"If you plan well you will be successful"

hey everyone, its been so long without keeping you updated on what I am doing in Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), anyway it is not too late to do so I guess. I have been doing Calendar of Events which was a way of planning in our PR Department. . One wrong impression is that many people believe that planning in PR is all about problem solving which is absolutely wrong as it can also be used for other activities than problem solving, planning can be used for many things like events in order to know what you are going to do and when, that is to project activities.From the professional angle PR can be defined as a communication and problem solving business for the good of the organization.

Planning is one of the single most important functions of PR and yet it remains the single most neglected function and of companies that have plans most do not update them. In BPC we designed a calendar of events which we used to organize our schedules. It included all the events, meetings and projects that will take place for the whole of this year, 2011 and it was done to allow all the employees to add what they wanted to be included, to edit where necessary and to delete what is not important, it allowed everyone to have a say and take part in the running of the corporation.

We know that everyone can plan and manage as work and social life demand planning to a greater or lesser extent, but planning differs from one individual to the other and it depends on what you are planning for. Calendar of events planning was done in order to fit everything in and to give ourselves as employees a space knowing what is suppose to be done when and how. We did not do it to make our lives over and free but we did it to ensure that everything that needs to be done will be done at the right time. We wanted to drive events and all the happenings in the organization/corporation, we did not want them to drive us.

Believe me when I say planning and managing things properly is exciting when you follow your schedule. It is a creative process as it stimulated your skills and bring great satisfaction to your boss seeing how creative you can be and I believe great things will come if the calendar is followed and our goals will be achieved as when we did it we wanted everything to be done at the right time. Lack of planning can lead to programmes that reinforce controversy rather than solve them or add confusion during the day of events instead of clarifying what is suppose to be done.