Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

One planning technique that has worked for me is to start at the end and work my way backwards.

I am a planner. There, got that out of the way. I have practiced planning for years and after all that I am pretty good at it. Recent discussions on the topic of planning have led me to realize that few people know about one of my favorite methods of planning. Hence, here is a short description in a blog post. Simply, the idea is:

Start at the end and work your way back to where you are now.

Here is an example. You are planning a picnic. The end state, where you want to be, is:

• Picnic ground
• Date
• Food
• Games
• Attendees

Now, what do you have to do to reach this end state? Let’s just look at “Picnic ground.” A task that precedes the end state is “Reserve a picnic ground.” Some one has to do that. Pick someone and assign them that task. A task that must precede “Reserve a picnic ground” is “Choose a picnic ground.” