Do Smething!

Some teams estimated in excruciating detail and others gave just a high level SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess).  Some estimated with an intensely conservative bias and others with an overly optimistic bias.  When the team regrouped, each member shared their plans of what it would take to make it happen. This time instead of focusing on why not we were focused on how it could be possible so that we could evaluate if it were even worth it to try.

This exercise of collaborative planning enabled all teams to learn a little more about each other and our interdependencies. But more importantly, we, the project team, learned about how each person was thinking.  We learned about how we were approaching our planning.  After we talked it all through, each plan looked a lot more similar in approach.  The optimists tempered the conservative planners’ dates and were themselves brought to consider risks that really should be planned for.  The detailed planners were leveled up by the “SWAG”ers who, themselves, were brought to a more detailed level of thought.  We made agreements on how we would start and how we would keep each other informed.  We took the best from all of us and became collectively better for it.  After taking the time to do that, you know what? Turns out it was possible.

Then we got to work.  And the plans changed – frequently – but in a controlled manner.  Risks were realized and we managed through until they were resolved.  We changed stuff … a lot!  We discovered work that we simply had not planned for and then needed to incorporate in to the workplan somehow to meet our shared goal.  Did I mention, we changed along the way? Lots of change, yet, here we were, celebrating around a table in a pub because what people thought could not be done had just been launched, ahead of schedule and under budget. The scope changed as we learned more and could make more informed business decisions, but the goal was achieved.  Now that’s success!  And success feels GREAT!

I could relay stories of failed projects as well, but they would all go something like this: We didn’t talk, we didn’t plan together.  We just started doing stuff thinking it was a simple effort.  We just started doing stuff thinking we knew everything there was to know about the other teams’ needs, insights or process.  When things went wrong fingers were pointed at each other until we had to stop everything to regroup and build a proper plan with a system of accountability to rely on as we set out to execute on the plan.  It got done but it took longer than originally planned.  It got done but we were all pretty pissed off at each other. We didn’t really have an accurate measure of cost because we were all holding our cards close to our vests. So who knows if the effort was really worth the outcome. When we launched there was a laundry list of things that still needed to be worked out and analyzed to really get us to our goal.  Believe me, I have a LOT of those stories too.  The failure stories are equally important for lessons learned but they certainly do not feel as good! 

The example I shared was of course a project team in a corporate environment.  I could have just as easily shared an example of personal success or failure based on the presence or lack of a plan.  When it all comes down to it, businesses are all just some personal goal that was realized and scaled. 

So our professional and personal practices and methods for success overlap quite a bit.   Whether you have a business goal or a personal goal.  You want to invest in good solid planning with an appropriate accountability model.  Appropriate being the key word here – but more on that later.

Planning gets a bad rap for a variety of reasons

1. It can feel like a stall in progress of getting what you want:

   1. EXCUSE: “Building a plan takes too much time”

   2. REALITY: The time taken to rework things that were not effectively planned are far more than the upfront time it takes to build a plan

2. People are hesitant to draw any lines in the sand without full information:

   1. EXCUSE: “I can’t tell you when I will be done with building the walls until I know when the foundation guy can come.” 

   2. REALITY: Use assumptions – they are great for getting the end-to-end tasks plotted out with dependencies even if the timeline shifts.  Having this is critically important in understanding the impacts of changes.  And changes will happen!

3. It can feel like a futile effort because things change. 

   1. EXCUSE: “Plans are irrelevant as soon as you finished building them. So why bother?”

   2. REALITY: A plan is not a beautiful piece of work that you frame and admire; it is a living breathing evolving tool.  It is, of course, absolutely true that a plan (the noun) is irrelevant as soon as you finish it.  But the important element of successful execution is planning (the verb).  If you never take the time to set up the original plan, then it is a LOT more difficult to understand how to respond to changes.  And changes come in many shapes and sizes:

      • “Oh?! I didn’t know there were regulations against doing that!”  Sometimes you think you know something when you actually don’t. 

      • “There’s a N’oreaster heading our way – expect power outages” Or can you say pandemic?  Sometimes the world changes.

      • “ I can update that web page in half an hour!” … three.. days… later … “Well, it took a lot longer than I thought because…(who cares why – the point is the plan is off-track now)”.  Sometimes your estimate is just off.

