“No plan survives contact with the enemy” – Von Moltke
So you’ve laid out all your plans nice and neat and spent hours or maybe even days thinking about plans for the coming year or a project or for a meeting or even just a date. You have carefully pondered how you will do this and how you will do that and then the big moment comes and suddenly something happens that you didn’t expect and everything goes to hell.
You’re left scrambling trying to figure out how this happened and whether anything of your plan can be salvaged.
Truthfully when I was younger I loved this type of frenzied scrambling. I always fancied that I was at my best when things were their most dire and only quick thinking could save the day. But over time you come to realize that this is not the way to carry on with your life, let alone a business.
Planning is important but it has to be realistic planning based not just on your expectations or desires but based upon the realities of the situation. Many times people look at a situation and see only the things that they want to see. They don’t take the time to see the situation from another person’s perspective or to consider how their actions (or inactions) may affect everything.
Another thing to consider is that most situations do not tend to be static. Circumstances change all the time, people come and go from situations, the benefits and risks of a situation can make your plans obsolete. It’s important therefore to move in a timely fashion.
Your frame of mind is also important. When a difficulty does arise you not only have to take this difficulty in stride and not fall apart but you have to ponder beforehand what you can do to remedy the situation. Plan for failure as well as success.
Lastly as Von Moltke observed your plan will probably not stay the same throughout a project. Therefore make it a simple plan that is open to changes. Two of the biggest sins that you can commit in planning anything are to be too rigid and inflexible about your plans or to make your plans so complex and so dependent on a variety of factors that they will fall apart at the smallest change.
Be flexible and realistic and you will find that your plans will more often than not will come out right.
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