Personal Planning

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In a LOOP workshop participants complete a personal strategic plan by going through a step-by-step interactive experience. LOOPs come in many forms- organizational, team, departmental, educational, individual, family, small-group or large-group, open or closed, two-day, one-day, or half-day. The workshop can focus on one area of work--such as career transition--or explore the gamut from personal to professional. By the time participants complete any LOOP workshop they say that they:

 
  • Are less confused, less stuck, and have clarified a direction toward a course of action;
  • Have outlined some personal steps they can take toward change.
  • Have Identified and analyzed the set of partners they need to move forward;
  • Have produced a set of materials which visualize their plan.
  • Have developed a set of personal objectives which they think can be attained; and
  • Feel motivated to move forward with their plan.


LOOP workshops take participants through a process in which they visualize a future and then go through ten planning steps to get there. The four underlying LOOP principles are:

  • 1. Participation - the "who" of the workshop-the "I" and/or the "we" of the clients/participants who attend must be stakeholders in the plan.
  • 2. Visualization - ideas indicated in pictures and on idea cards, and organized visually and conceptually. "Visualization" is also often called the "card and chart" technique.
  • 3. Facilitation -a Qualified LOOP coach facilitates the workshop. All have completed their own LOOP plans, a LOOP Training of Trainers Course, and have facilitated enough "observed" LOOP workshops to meet LOOP coach standards.
  • 4. The Ten LOOP Planning Steps - a step-by-step process designed sequentially to achieve clarity. Over the course of a LOOP workshop, participants work in groups and/or with partners to complete each of the ten steps: :

  • Step 0: Introductions, Expectations, and Confidentiality    :
    Step 1: Appreciating Achievements:
    Step 2: Picturing the Situation:
    Step 3: Facing Facts and Problems:
    Step 4: Developing Objectives:
    Step 5: Making Choices:
    Step 6: Sequencing Activities:
    Step 7: Identifying Partners:
    Step 8: Charting a Personal Plan:
    Step 9: Putting First Things First:
    Step 10: Staying in the LOOP:

    *A LOOPnote by Marcia Hamilton

    After I became a certified GTZ strategic planner in 1992, and had facilitated a number of project planning workshops, it occurred to me that the methodology would be a wonderful planning tool for individuals because of its rigorous step-by-step approach, its flexibility, and its focus on "what to do" and "how to do it". By concentrating on (and writing down) individual issues, needs, obstacles, and ideas and then analyzing, organizing and choosing from them, people ended up with realistic plans. The methodology also allowed individuals to speak objectively and honestly. I have been working on and articulating these "LOOP" workshops ever sinceThe LOOP (Life-Oriented Objective Planning) method is based on the ZOPP method which itself derives from a concept called the "logical framework" introduced in German government projects through the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in 1983. The German acronym ZOPP stands for Ziel Orientierte Projekt Planung (translated as "Objective-Oriented Project Planning). LOOP applies this project approach to personal planning. The approach was initially called a "Personal ZOPP, " but later changed to LOOP to resonate GTZ's Project Cycle Management approach. .
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