Tag Archives: preparation

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

We can do it

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Believing a future outcome will be successful should be based on reasoned analysis.  Hoping for good results is optimistic but might not be practical.

Optimism can raise your and others spirts.  It can be used to motivate yourself and others. The danger occurs when optimism creates a false belief resulting in lack of preventative or mitigating actions.

Beware of False Assessments

Hoping for the best and proclaiming everything will be okay makes us feel good.  We place our trust in the proclaimer and allow our fears to be assuaged.

This is fine if everything does work out.  We are saved the anxiety associated with a false worry or even panic which could lead to inappropriate response.

The downside is, by not preparing for negative impacts, because our false hope has led us to believe everything will be alright, by the time we realize mitigating action is needed, it could be too-late.

Be prepared

Although it takes effort,  preparing for bad outcomes (although potentially a wasted effort) is a better way to eliminate fear and worry.

This principle can be stated as: “Consider what can go wrong, don’t assume all will be fine”  This proactive approach creates a framework for resolution founded on logic not luck.

Disasters are for the Unprepared

Being ready to address issues, knowing anything can and will occur is not an absolute safeguard against disaster but it is a far better approach than hoping nothing bad will ever occur.

This is a proven methodology, which when put in practice, as it has been by multiple organizations over decades, clearly works.  So why hope for the best, plan for it!

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Planning

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Not a new or novel thought, but if you don’t know what you are looking to accomplish, how will you know when it has been achieved?

This is one of the main reasons for planning.  In order to create a plan of actions to complete a goal, you need to know what the goal is.   In essence, a plan is simply a recipe for what by when.

Planning for the Not Yet Known

The question arises, how can I plan if the goal is not fully defined?  Our current knowledge of the goal is at a high level.  We have the concept but not the details.

Planning is feasible even if the target is only conceptual.  In these cases, the plans include analysis or investigatory steps to cover the unknown items.   The timelines might be guesses or just placeholders but will provide a valuable guide against how you are doing.

For Example

Consider a suspicious death investigation.  The goal is to find the cause of death and if applicable who did it.  At the beginning of the investigation, there are lots of unknowns.

A successful investigation follows a plan building on known activities and common sense.  There are a standard set of investigation steps that would be included, however, each death has different clues or variables so the plan needs to be updated as more information is uncovered.

Never the less, a plan is imperative for success, and even then sometimes the cause and murderer (if applicable) are still not uncovered.

The underlying success of a plan is always having an idea, whether high level or detailed, of what you are trying to accomplish.  Without knowing that, how can you plan?

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Strategy and Tactics

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Strategy is a widely misunderstood term.  Simply put, strategies are directional and include the objective and the approach.  They are a guide but not the detailed recipe.

Todays post focuses on some exaggerated examples of strategy and tactics to illustrate the concepts.  These are a bit outlandish and only intended to frame the difference between strategy, tactics and the associated planning approaches.

How should I dress?

My approach to dressing starts with a basic strategy.  This can range from bare bones (naked) to fully dressed and all  points in-between.  The strategic statments could be things like:

  • Our strategic approach to dress, is to be free and unencumbered.  Minimal use of garments is both environmentally focused, cost effective and beautiful.
  • Our strategic approach to dress is to be fully clothed protecting our bodies from the weather and other naturally occuring hazzards that could be harmful.  Our beauty is expressed through our clothing.

Tactics

To implement these strategies we may proposes activiites like purchasing black wool pants and comfortable sweaters.  These form the requirements to achieve the objective.

Obviously the specific clothing requirements support the second strategy whereas tactics in support of the first might include finding tanning saloons that can be leveraged to enhance the beauty of the exposed body.

Planning

Both the strategies and the tactics can have plans outlined activities, schedule and resources.  The main difference in strategic and tactical plans is the level of detail.

The value equation

Strategies, tactics and underlying plans form the recipe for sucess.  Without them you might create a tasty dish, but with them the probability of a successful meal is higher.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Unplanned but not unprepared

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A colleague shared an interesting thought with me today.  It was the title of an on-line article he had recently seen  “Unplanned but not unprepared.”

On first blush it sounds like an oxymoron.  Planning is about preparation, so typically, if you don’t plan then by definition you are also unprepared.

This thought intrigued me and some investigation was warranted.  The title refers to a short story about someones career.  In that context it makes a lot of sense.

Simply put, the object of the story did not plan her career but was ready to embrace the opportunity as it unfolded.  In a word, it was serendipitous ( I stole the word from the story).

Embrace the opportunity

Personally I have great faith in the power of planning.  Planning lays the groundwork for success and without it the outcomes might be positive, might be negative but simply are not highly predictable.

However, even if not planned, embracing opportunity, that is taking a chance while  relying  on hard work (not luck), can be a very fullfilling approach.

This is not to say planning and fore thought should be cast aside, rather, that opportunity should not be ignored just because it was unexpected.

Reacting in the Moment

The unexpected throws me off.  I like to be ready, to be prepared.  This of course requires planning.  Surprisingly though some of the best events in my life just happened.  I embraced them and all turned out well.

So really, like all things there is a balance including times when things are not planned but you act prepared and take advantage.  Be ready, you never know.