Plans Don’t Guarantee Success

While it takes a good staff officer to initiate an effective plan, it requires a leader to ensure that the plan is properly executed. That is why you and I have been taught that the work of collecting information, studying it, drawing a plan, and making a decision, is 10 percent of the job; seeing that plan through is the other 90 percent. ~ General of the Army (USA) – Omar N. Bradley quoted from ‘Leadership’

You might think that for your goal or project to succeed, having a vision and a plan to get there is the most important thing.  But I’ve been involved with plenty of projects where the outcome is known and well articulated, and those responsible for making it happen have a rough idea how to get there but nothing happens.

I was brought into a business in the middle of last year where improvements initiatives had been committed to, savings had been promised, yet after six months of talking nothing had happened.

The departmental leaders were quite rightly starting to get worried that they weren’t going to deliver on any of the promised savings.  And they didn’t want to be having that conversation with their bosses come review time.

Once I got myself embedded and got a lay of the land we were able to quickly get a plan together and start making progress.  In our case the plans (there was more than one project) started out as a rough guide and evolved as we started to gather more information.  Through all this there was still resistance, both internally from the department and externally from stakeholders around the business.  Fear of failure and fear of looking silly if you didn’t know all the answers, fear of not being in control.  I can only guess at some of the reasons  people were trying to put the brakes on progress.  To be honest, they weren’t relevant and the projects wen’t ahead.

A Goal is a Project

What’s this all got to do with personal goals you ask?

The easy answer is a goal is a project by another name, the only difference is you’re responsible to yourself.  Not a business leader, or board members, or a project steering committee.  But the fear of failure, and that meaning something about you as a person still hold true.  When we pre-determine an outcome in our minds, give it meaning and then experience that as if it were happening now, we paralyse ourselves of any opportunity to make progress.

It tends to be easier to overcome resistance in a business setting as there is normally a few people on-board with the outcome pushing for results.  When it comes to personal goals, overcoming your own internal struggles is what developing a growth mindset is all about.  From what I’ve seen and experienced, the only person that is going to stop you getting what you want is you.  If you need a new skill, learn it or hire it.  If you can’t afford it, then google it to get you started.  There are answers to just about any question you could imagine on the internet.  That resistance you feel and excuse making, all rests on you.  I know, I’ve been my biggest hindrance over the years.

Making Progress

I’m not against making plans, they’re useful, but they’re not everything.  They serve a purpose as a thinking tool, to help you navigate your way to the end result.  As you start ‘doing’ you’ll more than likely have to adjust course as you progress anyway.  It sounds obvious but 90% of you progress will depend on your ability to keep moving, while 10% of it will be down to the plan you make.

I’m not a believer in ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, or even a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’, kind of person.  It’s important is knowing the direction, so you know where to put your energy.  Then keep going, by taking consistent action towards your target.

And one last thought that may sound like a contradiction, but to me is just obvious.  You don’t actually need ‘the right’ mindset to make progress, but if you’re tying yourself in mental knots trying to make progress, and going around in circles then you’d better do something about it.  Progress and momentum will happen easiest, and you’ll be the most efficient when your mindset supports your outcome.

And how do you know when it does?  Easy, you’re making it happen, consistently.

That’s why I’m going to focus on uncovering your growth mind, because that’s where you’ll get your biggest return on your time and bang for your buck.