PLAN ASDAL-LY
Hello and welcome to my blog!
Before you read this blog, I recommend you read the previous blog which is entitled: Palawan Itinerary as this does relate to that. Once you have read that, I can start sharing about my third output which involves the ASDAL method, one of the methods used for communication planning. ASDAL is an acronym which stands for ANALYSIS. STRATEGY. DECISION. ACTION. LEARNING. This specific method is intended to help planners cope with different communication situations they might encounter. An example of a communication situation is planning a family vacation. So without further ado, let’s start discussing with ANALYSIS.
ANALYSIS involves the assessment/evaluation of systems and their surrounding environment. There are many analysis planning methods but after much thought on their applicability to our family vacation, I chose systems analysis and resource assessment. Under systems analysis is its element of ‘environment’ and in the table is an example of its function. The example simply states that research must be done before we can attempt to travel in Palawan, considering our safety amidst the pandemic. Without sufficient research, my family and I become unaware of Palawan’s culture as well as its dangers. After systems analysis comes resource assessment which comprises of ‘infrastructural and human’ elements. The infrastructural involves organizations/businesses that can act as resource and in this case organizations that promote Palawan are valuable in addition to the research already conducted. The human element on the other hand can be any people/person that can also act as resource or as an alternative to infrastructural. Based on the table, human can either be travelers to Palawan or a local of the said place.
Let’s move on to discussing STRATEGY and DECISION. STRATEGY focuses on identifying means-ends or cause-effect relationships. The planning method I chose is scenarios. In relation to the human element mentioned in resource assessment it also involves ‘people’ and alongside it ‘money’ except this time, instead of knowing where to seek information about Palawan, scenarios seeks to identify a goal or reason for going to Palawan. Money is important as it considers how much is earned/saved for traveling to prepare for necessary expenses such as flight and hotel accommodation while people are essential for guiding new travelers to Palawan by recommending tourist destinations and activities they’ll enjoy.
Next is DECISION. From the word itself, it involves making a choice or choices. Under that, I have selected two planning methods and they are decision analysis and zero-based budgeting. The corresponding element to decision analysis is ‘statistical’ which does consider specific quantitative properties in our family vacation. After doing research on Palawan, securing resources and identifying goals or reasons for traveling, it is then time to be realistic on the goals aimed to be achieved. This means that there can only be a certain number of activities to be done, considering the budget and physical health of the family doing them. On the other hand, zero-based budgeting further solidifies goals, especially the money used to achieve those goals. ‘Planning and Budgeting resource allocation’ aids in creating a checklist that is able to track expenses and ensure it is utilized for what it has been intended for.
Now, the fourth phase of the ASDAL method is ACTION. It aims to achieve coordination, control and modification. The planning method I selected for this is flowcharting which functions as a visual aid especially on learning “how” to do things. Under ‘graphic aids’, I thought about focusing to bring a travel map and guide notes of Palawan. In that way, having a guide or a map to hold makes things much more experiential and real rather than holding a phone, waiting for a signal/connection and missing the chance to actually interact with the locals, possibly in asking directions for a certain place to visit there. As you can see, I also added ‘additional/s’ which is not exactly an element included in flowcharting but it was something I wanted to address as a part of the action phase. Additional/s comprise of the things my family and I will bring for our vacation in Palawan, things which can be very helpful for us such as a medical kit in case of injuries and a sunblock/lotion when we are resting or hanging out at the beach.
The last phase is LEARNING. While ACTION aims to achieve coordination, control and modification, LEARNING aims to achieve change or recognize improvement for what has been done. Its element of case study is a detailed analysis of a real-life phenomenon to its environment. Our family’s plan to travel in the time of the pandemic is definitely an example that needs to be assessed through ‘document analysis’. Are we really ready? Do we have everything we need? Just as researching about Palawan is important, evaluating and re-evaluating our plan before we proceed to travel is also important. After all, no amount of preparation has hurt or failed anyone with goals in mind to achieve.
And that is a wrap of me sharing my experience of making an ASDAL plan for our ideal trip to Palawan. It’s been a long week for me once again, making this, and while it was confusing and overwhelming to choose from the different planning methods and elements, I did get to understand them somehow and thus produce this output. Before I end my blog, I’d also like to briefly share how well this compares to my partner’s own output. This activity did involve pair-sharing so as with the ideal wallet, we decided to team up for this again.
She created an ASDAL plan so she and her family could go to South Korea which is also a place I would like to visit internationally someday. Moving on, when I was reading her entries for the planning elements and methods, I thought she did well integrating what she wanted to achieve per phase and choosing the planning method that suits/fits her goals. We were almost similar in our planning methods but there were in fact differences in some areas such as her using methods I did not select and her generalizing her goals in the planning elements.
As I’ve said before, I do not claim to understand the ASDAL method perfectly which is why I think it bothered me as we were both talking about it that there’s an error in how we understood the planning methods to function. I’m still glad though that we connected through the common goal of traveling with our family. The experience of traveling to a place would not be complete without them.
That’s it for today’s blog, bye again until my next one!
