I used to be a great believer in making plans. I would sit at my desk working out strategy and tactics, exactly who would do what and when. What would be the outcomes. All that with tons of supporting data.
Gradually I came to realise that other people in my team simply didn’t have the commitment to the plan that I did. And, at the same time, the situation kept changing at a dizzying pace – sometimes in ways that I’d predicted in the original plan, but more often than not in ways that were completely unpredictable.
So it was a revelation some twenty years ago to discover not only that co-created plans have a much greater chance of being realised, with everyone in the team equally invested in them, but also that planning itself is a very overrated activity.
What’s most important, I’ve found, is that everyone has a grasp on the goal and on the direction of travel. Then, if you have the right people, in the right climate, they will take care of the rest, behaving as far as possible like entrepreneurs, open to possibility each day.
As John Lennon put it in his song, “Beautiful Boy”:
“Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt3IOdDE5iA
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