“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
- The most repeated line in Horton Hears A Who, by Dr. Suess
And so, too, is a plan. In fact, the best plans start out small. Small plans can be strung into larger plans and then strategies can be executed, evaluated and shifted or doubled-down upon.
It’s peculiar to see people resist planning. “Trust me,” they might say. “I’ll get the work done.”
“I can’t because you won’t.”
Better plan: “What is the work you’re going to do this week? How will you know if you’re doing it? How will I know you’re doing it? How will you know if you’re doing it well? Doing the right things? (Remember, doing the right things wronger is better than doing the wrong things righter!) How will you know to move things to next week if you don’t know what things you didn’t get done this week?”
Goals are only goals if they’re written down and have timeframes attached. Plans are only plans if they can be objectively and measurably related to those goals.
Generals know there’s a war to win, and they tend to fight it one hill at a time, even though there’s a bigger plan and more hills. Coaches know there’s a game to win, and the first 15 plays of that game are usually scripted, planned, and then measured to know which plays they’ll run the rest of the game. Cash flow managers know that collecting payments is essential, and they plan to get the cash in before paying their own obligations. Sales leaders know how many deals they need to get to a number. Grocery store managers know when the lettuce goes bad so they can mark it down and recover some of the cost before it gets stinky.
Even God had (and still has) a plan. And He could probably have “winged it” if anyone ever could.
But if we ain’t God (and we ain’t), let’s write down today’s plan (and this week’s plan), measure it, and then adjust as we go forward. Otherwise, we won’t go forward; we’ll go in circles — ever-tightening circles until we disappear up our own — well, you know.
Plan. Rinse. Repeat. Get better every day.
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