365QOD- Day725

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." -  German Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke's

Recently during an internal interview I was asked about how I plan my projects.    I could easily spend an hour talking about how to generate plans.  The simplest way I can explain it is

G- Goal

O- Objectives

S-  Strategies

P- Planning

A- Actions

L- Leaning

This is a technique I wrote about in several posts many months ago.

My answer focused on the imperfection of planning.  I stated that no matter how “perfect” you believe your plan will be it is a matter of time before the holes in it are exposed.  No plan survives contact with reality.  You will quickly see the limitations and feel like you failed.

However, the value of a plan is not the plan.  By planning you go through the thinking required to complete the project.  You should never fall in love with your plan. 

BUT you should understand that how you respond to the contact with reality decides whether you will succeed or fail.  You need to be flexible enough to modify your plans as you move away from the assault.

Remember that, as Mike Tyson pointed out, everyone has a fight plan until they get hit in the face.  Expect it! BUT believe in yourself that you will respond to it with greater force and flexibility.

Today’s question is:

“How do you respond when your plan gets hit in the face by reality?”