Plans and planning
Plans and planning as an activity is viewed as a virtue by many. Having a plan is often seen as synonymous with having a vision and being in control. Plans can also be called what they truly are, guesses. In the increasingly volatile world in which most persons and organisations exist the events that may happen or will not happen is mind blowing, any guess on how to act is bound to use constraints and assumptions that are rarely as true or lasting as we think.
Frequently the activity of planning is simply an administrative exercise with the purpose of putting dates in documents without really considering how fine details affect the outcome, thus the saying "the devil in the detail" which has toppled many very well planned projects. In this situation planning can be extremely dangerous for two simple reasons: First it takes effort that could be spent on actually working here and now and further understanding the important details. Secondly once the plan isn't working perfectly the culture of planning (as established by the initial plan) triggers the response of re-planning or confusion caused by the event of no longer having a plan. In worst case there will forever be planning with output to slow to be meaningful for the current work and you end up with a situation where planning ruins the plan.
A psychological issue with planning is that it creates an attachment to a desired state that is not going to exist. Thousands of parameters change daily, the chance that you predicted the correct one is zero and trying to compare how well you are doing compared to your plan will prevent you from seeing things as they are. This leads to lost opportunities and in worst case denial.
Just as having a plan is not a meaningful assurance of knowing what to do and doing the right thing, not having a plan doesn't guarantee the opposite. Not having a plan doesn't mean there is no direction or lack of information on how to execute. A vision helps with the issue of providing direction and meaning, having a strategy provides high level guidance on how and culture can provide a tradition and smartness in the details of how to operate.
So when in doubt what is a good course of action? My first rule of thumb is to act, acting creates information, information that can later on be used to make better decisions. Acting is in most situations a lot more productive than not acting even if you waste more effort, the value of a bad plan is frequently close to zero, the value of some bad product development is frequently very valuable. Early on when acting very little contextual information tends to be available, in this case always strive for actions that create more options, better is frequently flawed by unforseen incidents but more leaves you with some options left as other options unfold as bad.
The higher the focus in your environment is on planning the higher the value of acting. Acting means not only that you get information about reality, it also means that in some small portion also starts creating the reality. In marketing terms you create a "first-mover advantage", you have produced something that others need to catchup with and you've created a standard against all later efforts will be compared to.
Frequently the activity of planning is simply an administrative exercise with the purpose of putting dates in documents without really considering how fine details affect the outcome, thus the saying "the devil in the detail" which has toppled many very well planned projects. In this situation planning can be extremely dangerous for two simple reasons: First it takes effort that could be spent on actually working here and now and further understanding the important details. Secondly once the plan isn't working perfectly the culture of planning (as established by the initial plan) triggers the response of re-planning or confusion caused by the event of no longer having a plan. In worst case there will forever be planning with output to slow to be meaningful for the current work and you end up with a situation where planning ruins the plan.
A psychological issue with planning is that it creates an attachment to a desired state that is not going to exist. Thousands of parameters change daily, the chance that you predicted the correct one is zero and trying to compare how well you are doing compared to your plan will prevent you from seeing things as they are. This leads to lost opportunities and in worst case denial.
Just as having a plan is not a meaningful assurance of knowing what to do and doing the right thing, not having a plan doesn't guarantee the opposite. Not having a plan doesn't mean there is no direction or lack of information on how to execute. A vision helps with the issue of providing direction and meaning, having a strategy provides high level guidance on how and culture can provide a tradition and smartness in the details of how to operate.
So when in doubt what is a good course of action? My first rule of thumb is to act, acting creates information, information that can later on be used to make better decisions. Acting is in most situations a lot more productive than not acting even if you waste more effort, the value of a bad plan is frequently close to zero, the value of some bad product development is frequently very valuable. Early on when acting very little contextual information tends to be available, in this case always strive for actions that create more options, better is frequently flawed by unforseen incidents but more leaves you with some options left as other options unfold as bad.
The higher the focus in your environment is on planning the higher the value of acting. Acting means not only that you get information about reality, it also means that in some small portion also starts creating the reality. In marketing terms you create a "first-mover advantage", you have produced something that others need to catchup with and you've created a standard against all later efforts will be compared to.
Continuing my Life of Brian theme, enjoy this parody on the topic:
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