard Library. All rights reserved.
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