      • “Argh, the part is on back order!” Sometimes shit just happens.

4. People just don’t LIKE to plan – Waah … that’s it – just waah. You can choose not to plan but statistically speaking you will be later, poorer, and/or far less successful without it.

Planning tends to get a bad rap.  But in my experience, without planning, execution takes a LOT longer, costs a LOT more, and the “give up” factor is a LOT more prevalent.  And it is not just my experience or opinion, there are a lot of folks with big degrees who use science and statistics to prove what we can anecdotally confirm.  But I thank them for the back up just the same!

So regardless of what your goals or aspirations are, planning is an essential element of success.  Sure, there are stories where manna fell from heaven and something miraculously “became”.  But for most of us, success only follows a cycle of ideation, definition, planning, trying, often failing, learning then cycling through again until success is achieved.  I have had an evolutionary career of multiple roles in an array of functional areas which has given me insight into a lot of different scenarios, business areas and so many people: front line to executive.  It has made me a bit of a utility player, which is nice for me, but regardless of the role or business area, what I am consistently recognized and remembered for is my planning and execution.  I have had people say that once I set my mind to something it is realized.  And, if I am honest, my personal brand is built around helping people transform the impossible into what’s possible.  The single most important ingredient for this transformation is solid accountable planning.  There is no magic tool.  In fact, it is not even important to use a specific planning framework or methodology.  Though many will tell you they have the secret formula, the reality is that the true secret formula is YOU.  So, it’s important to have a framework that works for YOU.  Whatever you do make sure it feels good.  You don’t need to spend loads of money on models and frameworks.  And please do not try to fit your style, personality or working habits into someone else’s mold.  If you do then you will fail.  Figure out what works for you and commit to planning (it’s a verb!).  I have definite preferred working tools for myself.  I LOVE visual.  And I love something that permits me to ideate and just pop stuff in until I figure out where it belongs in the sequence of stuff that needs to get done.  But when leading a project team, I always try, wherever possible, to allow the team members to use the framework that works for them.  My only requirements is that it must roll up, in an easily understandable manner, to a single consistent framework where all the contributing teams meet and integrate to reach the final outcome.

The first step in identifying what YOUR framework is, of course, is understanding YOU. 

In January we were all busy setting goals, making resolutions, and generally doing whatever we can to get the sticky gum of 2020 off our shoes.  As we lead into February when the enthusiasm can wane, it seemed the right time to share some insights on planning that I have learned, through successes and quite often through hard-won experience, over the years. 

#1 If you aren’t all in then don’t begin.  

You may have heard this many times before.  It’s nothing new but think about it honestly with yourself.  Make sure you really, REALLY, REALLY understand your WHY.  This goes for professional or personal goals.  I started many diets through the years.  I had become overweight (medically: pre-diabetic, etc. so not a body-shaming thing) and I needed to do something about it.  I had juvenile eating habits with a “maturing” body.  But until I got really clear on why it was important for ME, nothing worked.  It was not the dietary framework that failed.  It was me.  I wasn’t clear enough that it was important for me to be healthy.  It also wasn’t the approach that I used when I finally succeeded that made the difference.  It was ME.  In a few months since I started “all-in”, I am currently 50% to my weight goal.  I have never made that kind of progress. Being “all-in” meant I committed to a specific and measurable goal. I established a framework to use to facilitate meeting that goal and I measure it at a minimum cadence to see how I am progressing. I joined a team of people working toward similar goals to get ideas from when I am stalled. My success was all about me getting myself firm in my WHY and committing to a framework that worked for ME.

#2 Don’t jump into the details too soon.

Oh! how we love to just get at it! Build a web site and start selling!  “What? No customers?”  Ok maybe spend a couple grand to purchase an email list. Crap!  That didn’t work.  Ok then social media!  That’ll do it! Wait maybe I should take this master class. If you jump in too soon, you will inevitably get lost. So, before you do ANYTHING, understand your goal.  Plain and simple – WHAT do you expect to be different when you are done doing – whatever you ultimately plan to do. Be patient and follow the right steps before you start to break it down to tactics.  You can certainly get through the series of steps quickly (some call this agile) but the steps need to be gotten through.

