[10] Don’t Fall for Guru Hype and Fail, Part 2: Planning for Perfect Inaction?

This is the second part of my take on guru hype and why it can lead to failure rather than success.

In Part 1, published last week, I talked about the myths of two much-hyped ideas: success visualization and the 10000-hour rule. Both of these concepts are widely preached and have many followers.

Should you be planning to go along with these approaches? Did the methods end up helping people get good at things and achieve great success?

If you haven’t read the first part, head over now (click this link) so that you can follow the story.

The discussion continues in this installment with the third premise, another popular guru talk topic which I felt doesn’t quite make sense when I learned about it.

Guru Hype #3: Failing to Plan, Planning to Fail… and All That Jazz

A popular and catchy adage goes as such: “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, this appears to have distorted his original saying of “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”, which is seen listed on this page of time management quotes.

The “failing to plan…” advice surely gets one’s attention and does sound reasonable when you hear it for the first time.

But, seriously…

In the first place, hardly anyone plans to fail — it is simply illogical! Our brain — and ego, very much — is wired to view being unsuccessful as a negative thing which must be avoided. So, naturally, the human being is out to avert failure.

On the onset, you wouldn’t have ventured into a project by channelling your efforts towards a bad outcome. Quite the contrary, you are more likely to steer away from missteps and correct your course — this is usually part of a plan of action.

Even if you are thinking about getting in the way of others, you are planning to succeed at making your opponents fall!

We simply don’t “plan to fail”! We might expect — and accept — a bad outcome if we fail to prepare ourselves before starting.

So, let’s get over that “planning to fail” part. That’s just plain guru hype.

Of Course It’s Better to Have a Plan

Before I get misunderstood, for sure we need a plan before we start on a project. Most times, at least.

Without a plan, there will be vagueness in terms of the direction to head towards and the progress to expect along the way. And without these markers, it can become harder to reach the goal, especially if the end point is further out in time.

For near-term goals, sometimes we can, and do, get lucky even if our plan is not well cooked. Still, there was a plan to start with.

Now, whether you will fail at something after starting on it will only surface at a later time.

Sure, a plan can fail to deliver results you envisioned. But without it, you are more likely to set yourself up to mess things up by working haphazardly and making poor progress. All of which can be avoided.

Simply put, having a plan is, more often than not, better than not having made one. The problem lies in how much you put into planning though.

Too Much Planning Can Lead to Inaction!

Many of us are taught to make plans for everything, be it our educational path, career, buying a house, getting married, etc. Which is all good, mostly.

In fact, whenever you embark on something big, you’d be asked if you have it planned out. Even the bank will ask you for a plan when you want to borrow money to run your business.

Without doubt, planning is very much ingrained in us. But there is a way of doing it that actually makes us prone to failure.

That’s when one focuses too much on planning. So much so that the actual work gets postponed. Or nothing gets started!

Why is this so? How can it happen?

What Planning is Really About

Dr Scott Sonenshein discussed in his book “Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less — and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined” that planning revolves around the idea of getting resources ready to work on a project.

These resources — tools, people, funds, approvals, etc — are deemed necessary for the execution of the venture. Without them, the project is likely doomed. That’s what most of us (are taught to) think.

As experience tells us, and we can gather this working in organizations big or small, we rely on plans to get things done. Planning is especially required when we aren’t working solo.

When we work in a team, the plan is both the guide and glue. It keeps the project going and the people involved doing the work.

Work can come to a stop when a needed resource isn’t available; or worse, wasn’t anticipated — that is, it was unplanned for. Thus, the original plan wasn’t good and more planning is undertaken to restart the stalled project.

At the end of the project, there is usually a postmortem review of sorts to evaluate and understand how everything went: if results are in line with expectations; if we kept within the budget; if there was good team work, etc.

Keys part of such a review include looking at issues encountered and mistakes made; and discussing how the team can do better next time. The whole purpose is to build up best practices and improve.

From a different angle, it’s a detailed look at whether the project plan was a good one. Importantly, lessons learned from this feedback session are usually expected to be rolled into future planning to avoid repeating mistakes.

But We Aren’t Quite Ready to Start… Procrastination by Perfection

The thing about carrying over lessons learned is that we tend to become more careful in planning.

We are supposed to have become wiser from previous projects — our bosses are definitely watching and judging us on this! Therefore, we’d include more details in new plans with the intent to avoid past failures.

However, no amount of planning can anticipate future issues. As Dr Scott said, no one can foretell what will happen, especially in fast moving environments.

Who knows what the competition is planning, how others might respond to what we planned to do, what new laws and regulations may come into place as markets evolve and shift, etc.

Unless we have a crystal ball, we can’t really tell the future. Which then necessarily means that no plan is ever a perfect plan.

But if our plan isn’t watertight, then aren’t we failing to plan for success? For the most part, this is the prevailing wisdom; hence, the practice of making a solid plan is widespread.

Thus, more effort is put into planning for all sorts of contingencies, real or imagined. All this while, the discomforting feelings of inadvertently leaving out something and being doubtful of our own best efforts at planning linger.

It’s no surprise then that the project will begin late and run the risk of not hitting its objectives. Worse, the team may have convinced themselves that they aren’t ready to start, not with a plan that still isn’t perfect.

Perhaps we know a resource needed down the line isn’t yet available. So we wait, rather than start. Better safe than sorry.

Procrastination sets in. Nothing gets done. Meanwhile, the world moves on…

Which is Worse: Failing to Plan or Failing to Act?

Failing to plan can mean you start off on the wrong foot. You may take longer, or go down unnecessary paths, to get to the end point.

Things may appear uncoordinated, even out of control, as you react to issues that pop up. The lack of planning meant that you failed to anticipate thus.

Also, you might scramble to procure necessary resources to get things done. Without a plan, tools and people might not be in place as and when needed. Resource allocation and priorities may not be in sync with others.

Of course, there exists the opportunity to be creative and make do with what’s already available. That really depends on whether people are inclined to and adept at doing so.

By getting to work, though, you are in a way making plans to complete actions, albeit with a shorter-term view. The overall plan evolves along the way, incorporating recent events and their impact, rather than scenarios you had tried to foretell.

Actions can feel more relevant and you are more responsive to the present situation. Chances are, you are making progress towards the goal.

Whereas failing to act can mean not starting on time, not responding well to current threats, even not getting started. Because you are still waiting for the plan to be finalized; or an unexpected turn has confronted you, which wasn’t part of the plan.

The result of which is usually the same: a failure to hit targets. The goal is far from reached, with nothing much to show for.

Nothing much else can be said when one has failed to act.

Failing to Act is The Bigger Problem

If I had it my way, I’d choose action over planning.

The consequences for not acting far outweigh not having a plan. At the end of the day, doing something can move you nearer to the end point.

And while you encounter problems, you deal with them with the resources you have on hand — what Dr Sonenshein refers to as stretching — and correct your course.

Planning, on the other hand, is just that. Nothing really moves forward, except on paper. If too much time is spent trying to consider all the what-ifs, the actual outcome is one where confidence remains low, as fear of the unknown doesn’t get totally removed.

Now, isn’t this counter to having the plan guide us to certain success?

We can always wait for that perfect plan to be made, but time doesn’t wait for anyone. Opportunities can be lost; the competition could have taken the prize; the plan itself can become irrelevant.

Or we can choose to act sooner, once a rough plan is in place. And fine-tune it along the way.

To me, the choice is an obvious one. Do you feel the same or otherwise? Share your thoughts and ideas about this topic with your comments, please.