Every now and then, I hear an expression that hits me between the eyes, and I know I’ve got to think more about it, and eventually write about it here. Such was the case recently during one of the weekly Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI) webinars I like to attend.
And once again, the quote that became a take-away had little to do with the main subject at hand.
I decided to make the quote the title of this blog post. It comes from Dwight Eisenhower, whose term as US President ended before I was born, but based solely on that quote, I like Ike!
So Many Contrasts, So Little Time
When I think about the differences between the plans we make and the process of making those plans, especially when considering my favourite subjects (business families), so many possibilities come up.
I’ll probably have to cut this short before I cover them all, so let’s get right into it.
Regular readers may notice that this post will have me repeating things that I’ve said many times before in this space, and that’s usually a good thing.
Someone recently complimented me on the fact that things I told him verbally and facts in my book were consistent. I’m still shaking my head as to why he seemed to think that was special.
The “Journey” Versus the “Destination”
One way to think about the planning process being more important than the end result is the old “the journey is more important than the destination” idea.
As I wrote in There Is No Destination last year, when you get right down to it, we only live in the present, so it literally is all journey.
In fact, too many people have it wrong and focus so much on completing the plan, thinking that having a completed plan will actually provide some magic power.
The value in taking the time to work with others to make plans, and the shared experience that creates, should not be underestimated.
Process versus Content
This segues nicely into the next way I want to look at the planning versus plans question. The whole idea fits so perfectly with the “process versus content” contrast.
The “plan” is the finished product, the content, or the “deliverable”.
It makes me think of what a consultant would produce, and that then conjures up the image of a report that then sits on a shelf, gathering dust, i.e. useless.
Compare that with what a process consultant, like a facilitator or coach would be involved in. It’s the entire process of working with a group of people, who together co-create that plan.
More often than not, the activity of working together as a team becomes a more important result than the plan itself.
Outdated Before It’s Even Finished
Yet another way to think about the reason plans themselves are overrated is that they are often outdated before the final version is even completed.
When the focus is on completing a beautiful plan, there comes a time when the planning itself needs to end, so that the final report can be crafted.
But once the planning stops so that the report can be written, life goes on, and the final version of the report may already be out of date.
Maybe it would have been better to just continue the planning, to stay on top of the changes going on?
Active versus Passive
Next, the activity of planning is by its nature, “active”. It’s something that people “do”. A plan is something stagnant and inanimate, it’s something that’s been “done”, and it’s now passive.
I like the way that “activity” meshes so well with “journey” and “process”, and the whole “co-creation experience”.
The WHO
The unspoken element that I’ve had in mind now needs to be spoken. A plan may well have been written by one person, perhaps a family leader or a hired consultant.
My bias, as I think I made clear in Family Governance: From Filaments to LED’s is that very little good can come out of one person’s ideas and work, if the work is supposed to be for the benefit of a group of people.
The people for whom the planning is being done, MUST be involved in it if it’s expected to work.
So please keep on planning as a team, and forget about the final plan.