Qualifier!!! It is perfectly ok to just do some stuff to learn though (see tip#5).  Just be sure to approach it as just that, a learning opportunity. If it doesn’t work, then do not wrap yourself in the false conclusion of failure or worse… panic.  Panic is very expensive!

#3 Strategy first then plan – always.

There is a big difference between your strategy and your plan.  Strategies also get a bad rap, particularly in the corporate world.  Almost everything gets “strategy” slapped onto it either to make it sound important or because it is stuff that needs to get done but it’s not clear where it should be owned.  Go ahead and Google strategy – see what comes up.  Executive level, corporate level , functional level, operational level, or how about transformational strategies.  Strategic thinking, strategic planning, strategic operations, strategic BFD!  The word strategy is all over the place.  We just love to be strategic.  But the strategy I am talking about is a bit more down to earth.  When I think of strategy I simply think of the approach.  Once you are clear in the goal (#2-WHAT) and your commitment to and reason for achieving it (#1-WHY), then just think a little bit about HOW you think you will approach getting there.  I kinda like good ole Wikipedia (yup, I am citing Wikipedia! Never take yourself too seriously) Strategy is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. At this stage you really don’t know nuttin’.  Embrace the uncertainty and just get clear about how you will move forward. You will have plenty of time to revisit your strategy and adjust as you learn more.  But for now just get it straight enough to start.  And whatever you do – do NOT over-strategize! Remember, you really don’t know nuttin’ yet so no sense over architecting the HOW.  Just get it clear enough to provide stability when you get to tactics. This stability is crucial because tactics get busy and tangled and confusing.  So, it is important to have something to anchor yourself back to in order to calm the seas of getting there!  Achieving the possible from the impossible isn’t neat and tidy … EVER.

#4 The loftier the aspiration, the more you will need to break it down.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for.” – Robert Browning.  Dream BIG.  All things truly are possible.  But know that the bigger the dream the more there will be to think about.  Do not let it overwhelm you though.  Just break it into chunks that you will subsequently break into smaller chunks, etc. until you get to the “brass tacks” of tactics.  One client who I have been coaching through her planning process recently has BIG DREAMS!  And they are so achievable, but she gets paralyzed with overwhelm sometimes.  We have been working on getting through the steps of basic planning over the last month or so. Last week we got to some tactics that felt right to her.  I could see her shoulders drop and her energy rise.  She said it was the best planning session yet.  But she never would have gotten to that point if we had not worked through the big chunks first.  Now she feels ready and more importantly she is beginning to believe it is POSSIBLE – Ahhhhh – so good! (That is MY WHY right there!)

#5 Do something – even if it’s wrong:  

I was a very shy child with anxiety up the wazoo which frequently paralyzed me from doing stuff.  I often heard my Mother saying, “Polly!  Do SOMETHING! Even if it’s wrong!”  It felt a little harsh in the moment, but I am so very grateful for those words today.  (for the record my mother wasn’t harsh – I simply received them that way) I am still a bit shy and sometimes anxious adult, but these are words that I now say to myself on a regular basis when I start to feel that anxiety creeping up on me.  I will try to share them with a bit more compassion than my mother, perhaps, by first saying it is perfectly OK to feel anxiety.  Honor your feelings but keep them in their place and remember they are feelings not obstacles.  Do not imagine that whatever is making it difficult to get started “doing” something is more than it really is.  If it is anxiety or fear, then believe me when I say that you are more than able to overcome them.  There are a slew of tools and techniques to help you recognize and overcome this.  I also hear many people say it’s time.  “I just don’t have the time” But I would ask you to evaluate for just one week how you are actually using your time and it is likely that you could choose focusing on achieving your goals instead of watching Temptation Island or the 4th hour of news programming.  If you truly want it, you CAN achieve your goal.  Just take one step. And when you do take that step then celebrate your accomplishment!  I will also suggest that if you are having trouble getting started, then try starting with just being kind to yourself.  My absolute favorite quote which I have had historically tacked up in many cubicles, offices, and which remains in eye shot of any desk I work at still is from Margot Fonteyn. “Take your work seriously but never yourself. The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.” Get comfortable laughing at your flaws because you are not alone, I assure you!  Be ready to fail – the greatest success stories have many failures before they became successes.  You will fail too.  I promise you this!  Honor the disappointment, then use it as a valuable opportunity to learn and go back to planning for the success!