Flawless Planning. Seriously?

Some people find the idea of flawless planning heretical if not implausible.

They think of planning as prediction and flawless as perfect. When they say something went as planned, they mean as predicted. Perfect planning would be things always going as predicted.

There is one small problem. How could any plan be perfectly predictable in an intrinsically unpredictable world? Even the best planning doesn’t magically make the future somehow predictable. So, there can’t be a perfectly predictable plan.

When plans work out, it’s because we did exactly what was required for things to work out. We engaged in the right actions at the right time — even when our uncertainties outnumber our certainties.

When plans go awry, it’s not because of the uncertainties. Things go wrong when we’re not engaged in the right actions at the right time.

The prime reason we would not be engaged in the right actions at the right time is that we’re operating from our assumptions — our guesses, speculations, and opinions. The prime reason we would be engaged in the right actions at the right time is that we’re working instead from our questions — our curiosities interests, and wonders.

It’s not important to believe this. It’s better to find out for ourselves.

Construct a plan to chop a variety of vegetables with a newly sharpened knife. Then follow your plan blindfolded. This makes sure you’re working from assumptions. You conveniently turned your planning uncertainties into assumptions. Working from assumptions, see how well you followed your plan and how well your plan worked. That’s the power of assumptions.

Do it again not blindfolded and see how well your plan worked. Not blindfolded, we turn uncertainties into questions about where things are located, what needs to be done next, and what immediate feedback we get from our actions.

Things go better when we notice all the uncertainties. This is the power of questions — turning uncertainties into actions. Cutting with eyes open.

I’ve spent over four decades working with people in all kinds of organizations and communities whose plans were premature disappointments. The more their plans were based on assumptions, the more flawed they were. How many news stories of things gone wrong are stories of assumption-driven plans?

In flawless planning we turn uncertainties into new realities. We translate uncertainties into questions, questions into actions, and actions into new realities. Questions leverage the power of uncertainties.

The prime flaw in planning is working from assumptions. Instead of working from assumptions, we turn them into new, actionable questions. Planning is flawless when we work from zero assumptions, and only from questions.

Questions are windows offering us views to new patterns and possibilities. Assumptions are walls protecting us from views to new patterns and possibilities.

Assumptions turn out to be excellent resources for growing new, actionable questions that have the power to bring about new realities. We don’t work from assumptions — we transform them into prime assets to do our best planning possible. Flawless planning is the art of questions.

We can work from our questions rather than from our assumptions. If working from assumptions is the prime flaw in planning, we can do flawless planning. Seriously.