"Without a plan, everything is just another thing to do."

Someone drops a new priority on you in a meeting.

It sounds reasonable; It probably is reasonable and You say yes!

Not because you’ve weighed it against anything but because you had nothing to weigh it against.

I’ve led many clinical programs over the years, and this has been the missing piece in nearly all of them. Not effort. Not capability. Clarity about what we were actually trying to achieve that year.

Without that, everything that arrives is just another thing to do.

The way to overcome this and gain the clarity you need when something new comes in can be connected to 3 simple habits.

Start by writing down everything

This year I sat down and listed it all. Everything we were working on, and everything we wanted to work on, all on one page.

It was a long list. Some of it operational, the day to day work of running services. Some of it strategic, the things that would change how we operate. All of it mixed together.

That’s usually the first honest moment. Seeing the volume of it, in one place, on one page.

Then find the anchor

I looked at the organisations priorities. Access to care was the loudest, but people and culture mattered just as much, and I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

So I took the four operational domains and mapped everything I’d listed against them. The operational work and the strategic work, side by side, in the same frame. Then I added the holistic strategies that cut across all of it; Aboriginal health, Research, Consumer engagement.

This is the step most of us skip. We plan our own work, then hope it happens to line up with what the organisation is asking for. It usually doesn’t, and then we wonder why we’re constantly explaining ourselves upwards.

Then cut hard

There was still too much for an annual plan

So I streamlined it down to two or three initiatives per domain. That was uncomfortable. Everything on that list mattered to someone, and some of it mattered to me.

But a plan that contains everything isn’t a plan. It’s a list.

Then I added the outcome measures, Not activity measures; Not “we ran the workshop.” but what would actually be different, and how would we know?

Two pages, That’s it! That’s the whole plan.

The bit that changes everything

Here’s what the two pages are really for.

When something new arrives, and it always does, we now have somewhere to put it.

Is this real, and does it need to be done?

Or will the initiatives we already have keep moving us towards the outcome we already agreed?

And if the new thing genuinely is a bigger priority, that’s fine. But then something may need to stop.

That’s the conversation.

Not “can we fit this in,” which is how most of us have been trained to respond. But “what comes off, if this goes on?”

The plan isn’t there to make you busy. It’s there to make you decisive.

I’ve spent years in services where the answer to every new request was yes, and the cost was invisible until people burned out or the important work quietly stalled. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.

Nobody had a North Star to test things against.

The caveat is if it does need doing as well then where will the resources come from!

Three moves

1. Write everything down, All of it. Operational and strategic, in one place, before you organise anything.
2. Map it against your organisation’s stated priorities, not your own. If they don’t connect, you’ve found something worth knowing.
3. Cut to two or three initiatives per domain, and name the outcome measure for each. If you can’t measure it, you can’t defend it when something new arrives.

One last thing

I’m working through 2026/27 now. It’s not finished, and it’s never as tidy as I’d like.

But I know what the year is for. And when the next thing lands on my desk, I’ll have somewhere to put it.

This is the work a group of health operations leaders is doing with me right now, in Operational Excellence in Action.

The next cohort runs in February 2027.

If you want to know when it opens, reply and I’ll put you on the list.

In the meantime you can join the discussion in the Heath Operations Inner Circle Skool Community​

Try one small shift this week. Write down everything your service is currently carrying. Just the list, nothing else.

Then look at how long it is.

​ Jo Glover Leadership Coach & Operational Expert in Health Empowering Health Leaders to Believe, Lead & Achieve 📧 jo@jo-glover.com​ 🌐 jo-glover.com​ 🔗 LinkedIn​ Previous editions can be found here​

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