Planning Theory: How Plans Work

Plans are often diverse complex and visionary entities and whilst they may look to be tangible and well though on paper there is a significant process in forming action from plans. Hopkins (2001) documents this in 'How Plans Work' and suggest that plans work in 5 ways: "agendas, policies,visions, designs and strategies" as well as highlighting the influence of investments and regulations in urban development followed by evaluative notes for determining whether plans work.

Firstly agendas are simply a mechanisms for focusing the attention of  an organisation of any size on a given issue. This ensures that plan makers are not merely reactive to daily planning work but be preemptive in engaging in or conducting initiatives that are congruent with the overarching agenda. Here polices are used as decisions making tools for guiding action in "if-then" scenarios. This works to streamline the decisions making process to ensure productivity by not habitually engaging in decisions that have already been made. Policies will be designed to be commensurate with overarching agenda and will also work to provide equity for all parties involved in the decision making process by establishing set standards. Vision work to establish "what should be"- they inspire people to see more than what already is, to imagine new possibilities, new solutions outside the norm that will ultimately guide the action taken. Designs function as a "fully worked" composite of individual actions tested to analyse how the will interact collectively in a system. This is essential in determining the success of a project before it implemented as it ensure that mistakes are not integrated in the final project. Innately alternations to design will occur in response to emerging unforeseen elements of the construction process. Finally and perhaps most importantly is strategy. Strategy will provide the "set of decisions" that defines that action through a decision making process. Strategy is vital as it provides a holistic overview that encompasses forethought so that "at the time action is take on a current decision, the future decisions have been thought through for each outcome from that current decision".

Image of the Central Chicago district as included in the Burnham/ Chicago Plan of 1909 which is held by Hopkins as an example of a visionary plan.

Image obtained from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burnham_1909_chicago_plan.jpg