Skip to main content

Accidental starts!

The usual inclination is to chalk everything on paper and have a plan. Planning is an excellent start while considering possible contingencies, hurdles, rollbacks, and corrective strategies. We must know. However, there are very many assumptions that have the potential to derail them. It is usually not enough to entirely rely on speculative planning if we are to succeed. 

On-the-feet thinking has a role. It is to think as you enter into a situation, make sense of the situation on the spot and take corrective actions as best as you can, keeping the dynamic assessment in mind.

Fixed procedural plans, learning as we go,  and flexibility to think on the feet are great ways to tackle most of what we are likely to face in any work situation.

As easy as it sounds, it requires courage to steer away from what we had already decided as a code of conduct. Deviation depends on how we apply our knowledge and intelligence of the situation and make firm decisions that may turn out disastrously.

The critical part is to have the courage to know we may be wrong, and we need to repeat the process iteratively until we get to the outcome we are looking for.

Accidental starts can nudge us out of overplanning syndrome. It makes us plunge into action surrounded by a plethora of intelligence we can learn from. Sometimes, there is no better plan than to start like this.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Checks and balances!

Defining a good purpose, setting a target goal and getting people working on them is usually not enough! There are too many aspects involved in getting the results we want. For example, there is an aspect of painting the big picture, working on motivation management, productivity tracking, building experimentation labs, and erecting resilient systems that systematize the workflows. Just putting bodies to work and defining milestones rarely achieves the right results. The other aspects that help march towards the milestones in an orderly manner, they are equally important. At the very least, they make objectives widely understandable and results more attainable. The job of a thought leader is to enable progress and enable recovery. Therefore, it is never enough to have just ideas. Those with ideas also have the responsibility to assemble the work environment in such a way as to create situations containing the energy disperses. Energy dispersal from lack of clarity, loss of motivation, ...

Choking the communication channel.

There are instances where everything looks in order. Structures are rightly in place. Right roles are defined. Responsibilities are distributed. Bi-directional open communication is expected to take place. And with that, collective work is expected to turn out productive. Yet, when the action begins, everything breaks apart. Productivity dwindles, cooperation is missing, and ad-hoc interactions are common-place That creates chaos. No one appears in charge even though there is someone responsible. It clearly is a sign of broken communication channels. A well-orchestrated workplace focuses on methods to communicate grounds-up and top-down. It encourages patient listening, internalizing and responding rather than reacting. All effective open communication channels are a result of making such communication possible. Often, the structures are set such that you centralize communication of every bit of your activity to someone in the hierarchy. Over time it turns into a permission-based inter...

Liked? Or Respected?

It is easy to bend backwards and accomodate others. When you do so, it is obvious to generate affection that leads to you being likeable. You tend to be always available, seek others' attention more that what your needs are for yourself, or do things to transactionally connect with others. As long as you continue doing what others prefer, you are sure to be liked! And who does not like to liked like that! People pleasing acts have huge downsides. It is different when you set boundaries, take a principled stand about when do you indulge with collaborative activity involving others and when you focus on your priorities. Principles drive energies, brings rigor and sets responsibilities. It is governed with consistency and you come across that uniform, thought and consistent in any and every situation as against preferential. Obviously, principled person is hard to pierce into. When you do, you will discover rythem of clear communication, prioritisation, importance of building long-ter...