Pressure Relief or Pressure Cooker?

Something I’ve been pondering is an easy test to know whether you have a good strategic plan in place. Are you ready? Here it is.

Does your strategic plan relieve or build pressure in your team?

An effective plan will relieve pressure by reducing the number of decisions a team needs to make so they can think creatively. It also sets clear expectations and empowers people to take action without fear.

When I look back at projects that were “heavy” or kept me up at night, they were all pressure cookers. Every stand up, every issue and every milestone felt like a vise being turned. And at the root of all of these, poor strategy and planning.

This isn’t to say projects with a good strategy in place aren’t difficult at times or demanding. Quite the contrary. The difference is a good strategic plan acts as a pressure release valve. It removes pressure from the project.

For example, we are finishing up a project (B2B e-Commerce) this month that had a few difficulties crop up last week. But because the right approach was in place, the team was able to stay carefree and get things back on track. No one lost sleep. No one got stressed out.

All was cool.

Originally published at David Horne.