7 Steps Effective Strategic Planning Process

This TQM article provides an insight of a typical Strategic Planning Process that was used in several organizations and proven to be very practical in implementation. the key processes of this typical Strategic Planning Process are lined up into 7 steps. Detail of each steps are illustrated below:-

Step 1 - Review or develop Vision & Mission

Able to obtain first hand information from various stakeholders (Shareholders, customers, employee, suppliers communities etc).

7 Steps Effective Strategic Planning Process

You may use templates to evaluate how the stakeholders think about your organization. To find out whether their action are aligned with the organization's objectives.

To review or develop company's Vision and Mission with the involvement of other stakeholders to ensure it is still current with the business changes and new challenges. Also use this session as a mean for communication.

Step 2 - Business and operation analysis (SWOT Analysis etc)

One of the key consideration of strategic planning is to understand internal (own organization) Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Threats and Opportunities. These are commonly known as the four factors of a S.W.O.T. analysis.

Involvement from various stakeholders to provide their points of view about your organization is key. In the process, you will gain better buy-in from these implementers of strategies and policies.

Step 3 - Develop and Select Strategic Options

You may use templates to develop several key possible strategies to address the organization's objectives. More important, these possible strategies are develop based on the inputs from stakeholders (step 1) and Business and Operation analysis (step 2).

It is often several possible strategies are developed and everyone of them seems important. Since it is quite normal that an organization would have several key issues to tackle, you will be able to use a proper tools to select a few from the possible strategies. You will b e able to apply several prioritizing tools as introduced in this step.

Step 4 - Establish Strategic Objectives

During this step, you will be able to view the overall picture about the organization and able to select a few strategic options objectively. Template may be used to understand various strategic options, set key measures and broad time line to ensure the selected strategic options are achieved.

While it is quite common that measures and timeline is given by top management, it is the intention of this step 4 that these measures and timeline is SMART . What it meant was Specific (S), Measurable (M), Achievable (A), Realistic (R) and Time-bound (T). when the strategic options are SMART, it will help to ease the communication toward the lower level of the organizational hierarchy for implementation.

Step 5 - Strategy Execution Plan

Many organization failed to realize its full potential of its strategies are due to weak implementation. In this Step 5, a proper deployment plan is developed to implement these strategies.

Step 6 - Establish Resource Allocation

Very often, management team assigned selected strategies to key personnel and left it to the individual to carry out the task. While most organizations operate with minimum resources, it often ends up work overloaded by individual.

Step 7 - Execution Review

One of the key success factors for an effective strategy deployment is constant review of its progress and make decision for any deviations to plan. It is vital to decide what to review and with who the review is done. New decision may be required as the status of the strategies progressed.

In summary: Follow this 7-steps in Strategic Planning will ensure various options are considered including its execution, resource allocation d and Execution Review. This 7-Steps form a complete cycle for new or existing Strategic Planning initiatives

7 Steps Effective Strategic Planning Process
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About the Author: Dr. LM Foong, PhD

He writes and prublishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and other TQM Related information made available at the http://www.tqmcasestudies.com Resource Center in Total Quality Management

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Differences Between Nursing Homes, Assisted Living & Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Benjamin Franklin said it best - “nothing in life is certain except death and taxes” but with daily advancements in science, technology and health care, Americans are living longer than ever before*. This blessing however, has created a unique dilemma for modern American families: How to plan for and prepare for one's retirement years.

Have you taken a road-trip lately? Almost every highway is graced with large bill-boards providing the locations of new planned communities where couples can spend their retirement years dedicated to recreational pursuits. I doubt you will find a local newspaper that doesn’t have at least one ad promoting the amenities found at a local assisted living facility. Try to search for “nursing homes in Virginia” on the Internet and thousands of web pages will appear. Each and every day new facilities offering different programs are being built and marketed across the state.

Is such a facility right for you and your family? If so, which facility? We often hear the terms “retirement community,” “nursing home,” and “assisted living facility” but rarely consider what these terms actually mean. The differences however, are striking and it is imperative to understand these differences when making choices for yourself or your loved ones.

