Projects are planning

Don’t plan-then-do. Trust your gut, and think of planning as a project.

Bad planning hurts projects. So good planning should help projects. Right?

It’s not so clear.

Planning is a project

The truth is that planning is a type of project. Sitting in a meeting room sharing exciting ideas isn’t planning. Sketching concepts or designs isn’t planning. Scribbling notes isn’t planning. They’re sometimes parts of planning. But real planning requires at least organization, intentionality, and some clear decisions. One product of good planning is decisive action, and being able to do it (relatively) quickly.

Good planning looks a lot like a healthy project.

There’s a misconception that saying or writing enough “good ideas” will result in good outcomes and forceful follow through. If you consider your own experiences, how often is that really the case? Your budget or diet will betray you. Throwing a project in line behind brainstorming doesn’t make it any more “planned” or likely to succeed.

A new, better mindset

The plan-then-do mindset should be replaced by something else—something better. There are lots of good planning models, but a simple start is to begin talking about your planning as a project. There should be a beginning, middle, and end, some goals, timelines, an idea of resources required, and even a budget.

Be careful not to plan to plan. Pick some starting points based on gut reactions. (Your instincts probably aren’t that bad. You’ve managed to stay alive for quite a while, right?) Call them “simplifying assumptions” if it makes you feel better. (It does for me.) Then plan. If you were wrong about something, you’ll know a lot quicker than if you hadn’t started so soon — let alone if you hadn’t started at all.

Eventually, you might even begin to think that projects are planning. And that’s not a bad way to look at things.

Need help to ‘projectify’ your planning? Fiat Insight works with hundreds of small businesses and nonprofits to turn complex missions and values into products with purpose. Let us know about your plans.