Practical Management: Putting Plans into Action

Abstract

Planning should lead to action for achieving results intended in the plan. Managers who have gone through the demanding and difficult exercise of producing a health plan and strategy for their District, develop a strong commitment to putting the plan into practice, but they need all the practical skills and experience available to bring the plan to fruition. However, there are often difficulties. Practical skills are best learnt by doing, and most managers say that they learn how to manage by actually managing. Much of what is called ‘management’ is common sense and can be recognised as such. This chapter is concerned with what it means to be a manager of a District Health Team concerned with putting a health plan into action. Some techniques will be described which can help managers to organise their own work more efficiently, leading on to a range of issues concerned with managing people, which is at the heart of a manager’s work. There is a section concerned with ‘logistics’ — some of the basic systems which need to work smoothly in a health district; and finally there are practical examples of effective management at three levels — the community, the Health Centre and the District.