Differences Between Nursing Homes, Assisted Living & Continuing Care Retirement Communities

NURSING HOMES

In Virginia, a nursing home means any facility with the primary function of providing long-term nursing care, nursing services and health-related services on a continuing basis, for the treatment and inpatient care of two or more non-related individuals**. Put simply, a nursing home is a facility designed for someone who needs less care than a hospital, but requires daily health care assistance.

The Virginia Department of Health licenses such facilities and has established guidelines regulating various aspects of their operations, programs, and staffing needs, etc***. For example, a nursing home must: (a) have written policies and procedures regarding the treatment of residents and the management of resident care which are available to residents and their families (12VAC5-360-20); (b) provide emergency medical services within 15 minutes, under normal conditions (12VAC5-360-50); (c) be subject to unannounced on-site inspections of the nursing facility by State employees (12VAC5-371-60); (d) have a written agreement with one or more physicians licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine to serve as medical director (12VAC5-371-230); and (e) each resident shall be under the care of a physician licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine (12VAC5-371-240).

In addition, residents of nursing homes are also given certain rights as defined by Virginia Code §32.1-138. See http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+32.1-138. Nursing homes are the most regulated and structured residential options for our Seniors requiring some level of daily health care. If the facility provides care through Medicare and Medicaid programs, it is deemed a "Certified nursing facility" (Virginia Code §32.1-123; Virginia Code §32.1-127) and must be in compliance with both federal and state laws.

Of course, the more rules and regulations that define and control the daily operations of a nursing home, the greater the responsibility of the staff. These are the people who will be charged with the daily task of caring for your loved one, and making sure they are in compliance with state and federal laws. No matter how nice and or attractive the facility might be, the staff will make the difference between your loved one being cared for and encouraged, or not.

A nursing home is best suited for someone:

Who requires daily health care – such as assistance getting in and out of bed; taking medicine; or using the restroom. Who may have dementia or Alzheimer’s and as a result, is unable to eat and or bathe daily without reminder or assistance; Who is recovering from a fall or accident and is therefore unable to walk, dress and or eat without assistance
ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY

“Assisted living facility” means an adult care residence which has been licensed by the Virginia Department of Social Services to provide a level of service for adults who may have physical or mental impairments and require at least moderate assistance with the activities of daily living. Within assisted living, there are two types: regular assisted living for those seniors (typically) who need assistance with one or more daily activity; and intensive assisted living for someone who may be incapable of performing activities due to mental and/or severe physical impairment (12VAC30-120-450).

The Virginia Department of Social Services licenses assisted living facilities but does not regulate in the way the Department of Health regulates nursing homes. While there are Virginia guidelines regulating aspects of assisted living facilities, they are limited: An assisted living facility must: (a) provide or coordinate personal and health care services; and (b) provide 24-hour supervision.

As reflected in the table below, assisted living facilities have no obligation to provide health care and/or have health care staff available to assist your loved one. In addition, with no obligation to provide such services, there is the question as to whether or not they owe a duty to warn or treat residents with illnesses or diseases that could be transmitted from other residents.

While a nursing home will have many nurses on staff and doctors hired to monitor the residents, assisted living is more analogous to an apartment building or college dorm where laundry and food services are provided and residents are on their own for the rest of the day.

An assisted living Facility is best suited for someone:

Who is basically independent but may not be able or willing to prepare their own food or drive to doctors’ appointments; Someone who wants to scale back and anticipates needing assistance with laundry, cooking, etc. in the near future. A couple where one spouse is independent but may need assistance in feeding and or providing for needs of other spouse.
CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

In Virginia you may also see advertisements for a retirement community. They are popping up all around our favorite College Towns and Tourist destinations.

A Continuing Care Retirement Community provides care depending on your current needs. Like an insurance policy, the resident pays an entrance fee and periodic adjustable payments, which in turn gives the resident a package of residential and healthcare services that the CCRC is obligated to provide at the time these residential and health care services are required. For example, if upon entering, all you want is help with your meals, that is the only service which will be provided. If you require intensive physical therapy or God forbid, daily assistance for a Dementia patient, the CCRC has assisted living services or nursing home services available under your contract. Continuing care contracts are regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance of the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Many CCRCs can have nursing home services available either on-site, or at licensed facilities off-site (12VAC5-360-10). While you may be entering the Retirement Community as a very healthy independent and capable resident, as your needs change, so will your contract with the Community and in turn, the facility’s obligations to you.

A Continuing Care Retirement Community Facility is best suited for someone:

Who is basically independent but anticipates the need for daily health care for themselves or a spouse in the near future; Someone who is physically disabled and would be unable to care for themselves or a spouse if the disability grew worse. With at least three very different choices, it is very important to do your research:

To research assisted living facilities in Virginia, go to Department of Social Services website: http://www.dss.state.va.us/facility/search/alf.cgi.

To research nursing homes, go to Medicare’s website: http://www.medicare.gov

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

It is always best to speak to a family member of a current resident and spend time getting to know the staff, no matter what type of facility you are looking into. If looking and researching is not enough, then consider the chart below – a comparison of the legal duties of a nursing home compared to the legal duties of an assisted living facility in Virginia.

DUTY or REQUIREMENT

NURSING HOME

ASSISTED LIVING

Duty to provide nursing care and or monitor resident’s health?

YES

NO

Doctor required to supervise residents?

YES

NO

Each resident shall be under the care of a physician licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine?

YES

NO

Must have nurses on staff?

YES

NO

Must offer rehabilitative services?

YES

NO

Must have ongoing consultation from a registered dietitian or dietitian on staff?

YES

NO

24 Hour Supervision required?

YES

YES

Must develop a written plan upon admission of resident?

YES

YES

Staff must undergo criminal background check?

YES

YES

Monitored by Virginia Center for Quality Health Care Services and Consumer Protection

YES

NO

Monitored by Department of Social Services

NO

YES

*Life expectancy increased dramatically during the past century, from 47 years for Americans born in 1900 to 77 years for those born in 2001. These same factors—improved medical care and prevention efforts— that are partly responsible for the dramatic increases in life expectancy have also produced a major shift in the leading causes of death in the United States in the past century, from infectious diseases and acute illnesses to chronic diseases and degenerative illnesses.” The State of Aging and Health in America 2004, published by the Center for Disease Control, available at http://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/State_of_Aging_and_Health_in_America_2004.pdf.

**See generally, Virginia Code §32.1-123, as amended and Virginia Administrative Code § 12VAC5-360-10.

***It is a Felony under Virginia law to operate a nursing facility without a license. See generally, 12VAC5-371-30.

Differences Between Nursing Homes, Assisted Living & Continuing Care Retirement Communities
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Lauren Ellerman is an attorney with Frith Law Firm in Roanoke, Virginia. She concentrates her practice on medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, lead paint poisoning, and business torts. You may view her complete profile at [http://www.frithlawfirm.com/lauren.htm] and the firm’s home page at http://www.frithlawfirm.com

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Where Can I Chat With Married Women? The Free Answer!

You ask yourself: where can I chat with married women? If you and I were sat in a bar chatting, a laptop on the table, I could show you how to find married women in your town and begin chatting with them in probably - give or take a minute - five minutes. Most people are blown away when I tell them this. Think about what I'm saying. In your town, there must be some - perhaps hundreds or thousands - of married women who want to cheat on their husbands. The trouble is this: who are they and how do you contact them for a chat? You see, married women do not exactly advertise the fact? Pretty obvious, I know. What is not obvious is where to find them. A married lady will not use online classifieds for their area, nor will she use a local dating site. These places are too well-known to everyone in town. Her husband might bump into her ad or profile. Now let me tell you what to do.

