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?