Planning in complex work environment

The biggest challenge with planning is … when you are asked to make a plan.

When are you asked to come up with a plan, is it when the work’s just finished or it’s before the work has even started?

Of course, it is even before the work has started.

When you are at a point of greatest uncertainty, you are asked to make a plan.

In other words, when you know the least about the work lined up, it is when you are asked to make a plan.

Now when you come out from such an arrangement, what you should assume?

Assume that you are right?

Well, not really.

Having said that, you still assume that you are right when variation tells you it is much more likely that you will be wrong.

In fact it is overwhelmingly likely that you are wrong on most of the occasions.

Hence it is better always to assume you are wrong and not right, and put the following in practice:

• Planning shouldn’t take too long at a stretch, but it is good to have planning in a cadence of shorter duration. In other words, Plan more often, later and when you know more. It is not to plan less in a complex environment, instead it is to plan more often but later.
• Appreciate too much of planning upfront disconnects you from reality and anchors them in your imagination. Hence it is better in such cases to remain humble and curious than certain and confident.