Define which business needs digital tools could support

Medium effort

Medium impact

There’s a wealth of digital tools available, but it’s important to think carefully about what’s the best fit for your business rather than choosing something because it’s new or popular. Developing a thorough understanding of your core needs first will help you to arrive at the right solution, whether that’s new technology or something different entirely.

We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact

Remind yourself of business priorities by looking at goals and your vision for success

Impact: medium

Why will this help?

Reflecting on business goals will make sure you invest in the right areas of the business.

Writing a statement that defines your vision for success

Defining your vision for success gives you a clear destination to work towards when you’re making decisions and setting goals.

How to set strategic planning goals

Strategic planning goals guide the direction of your business, from deciding which tasks to prioritise to how resources are allocated.

Send a survey to employees to find out whether they have the tools they need to do their jobs effectively and what areas could be improved

Impact: medium

Why will this help?

Getting employee feedback will provide greater visibility over common challenges or roadblocks in your business.

Developing an employee feedback survey

Employee feedback surveys can be used to measure engagement or assess processes like onboarding or career development.

Mapping employee needs for new technology

When you’re figuring out what tools your business needs, spend time talking to the people who know your business inside out – your employees.

Choose a key challenge based on how many staff it affects or urgency to solve, and work back towards the root cause of the problem

Impact: high

Why will this help?

It’s crucial to identify the root cause of a problem before you start searching for the solution.

Getting to the root cause of a problem

If you’ve identified a problem in your business, it’s important to get to the root cause before you take action.

Talk to leaders in your network to find out how they solved a similar problem and, if they used technology, what tools worked for them

Impact: medium

Why will this help?

Speaking to peers, mentors or experts will broaden your understanding of what’s possible. Take time to learn about people’s experiences and then follow up with your own research.

An introduction to building a network to support your business

Building a professional network can feel like a minefield. This guide will help you develop your network and advise you how to get the best out of it.

Successfully applying peer learnings requires careful thought

Applying learnings from peers has been important for Creative Nature’s growth, but the application of ideas required careful thought.

Define which business needs digital tools could support

Impact: high

Why will this help?

Your research should help you make an informed decision about whether digital tools can support your business needs.

Be pragmatic about technology to align investments with business needs

Investing in technology requires careful thought to determine if a new tool is the best solution.

What can I do with this Action Plan?

Start this Action Plan

Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

Download and print

Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

Get the printable Action Plan

Learning Groups

We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

Find a Learning Group

How will I know if my action plan is working?

Confidence to move forward

When you’ve completed your business case you can decide whether buying software is the best way to achieve this goal

Why this metric?

While you might have thought, or been told, that your business needs to make better use of technology, if the numbers don't add up then it doesn't make sense to move forward with what could be quite a costly process.

How do I use this going forward?

Working out your projected cost savings by using a new technology, coupled with expected upfront and ongoing costs, will steer you in the right direction when it comes to choice of product and employee uptake.