You need to select a large free dating community. Your choice - just make sure that is has a lot of members in your country. Make a quick profile and upload a photo of yourself (a head shot, not another part of your body). Now head on over to the people search page. Big dating communities have pretty advanced search engines. If you chose a big site you will not be able to select married women in your town who are looking for men. This will bring up a list of women. Now, this part is very interesting. The first lot of results will be women who are online at this moment. You will also see a little instant message button (usually). All you have to do is instant message a dozen or so women with the same message. Something like, "Hi, I'm Jack. I'm local and discrete. Let's chat and get to know each other." You will then get several women messaging you back. Now, one last tip: big dating communities always have chat rooms. The method of instant messaging will enable you to specifically chat to married women. But if you go into chat rooms you can do something similar and just let everyone know that you would like to chat to wives.

Where Can I Chat With Married Women? The Free Answer!

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What Font Should You Use For Your Book?

One of the most common questions asked by would-be self-publishers who are intent on designing and typesetting their book themselves is, "What font should I use?"

I'm always relieved when somebody asks the question. At least, it means they're not just blindly going to use the ubiquitous default fonts found in most word processing programs.

However, there is almost no way to answer the question. It's like asking, "What's the best car model for commuting to work everyday?"

What Font Should You Use For Your Book?

You'll get a different answer from almost everyone you ask. And they might all be correct.

I am willing to offer one hard-and-fast rule, however: don't use Times New Roman or Times Roman. That will brand your book as the work of an amateur at first glance. And there are other, very practical, reasons for not using it. Times Roman and Times New Roman were designed for the narrow columns of newspapers, originally for the London Times back in the 1930s. Today, almost no newspapers still use it. How, or why, it became a word processing standard, I have no idea. The font tends to set very tight, making the text block on the page dense and dark.

Here are two caveats before proceeding to few recommendations:
The typeface you choose may depend on how your book will be printed. If you look closely at most serif fonts (like Times), you will notice that there are thick and thin portions of each letter. If your book will be printed digitally, you should steer away from fonts with segments that are very thin. They tend to become too faint and affect readability. Don't get carried away with the thousands of font choices available. Most are specialty fonts suitable for titles, headlines, advertising, emotional impact, etc. And never use more than a very few fonts in a single book -- we usually choose one serif font for the main text body, a sans serif for chapter titles and headings within the chapters. Depending on the book, we may select a third font for captions on photos, graphics, tables, etc. (or maybe just a different size, weight, or style of one of the other two). We may select a specialty font for use on the front cover for the title and subtitle.

For 90% of books, any of the following fonts are excellent choices:
Palatino Linotype Book Antiqua (tends to set tight, so you may have to loosen it up a bit) Georgia Goudy Old Style Adobe Garamond Pro (tends to have a short x-height, so it might seem too small in typical sizes) Bookman (the name sort of gives it away, doesn't it?) Century Schoolbook (tends to be a bit wide, creating extra pages)

You need to look at several paragraphs of each font to see what, if any, adjustments you may find necessary in things like character spacing and kerning. You want to avoid little confusions, like:
"vv" (double v) that looks like the letter "w" "cl" (c l) that looks like the letter "d"

Such things can make the reading experience annoying.

If you ask other designers, you will likely get other suggestions, but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some of the above included in their recommendations.

You may run across some books with more unusual font choices, but there are often good reasons for it. Maybe the book is a humor book for which the designer chose a lighthearted font, for example. Such decisions should be made with care and thoughtful consideration for the effects on readability.

Never decide on your font or font size based only on viewing how it looks on your monitor. Most trade paperback books are printed in 10 or 11 point size, but some fonts require larger - or even smaller - sizes. If 12 points looks too big and 11 too small, you can try 11.5 - no need to stick with integer sizes. You might be surprised how much difference a half-point (or even a quarter-point) can make on the overall "feel" of the page.

You also have to decide on appropriate leading (pronounced like the metal), which is the distance from the baseline of one line of text to the baseline for the next line, measured in points. The result is usually expressed as a ratio of the font size in points to the selected leading in points. So, you might say you have set the body text in Georgia 11/14 or Bookman 10/12.5 (11-point size with 14 points leading and 10-point size with 12.5 points leading, respectively).

Word processing programs tend to work in decimal inches, forcing you to convert leading from points into inches. A standard point is equal to 0.0138 inches. Professional typesetting/layout programs (like Adobe InDesign) allow you to use points and picas to define all type measurements and settings. although you can also specify those settings in various other units (including inches).

