In episode 10 of the Traction Heroes podcast, Harry and I discussed planning. In particular, we addressed the common misperception that planning is thinking and talking and therefore less valuable than doing.
Of course, planning by itself is useless — we must act. But planning is an action — one that brings alignment and clarity to teams. (Eisenhower: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”)
Our conversation was prompted by a reading from Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner’s How Big Things Get Done. Here’s a relevant passage:
Planning is a concept with baggage. For many, it calls to mind a passive activity: sitting, thinking, staring into space, abstracting what you’re gonna do. In its more institutional form, planning is a bureaucratic exercise in which the planner writes reports, colors maps and charts, programs activities, and fills in boxes on flow charts.
Such plans often look like train schedules, but they’re even less interesting. Much planning does fit that bill, and that’s a problem, because it’s a serious mistake to treat planning as an exercise in abstract, bureaucratic thought and calculation. What sets good planning apart from the rest is something completely different. It’s captured by the Latin verb experiri. Experiri means to try, to test, or to prove. It’s the origin of two wonderful words in English: experiment and experience.
…
Experimentation and planning requires a simulation of the project to come. With that, you can make changes in the simulation and see what happens. Changes that work, changes that will get you to the box on the right are kept. Those that don’t are chucked. With many iterations and serious testing, the simulation evolves into a plan that is creative, rigorous, and detailed. Which is to say, a reliable plan.
Planning undertaken in this spirit is an efficiency play. Yes, move — but do so in the right direction. There’s a good reason why the aphorism “measure twice, cut once” has stood the test of time.
How do you do it? Harry described an approach called “assumptive goal setting” (or “back-planning,”) which entails beginning with a clear vision of the desired future. Then you work your way backward by asking, “What would have to be true?” By doing this repeatedly, a realistic plan emerges.
The key is making time for it. And that can be hard — we’re all busy. (Yes, even Harry and I — on the show, we joked that we need to set aside time to plan for the podcast. But it’s true!)