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Planning is the design of paths and goals. That’s a simple way of describing a complex process that shapes our lives, careers, and dreams more than we realize. It’s worthy of study, so let’s unravel this humble definition the way we plan: backwards.
Plans are built on predictions which are built on beliefs. That’s why metacognition – awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes – is essential to good planning.
Planning up front isn’t only about making a plan. It’s about learning, awareness, and practice; so we can identify options, understand feedback, and deal with disruption. Improvisation favors the prepared mind and body.
Ike’s famous line on useless plans affords a second insight. No artifact alone can create shared vision. When we plan together, we’re able to inspire each other to see and feel what’s possible. Leaders can build team loyalty that’s tribal. And it’s emotional commitment that gives folks the courage and spirit to endure.
The Marine Corps Planning Process includes six steps: problem framing, course of action development, wargaming, course of action comparison and decision, orders development,
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Problem framing enhances understanding of the environment and the nature of the problem. It identifies what the command must accomplish, when and where it must be done and, most importantly, why – the purpose. Since no amount of subsequent planning can solve a problem insufficiently understood, problem framing is the most important step in planning. [50]
I agree with the Marines in spirit, but I have a problem with their framing. A focus on “understanding the problem” can become part of the problem. In our model, framing includes understanding and explaining both the problem and solution.
Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world. As a result, they shape the goals we seek, the plans we make, the way we act, and what counts as a good or bad outcome.[59]
Do you have a fleeting glimpse that may become a goal? How can you make framing more social? There are more ways than stars in the universe. Most require that we also make framing more tangible. For instance, Jeff Bezos has created a culture at Amazon in which “working backwards” is an assumption. For any new initiative, employees begin by writing a press release and FAQ that explain the finished product to the customer. [65] No product is built without conversations and iterations around these tangible artifacts of a customer-centered frame.
Now, in framing my goals, I’m more likely to go towards the fear.
His research, which includes administering the “hope scale” to more than 10,000 people, shows hope is not an emotion but a mindset rooted in the belief that you will find a way.
Make It Stick about the science of successful learning
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information?” If we hope to help people with goals, we must search for intent.
Empirical studies of design planning have demonstrated that breadth-first design is associated with expert performance, while depth-first design is associated with novice performance.[89]
Mitigation as Taleb writes in The Black Swan is often the best we can do.
To reflect, map the system, then map the context outside the system; that’s where surprises come from. Or sketch the pace layers from fast to slow, then add drivers and levers; those that are deep are powerful but hard to move. After a project in a debrief ask the team to sort surprises into three categories: what we didn’t know, what we couldn’t know, what we didn’t want to know; and then ask why. Before a project, consider emotion in defining task order. Use a few quick wins to build momentum, then tackle the scary tasks early, so anxiety can’t drag you down. Finally, go for a walk or take a
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Running is the easy part. It’s deciding to run that’s hard. Figure 5-1.
In college I took a class on rational choice in which we learned to make decision trees. As models of paths, probabilities, and consequences, these forking graphs spin options into numbers.
as Eric Ries explains in The Lean Startup. A true experiment follows the scientific
Richard Saul Wurman wrote Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
My command team and I added people to the cc line of emails whenever it seemed even the second or third order consequence of the operation discussed might impact them. We had to acknowledge we often could not predict who would and would not benefit from access to certain information. We took almost all phone calls on speakerphone: that included me, the commander in charge of our nation’s most sensitive forces. This could make people uncomfortable, sometimes intensely so. But never once did I see it hurt us as much as it helped. We were trying to normalize sharing among people used to the
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