Plan or Process?

When does a plan become a process?

The first time I did my lawn, I devised a plan to cut the grass, edge the lawn, and blow the debris.  Since I was going to hire a lawn service the following week, this was a specific one-time plan, so by definition ad-hoc.  While my plan was effective, it was not necessarily efficient.  However, after we decided to forgo the lawn service, my one time plan is now executed weekly, so it became a process, and certainly needed improvement.  

If you do something once, it's a plan.  If you do something more than once, it's a process.  Many times an ad-hoc plan is the basis for the ongoing business process.  Unfortunately, the process is then left to improve sporadically when a specific problem occurs. 

This week's assignment:  Find an important process that might have started as an ad-hoc one-time plan and verify you have a constant proactive approach to improve the 5 process maturity components.

That's my 8020 Framework.