About Planning – An Update

It’s no secret that most of us spend too much time thinking before we move into action. When most of us think or talk about doing something, we call that activity ‘planning’.

I’ve written a lot about the virtues of planning correctly, so let’s look at the liabilities with certain types of plan.

  1. Your plan must not be set in stone
    An inflexible plan is blind to feedback. That’s a bit like driving at the speed limit on the motorway, despite the upcoming traffic jam. Disaster.
  2. Your plan must be more about your outcome than the means of achieving it
    Again, this is a statement of flexibility. If you’re thoroughly sold on a particular route, it can blind you to other – easier – ways of getting there.
  3. Your plan must embrace the possibility of failure and redesign
    Sometimes things just don’t work out the way we planned them. If your plan is outcome-based and principle-based, it’s easy to redesign into a working plan as you go along. Then you don’t need to stop for downtime and analysis – and this avoids the discouragement that often comes with stopping.

In short, the key is flexibility, flexbility, flexibility.

The principle to keep in mind is this – your plan must be adaptable to guarantee you will succeed.

So there’s really no need for so much thinking.

Set your outcome, gather relevant principles and start to evolve courses of action. Then start doing something and let the principles guide you as you keep your eyes on the outcome.

Act, adapt, achieve, succeed.