Planning
What you must know
Planning translates assessment findings into a defensible blueprint. Know the hierarchy: mission/vision → goals (broad, aspirational, no timeframe) → objectives (specific, measurable, time-bound) → strategies and activities. Objectives come in families: learning (knowledge, attitudes, skills), behavioral/outcome, environmental, and administrative/process. Write them with the ABCD formula - Audience, Behavior, Condition, Degree - plus a timeframe. Know the major theories well enough to match construct to program element: Health Belief Model (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, cues to action), Transtheoretical Model (stages of change), Social Cognitive Theory (self-efficacy, observational learning, reciprocal determinism), Theory of Planned Behavior (attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control), Diffusion of Innovations. Understand PRECEDE-PROCEED, Intervention Mapping, and logic models (inputs → activities → outputs → outcomes) as planning architectures, plus evidence sources such as The Community Guide and Cochrane reviews.
Traps questions set
- Presenting a goal as an objective (or vice versa): objectives are measurable and dated.
- Writing an objective with no criterion for success or no measurement method.
- Labeling a knowledge change as a behavioral objective.
- Confusing outputs (people trained) with outcomes (behavior changed).
- Attributing a construct to the wrong theory.
Rule of thumb
Draft objectives in one sentence: By [date], [audience] will [behavior] to [degree] as measured by [method]. If any bracket is missing, the objective is not finished.
Worked example: "By June 30, 300 employees will complete a 6-week walking program and log 90 minutes of activity per week, verified by app entries." Audience, behavior, degree, timeframe, and measurement are all present.