No plan survives contact with the enemy
Is a quote often heard in the military. If a business where success or failure is measured in lives of real human beings thinks this way about plans. Yet "normal" business industries where the price of failure is only counted with stock prices or lost money are in most cases build on plans after plans after plans.
I've thought about some aspects of plans most people and businesses do and work by today. I've also asked myself what sort of plans have worked best for me and have upsides compared to the "old" plans.
After going through the differences of the plan 1.0 and 2.0 I'll share my ideas on why do we plan in the first place. But before that: Let's get mouldy:
1. "The good olde plan"
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| Looks most of the time like this |
Plan 1.0:
- Is long
- Written by a single person
- Has not been worked by a team
- Defines how things should be done
- Is heavily text based with some tables and/or diagrams to base the text on facts
- Builds a single scenario to which the plan is the only truth
- Assumes a lot. From the competition, markets, planners company and customers
- Top-to-down given
- Is written poorly (grammar errors and really really dry read as a document)
- Has factual errors (due to overworked and stressed author)
- References and/or demands you to lookup an another plan or document
Everyone has at least once read and most propably written one of these plans at one point. I know I've had. So what can we learn from this way of planning to get ahead of the competition or the enemy.
2. Lean, mean, planning machine
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| Quarterback Tom Brady of New England Patriots giving out orders and information. |
Plan 2.0
- Is short and well summarized
- Planned and composed with a team
- Makes you want to read it
- Doesn't assume anything
- Gives clear action points
- Has short list of multiple possiible scenarios
- Does not creat strict long term guidelines
- Is goal focused
- Is clear
- Is based on needs not wants
How many of you have had the feeling after hearing a plan that I can't wait to work by that plan. The defining moment comes when you actually realize that the plan 1.0 can't be given vocally. Or if someone does nobody gets that it's a plan.
3. Why do we plan?
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| "10 minutes of planning saves you 20 minutes of work" - Everyone |
Of course we have to plan. A bad plan is still most of the time better than a no plan at all. But if the plan is focused on creating and fabricating reality to suit you ideas you won't be very successfull. Most people plan to shake their fears and ready themselves for the future. And of course you have to plan if you have a certain goal. But the difference between these versions is that the first one you make for yourself to feel comfy and in control. The 2.0 you create to move forward towards your goals in the evershifting timeline we call life.
So next time you start to plan something think how will I form the plan and why do you do it in the first place.
