The Power of Planning
The plan itself may change, but just having the plan will change everything.
Product launches, birthday parties, and warfare.
What do these three situations have in common? (besides one potentially leading to all of the others….) To execute them well, it is imperative to have a plan. Many plans. Planning out a goal can not only bring us success and happiness when accomplishing the goal, but we also gain clarity and insight as we go through the planning process.
The idea of planning likely isn’t new to any of us (if it is new to you, then you’re very lucky to have stumbled onto this post). And yet, it’s also likely that we have all fallen victim to lazy, non-existent, or failed planning multiple times in our lives. But why is that?
I’d wager that one major reason is that planning can be overwhelming!
When receiving a new task or setting a new goal, the idea of creating a plan often seems monumental. Where does one even begin planning—especially if you’re planning for something we have little to no previous experience handling? It may feel easier to jump in and get our feet wet first, then create a plan once we’ve learned a bit more.
Then suddenly we’ve found ourselves swimming around in the ocean of doing without much issue and begin to think, “You know what? I can get to Goal Island just fine if I keep doing this! There’s no need to head back to shore and make a plan!”
Or maybe the internal conversation sounds more like, “I’ve gotten this far without many issues. Going back, or even pausing here to make a plan, would waste a lot of time. I see the island ahead, it’s not that far, let me just get there first and make a plan next time!”
Either way, we fall for the siren song of momentum and believe that planning would provide no major benefit at this stage. We poor naive swimmers.
Benjamin Franklin said, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” As leaders in the making, failure is something we should welcome, as it brings lessons and accelerated growth, but we should never actively plan to fail. We should plan for growth, and accept failure as a necessary component of it. That’s why I would reframe Franklin’s quote and emphasize is about how plans will change our ability to lead. Planning can be confusing and stressful and the result will (in my experience at least) almost always change. But having a plan in the first place will also significantly change the results that you can expect.
The plan itself may change, but just having a plan will change everything.
At the end of the day, whether you’re planning a product launch, preparing for a birthday party, or just going for a swim, take a few minutes to plan out your goal and how you want to achieve it. I promise that it will change everything.
If you’re not sure how to get started, see my posts about cultivating a “bias towards action” for ideas about how to dive into planning!
I love that Benjamin Franklin quote but your spin on it is even more fitting - you can’t lead without a plan you’ll lose people along the way every time. Thank you for sharing your insights Akeel!