Typically, book designers will develop more than one design for each book's interior, using different fonts, sizes, and leadings. They should typeset a few pages of the actual manuscript and print them out with the same page settings they plan to use in the final book (e.g., 6" x 9" pages). This allows the client to compare them side-by-side and evaluate them for readability and overall look.

And don't forget your target audience. Very young readers and very old readers do better with larger type. Books that are very textually dense with long paragraphs frequently need more leading and a wider font.

Ultimately, you have to choose based on what your gut reaction is to the typeset samples. It never hurts to ask other people to read it and tell you if one option is easier to read than another.

If you want to gain an appreciation for typography and how to make appropriate design decisions, I recommend the following excellent books:

The Complete Manual of Typography by James Felici

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Book Design and Production by Pete Masterson

For those who insist on using Microsoft Word to typeset books, you really should buy and study Perfect Pages by Aaron Shepard. He is the reigning guru of how to do it.

It is far better to buy professional layout software and then learn all you can about typography and how to apply those principles to book design...or to hire a professional to do for you. The latter course will leave you more time to develop a dynamic marketing plan for your latest book and start writing your next one!

What Font Should You Use For Your Book?
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Walt Shiel is the Managing Partner and Publishing Mentor at Five Rainbows Services for Authors & Publishers, a subsidiary of Slipdown Mountain Publications where he serves as Publisher. Besides offering a full range of affordable publishing solutions, Five Rainbows can tailor a mentoring program to help you achieve your specific goals for your book! And be sure to check out Walt's View From the Publishing Trenches blog.

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The Best Places to Live For Families in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio has the reputation for being a nice smaller sized Midwestern city with friendly people who have strong values for raising their families a certain way. Like most metropolitan areas, Cincinnati has some communities that have been around as long as the city was founded and others that have become part of the suburban sprawl of the last two decades. This article will talk about some of the best towns to live in if you have children, whether it is a huge horse estate in Indian Hill or Cincinnati rental apartments or apartments in funky Hyde Park. These towns are considered the best to raise a family for the good school districts, the lower crime rates and other family friendly factors.

For those people that have unlimited funds and want to live in the wealthiest town in southern Ohio, that would be Indian Hill. It is a beautiful community with large estates placed on even larger properties. Most of the homes in Indian Hill have at least a tennis court or a pool but usually both. Many well known people that are from Cincinnati like astronaut John Glenn and singer peter Frampton call Indian Hill home. So, if you have millions to spend on a home, this is the right place to do it.

Two other great towns for families are located near one another and they are Mariemont and Madeira. They both have outstanding school systems with some of the highest academic achievements in the state. Mariemont has a charming town square and was the first planned community in the state of Ohio. The architecture there is Swiss and German style and generations return to raise their families there. Madeira has a nice downtown as well with some nice shops and restaurant options and is located closest to the nicest shopping mall in southern Ohio. The cost of living in these two towns is higher than most in Cincinnati but comparable to one another.

The Best Places to Live For Families in Cincinnati

A great neighborhood and town that is located closest to downtown Cincinnati is called Hyde Park. The people that reside in Hyde Park are more diverse with a lot of recent college grads living here in large rental homes as well as retired professors from university of Cincinnati and a lot of families too. This feeds into the Cincinnati Public school system which is not great so another option like Clark Montessori or a private school is usually what parents in Hyde Park do. Some of the best boutiques and restaurants are in Hyde Park.

Mason, Ohio is farther out from downtown Cincinnati and is considered a newer suburb that has exploded in size over the last decade. The thing that a lot of people like is that the homes are newer as well as the schools and other facilities and they cost less than an older home closer to downtown. Mason High School is the one of the biggest in the state of Ohio with close to 3500 students but has a very good reputation.

The Best Places to Live For Families in Cincinnati
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Connor R. Sullivan recently contacted a real estate agent who specializes in finding Cincinnati rental apartments. His son searched the internet for a new home by using the term apartments Cincinnati.

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