Planning – The most important yet underrated aspect!

I have mentored and coached many an individual and teams during my stints with Big and small brands, in varied capacities of first-line manager to departmental lead to SBU lead. Since last six years or so, as a Business Transformation Mentor I have enabled organizations of disparate sizes and sectors and more interestingly, at different stages of organizational developmental curve. As I engage with individuals in personal capacity or as a part of team/organization or even as a leader/founder of an organization, what strikes me is the casual approach towards “Planning” as an activity!

We all know and supposedly swear by the importance of the “Planning” stage in the developmental cycle. However, the same is starkly absent in an overwhelming majority of cases.

In most of the cases, there is a complete absence of even a “goal statement”. In a more evolved scenario, there indeed is a modicum of an attempt to plan, which tragically does not go beyond a “wish” since the same is mostly not backed up by action plans which are rigorous enough!

I am a great fan of “KISSSS” – “Keep It Simple, Specific, Sustainable, Scalable”! I have found that, if any action plan is not meeting these criteria then it is not rigorous enough and will definitely neither serve the objective nor last the distance.

Moreover, the supposed action points are never bolstered by measures and deadlines and milestones. Many a times the review mechanism is also lacking.

One wonders, isn’t this highly dangerous? Starting a business is akin to setting sail in a ship. And so is the case when one is already running the business for several years whether as a first, second or a third-generation entrepreneur, in which case one is already in deep waters!

Imagine a ship setting sail without a plan as to why in the first place is it sailing and where does it want to head and by when does it want to reach the destination and what shall have to be done in order to reach there and whether the ship shall have to dock at some ports on the way to replenish fuel and supplies!!!

Unimaginable, isn’t it?

Yet, these brilliant entrepreneurs uncannily commit this crime. As a result, they land up in avoidable tangles, along the way. This frustratingly slows up the progress which results in generation of a huge amount of negative energy in the organization. A never-ending blame game commences! People (Employees, Vendors, Channel), Market, Eco-system, Government, Competitors, Country (Or even Modi – the current in thing 😊!!) et al are held responsible.

The organization gets trapped in a resource-sapping cycle and it can’t escape this orbit for a long-time unless it generates the escape velocity!

As I often say, if you have not planned, whatever you have achieved is good fortune! Certainly not what you have worked for and deserve! One is not able to relish the results of such achievements.

If the “Planning” stage is so important, why do entrepreneurs or managers or individuals give it a miss??

Watch this space …….!!!!!!