Quantcast
Subscribe!

 

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

E-mail Steve
This form does not yet contain any fields.

    free counters

    Twitter Feed
    « Oil changes for life | Main | Quick - Send in the 'B' Team »
    Tuesday
    Sep212010

    Failure to plan?

    Everybody has one, that one management or business maxim that while you admit is probably sort of true at its core, you are still pretty sick of.

    Some candidates for the 'I am so sick of hearing that' distinction are these beauties:Subdivision - Maricopa County, AZ

    'What can't be measured, can't be managed'

    Blah, blah, blah, anything at all really, leading up to the '80-20' rule being cited.

    Or any initiative that involves 'moving needles', 'shifting paradigms', or 'pushing envelopes'.

    But my number one in the 'Not again' category is 'Begin with the end in mind'.

    I know, it is probably a reasonable assertion that you should have some idea where you want to go before you set off on the journey. Otherwise, you'd wander around foolishly, right?  You'd just be a hopeless, clueless, aimless idiot until you either collapsed in a ditch at the side of the road, or if you're lucky, managed to retrace your steps to make it home.  Tired, dirty, defeated, but at least potentially smarter from the experience. No way you are doing that again, is the lesson learned.

    I can't stand 'Begin with the end in mind' because too often people and organizations translate 'in mind' to 'completely and totally figured out, with any deviation from the end, to be considered unacceptable, and quite possibly an abject failure.'

    When you think about how many projects or initiatives in the organization, both ones that are successful and complete positively, and ones that crash and burn,  don't end up looking much at all like how you thought they would when you set out, it seems to me that worrying so much about precisely defining 'the end', is often wasted effort.

    How much of 'the end' did you have in mind when you set out on your career path, went on your first date with your spouse or significant other (man, what a lame phrase), or reached in to the giant box of Legos for the first piece of your last masterpiece?

    Is what you are doing right now, right as you are reading this, what you had 'in mind' a few hours ago? Last week? Last year?

    That's why I hate 'Begin with the end in mind'.  I much prefer, 'Just begin'.

    PrintView Printer Friendly Version

    EmailEmail Article to Friend

    Reader Comments (3)

    Thought-provoking, Steve! When I read your title, it seemed like good advice. Begin with the end in mind... but then as I read through your logic, you're right, many things would never have been done if you knew the end but it doesn't mean that something better didn't come out of it. It stifles creativity when we plan too rigidly and makes us much less resilient to the forces out of our control.

    September 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterJulie Walraven

    There's a big difference between starting with a set idea of what the end will be and defining success before the work begins. Defining success is a huge piece of the puzzle that tends to get lost. If you don't know the objective, you can't know what you are working for. And if you don't know how you define success, your project will never end.

    That said, any time I work with a business leader to define a project and they tell me exactly how it will go down, I distance myself as quickly as I can. It may work, but it rarely works as well as it could.

    September 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDwane Lay

    Typically one thinks of a Replica Rolex as a wrist Replica Rolex Watches , a time keeping device strapped to the arm by means of a band or chain. Though some men still wear pocket Replica Tag Heuer for their aesthetic charm, wrist Replica Tag Heuer Watches have dominated the watch industry for nearly a hundred years.

    September 27, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterreplica watch

    PostPost a New Comment

    Enter your information below to add a new comment.

    My response is on my own website »
    Author Email (optional):
    Author URL (optional):
    Post:
     
    Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>