If I was Ed Jackson I would first tell Kim exactly what I was expecting from the plan that he has asked her to prepare for the next fiscal year, meaning goals, action plans, and a contingency plan. I would then see if another department manager who has more experience with developing plans would mind hooking up with Kim and helping her develop her department plan.
If I was Kim Allred I would first wait to see what Ed Jackson had to say and then I would try to develop the plan according to what he says. Using a few questions to help the planning move along, what must be done? Why must it be done? Where should it be done? Who should do it? And how should it be done? First off coming up with some SMART goals, which stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based, this will help create a plan that will hopefully be fail proof. There will always be issues within the department that makes these goals not achievable, this is when Kim must develop a contingency plan, What do we do when the plan does not work, how can we fix the problem?
I do not think that Kim’s initial reaction to the planning process was unusual because seeing as she is new to the job she is probably still very excited about it and would like to do the best job that she can do and this set that excitement back, because she was afraid that she would not be able to deliver on the first important job that was placed in front of her.