Friday, December 2, 2016

The End from the Beginning


"Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal(www.time-management-guide.com/planning.html)." 

 Hi, my name is Sean. I plan to blog some about my history and experience within the next three blogs - but right now let's talk plannng. Notice that I used the word plan in that last sentence. Today we are going to talk about the plan, or better yet, the need for a plan. Have I mentioned that we are going to talk about plannning?

As I sat down to think about the first few things I would write in this blog it came to me that since planning and safety are arguably the two most important contributors to success, I should address both subjects early on. Safety is paramount in any effort, we all know that; but without a plan, even safety is ineffective. So lets start off with a plan, in whatever we do. My wife, who is the demi-goddess of planning, would be so proud to hear me say that.

 When you make a plan it is a good idea to have an end result in mind. Thus the title of this blog, The End from the Beginning. In Isiah 46:10 the Master Planner said:"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" That's good news, there is a plan. God knows the end from the beginning. Of course he does, you don't become the Master Planner without knowing the value of goal setting.


"Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life (https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html)"


 If you don't have a goal in life or in business, then you are really just wandering aimlessly. In life, that can mean missed opportunities and a life-long lack of satisfaction. In business that means missed deadlines, ineffective teams and eventually failure. So get your goals. Now that you have them, great! You're going to need some sort of blue print to achieve your goal. Maybe something like a plan. This is all stuff you know,or really should know. I am not going to tell you how to define your goals, or the best ways to define the plan - these things have been written of many times over. I am just going to remind you of the importance of it all and talk a bit about what happens when you don't make a plan; and then tie it all in to how this applies to "the middle".

Okay, I am going to digress a little. Obviously I haven't introduced the purpose of this blog yet. I will get to that in later posts. I do however, want you to know what I mean by "the middle". The View from the Middle is my perspective on the technical workplace from the view of middle management or seasoned veteran, but not from the top of the food chain. Executives and directors have their play time and sharing space. Here is mine. So when I use the term "the middle" the attached advice or wisdom is how things apply to that most noble of professions: the seasoned technical leaders that don't own the ship, aren't eating in the officers cabin, but who hold a large load of responsibility to those who do; while at the same time are the champions of those men and women in the crew who make things happen on the floor.

Now that you know what I mean when I say the middle, back to your originally scheduled programming. So I am going to do three things with this initial post. I am going to talk about 'thinking about the ideal future'. I am going to talk about 'motivating yourself to turn that vision of the ideal future into reality'. Last, I will talk about how a review of periodic goal setting or micro planning can more efficiently help you keep yourself or even your organization aligned with the end goal.

When it comes to knowing the end from the beginning, we're really just discussing what you really want to show for your efforts. As an individual, an organization or even just running a team from the middle of an organization; you have to know the goals. Ideally you should have some input in those goals (especially if they are personal goals), but even if that wasn't an option you should know them. Know them in and out and backwards and forwards. If you know your goals you are better able to know the needs of those above you, and better able to explain them to those below you. Know your goals and you know your relationship to those goals; and then you can make your plan.

Thinking about the ideal future is all about goal setting. My goal with this blog is to is to share perspective from the middle. I want to make you think about how you are doing things and how you can do them better, while at the same time achieving the same results for myself. Self-awareness is an excellent goal, if you can drag others into it, all the better. You can have tons of great experience in both your life-life and your work-life, but if you never stop to think about how that experience applies to the future, well, you're just not learning. So let's learn together.

The ideal future is 'ideal' because it is what you WANT to happen. The end result may look quite different after time and trouble have set in. How different depends largely in part on how well you are planning. Take it from me, because asking me to plan is like asking me to volunteer to take someone's place for a root canal. I know you don't want to plan. You want it all to work out, magically. So do I! It doesn't though, does it? If it does work out, it likely isn't exactly what you had in mind, right? No. So you have to plan, and since you have to plan - you might as well learn to like it. You had better learn to love it. You had better get darn good at it. Your success depends on it. I am talking to myself here, as much as you.

Take the time to define what you want out the future. Take the time to make a detailed plan on how to get there. If time is money, this is some of the best investment you can make in yourself or your organization. Dollar for dollar, planning is going to get you farther than most of your other skill sets, hands down. Invest in yourself and become a planner. Know thyself. Then know what you want to be. Then make a plan to make it happen. Then take action. "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it." -Goethe

Now, find what motivates you. It may be those darling children at home. It may be a drive to succeed or to be the best you can be. There are countless wonderful things you have in your life to motivate you. Plenty of not so wonderful ways as well. If you don't find ways to motivate yourself and your team, the plan and the goals are just like a map tucked away somewhere. You're not going to use a map to get where you are going if you can't find a reason to go on the trip in the first place. In many cases the motivation comes easy. Find the motivation and stay focused and see these things through. You've got a vision, now become that vision.

Life is a series of periodic goals. Potty training, getting through kindergarten. Surviving middle school. Making the varsity sport team of your choice. Graduating High School, etc. Many of you wonderful souls were born with this innate sense of purpose or planning; hold tightly to that wonderful gift. Most likely no one had to tell you to start planning for the future. You sprang from your mother's womb, looked her dead in the eye and cooed, "What's the plan, momma?" For the rest of us, it occurs later in life. Hopefully some parent, guidance counselor or even later a boss informed you that you need to set goals and have a plan to succeed. Maybe after analyzing several frustrating failures you became self aware to the need for planning. Or maybe, it is just now dawning on you after reading these inspiring words of wisdom that you need to learn about goal setting and planning. If you have made it this far, you know about it now, right? Good! Now what?

 I believe a fitting analogy is early nautical exploration. So, imagine you are the midshipman (see what I did there?) on an old Christopher Columbus era sailing vessel. Low tech, drafty, but quiet and beautiful. You want to get from point A to point B. You have limited supplies and you need to get to your destination in a timely manner or you will have problems on your hands and someone is going to hang the captain from the fore mast. You know your goal, you know your heading, and you set course and you hold that course steady. Is that enough? Not be a long shot, no. Three days later you are still in the middle of the ocean with no tropical island in sight, you're out of food and there is talk of mutiny. "What happened?", you may ask yourself. Why, currents, changes in the wind, the curvature of the earth and the fact that the helmsman fell asleep last night for a half hour; that happened. That isn't really why you are off course, however. You are of course because after you declared your destination (goals) and set your course (planning)you didn't plot your course on the charts and correct for changes in position. You didn't micro plan or factor the hundreds of curve balls that Mr. Murphy threw at you.

 Micro planning is the art of taking the time to break your over-arching plan into bite sized stages. Planning needs constant course correction. Planning needs a reality check on a regular basis. Plan your projects and business strategies, but also plan your meetings, your days, your weeks, your quarters, your projects and your years. Make course correction your mantra. Where are we now. Where are we in relation to where we need to be? What are we going to do to get back on track? Looking at these questions often keeps you on course, reduces waste, and saves time. Knowing the answers to these questions gets you noticed (in a good way). Now you are an effective leader and team member. Now you aren't scrambling to keep up with the folks who always seem to know what is going on. Now knowing the end from the beginning is valuable. Now you aren't just a fortune teller, you are a genius of achievement.

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