---
title: The Plan Review System: How Operators Stay on Track
summary: A monthly review, scorecard, update triggers, and weekly check-in that keep your operating plan accurate.
est_minutes: 6
sort: 6
---

A plan you do not review is decoration.

You have built a complete one-page operating plan. The components are defined. The priorities are set. The goal is named.

This module is about what keeps it accurate and operational over time. Because the single most common failure mode in business planning is not bad plans. It is plans that stop being used.

**Why Plans Drift**

Plans drift for two reasons.

The first is that the business changes and the plan does not get updated. A major client is lost. A new offer is added. A key team member leaves. The plan stays the same but the business it describes no longer exists. So operators stop referencing it because it no longer matches reality.

The second is that execution falls behind and the team quietly stops using the plan because it feels like an indictment rather than a tool. The plan says you should be at a certain place. You are not. So the plan goes in a drawer.

Both are fixable. But only with a consistent review system that makes looking at the plan a regular habit rather than an event that only happens when something goes wrong.

**The Monthly Review: Five Questions**

Your monthly review has five questions. Hard answers only.

Question one: did we hit last month's priority milestones? This is a yes or no per priority. Not partial credit without a recovery plan attached.

Question two: is revenue on track with the 90-day goal? Give a number. Actual versus target. If you are behind, name the one action that closes the gap fastest.

Question three: has the key constraint changed? If the constraint named in Component 07 has been resolved or shifted, update it immediately. Running on a stale constraint diagnosis is one of the most expensive operational mistakes a business can make.

Question four: do the priorities still reflect what the business actually needs? If something happened this month that changes the priority ranking, update the plan. There are no sacred cows on a one-page plan.

Question five: what is the one thing that, if addressed next month, would have the biggest impact? This becomes the primary input for the following month's execution focus.

Five questions. Sixty minutes. Done.

**The Review Scorecard**

Your Module 06 download includes a monthly review scorecard. It scores five categories: progress on each of your three priorities, revenue versus target, and plan currency, meaning how recently the plan was updated.

Total score out of 50 tells you where the plan stands. 45 to 50 means stay the course. Below 25 means a full plan reset is needed before the end of the month.

The scorecard is designed to be run fresh every month. Print a new copy or duplicate the digital version at the start of each session. Do not fill in the same sheet twice.

**Plan Update Triggers**

Not every business change requires a plan update. But these specific events always do.

A client or revenue source representing more than 20 percent of revenue is added or lost.

A new product or service is added to the core offer.

A key team member joins or leaves.

Revenue falls more than 30 percent below target for two consecutive months.

A new constraint is identified that is more limiting than the current one.

The 90-day period ends and a new quarter begins.

If any of these occur, the plan gets updated that week. Not at the next scheduled review. That week.

**The Weekly 15-Minute Check-In**

Between monthly reviews, a 15-minute weekly check-in keeps the team aligned to the plan. This is not a review. It is a pulse check.

Three minutes: read the three priorities. Five minutes: what moved this week. Four minutes: name the one thing blocking Priority 01 and who removes it. Three minutes: confirm next week's single most important action per priority.

Fifteen minutes. Same time each week. No agenda, no prep, no notes beyond what is in the plan.

**Your Action Step**

You have now built every component of your one-page operating plan.

You have a business model statement, a defined customer, a revenue model, a core offer, three sequenced priorities, a measurable 90-day goal, and a named constraint.

And you have the review system to keep all of it honest.

The plan is not finished. A plan is never finished. That is the point. It is a living document that reflects the current state of a real business being run by a real operator.

The operators who outperform are not the ones with the best ideas. They are the ones with the clearest operating picture and the discipline to maintain it.

That is what you have built. Use it.
