Plans are nothing; planning is everything

WHAT

Starting a new year?
Starting a new project?
Leading a new team?
Opening a new class?

Then you should plan [verb].
Not so much for the final “plan”.
But more for the benefits of going trough a planning process.

So sit down, and start writing.

WHY

Dedicating time to plan and map your next steps, is critical.
But not because of the resulting plan, which will undoubtedly fail upon contact with reality (as all plans do).
The planning process itself will grant you invaluable insights and benefits:

1. CLARITY: Crystalizing your own thoughts

2. DIRECTION: Defining you personal aspirations, and your team’s direction

3. IMPACT: Getting signal from your partners/customers on how to maximize your impact

4. CAPACITY: Figuring out how to fit the pieces together without leading you or your team to burnout

5. VISIBILITY: Communicating your planning process may attract new opportunities from previously less-aware potential partners

HOW

You need to start moving.
Even [especially] when you feel that void in our heart that tells you: “how the heck am I supposed to do this? where do I begin?”
I have learned that this fear-void is the sign that I have to take ANY step forward, JUST DO IT.
[For dealing with fear, read more about amor fati and the obstacle is the way]

Write.
Draw.
Scribble.
Think.
Get feedback.
Collect signals.
Reach out to groups.
Reach out to individuals.
And then do all of it again, until you have enough signal to work with.

Here is how I actually do this when leading my team:

1. Collect

   1. Send out a Google form to potential partners/customers, to collect requests for the upcoming year.

   2. Reach out to the people via chat, encourage to fill out the form

2. Analyze - Google forms neatly organize all response in a Google sheet. I can take this data and start parsing and structuring it into the next phase.

   1. Score - evaluate impact, urgency, amount of work required

   2. Follow ups - some of the scoring information will be missing, so now is the chance to reach out the requesters, and get more details:

      1. How will this help you?

      2. When do you need this?

      3. What will happen if you don’t have this?

3. Team discussions - after I collected enough signals, and did some scoring of my own, I crunch with my team and we all add our own inputs:

   1. Score - update impact, urgency, amount of work according to the team inputs

   2. Deal the cards - start figuring out who can take which project, based on their personal interests, capacity, expertise, and growth trajectory

4. Share

   1. After finalizing with the team, it’s good to share the draft plan with your partners

      1. What are you going to commit to?

      2. Did we miss anything?

A few more points that help along the way:

1. Define your team’s north star - what is the idea that should guide all of your efforts? Where are you aiming at, for the long run?

2. Communicate with your partners/managers along the way - don’t crunch alone and share at the end, let your managers and potential partners in. They will help you:

   1. Avoid biases, misses, losing things between the cracks.

   2. Validated your efforts and plan, so they can have your back later on, if things go side-ways.

3. Remember the delicate balance of Capacity, Impact, and Interest:

The Zones

Everybody wants the Golden Zone: impact, challenging [in a healthy way], interesting.

But, reality dictates that somethings from Blue Zone will also need addressing. The Blue Zone is still “good” - impact, challenging [in a healthy way], BUT it might not be the MOST interesting thing you could have thought about.

And the danger zone….
Impact and interest, but WAY outside of your capacity.
The danger here, is the temptation to march on and burnout.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Plan, for the sake of the process.

2. Communicate throughout the process, with your peers, reporters, and superiors.

3. Avoid staying in danger zone too long - #burnoutisreal

4. Tools that I like to use:

   1. Google forms + Google sheets

   2. Excalidraw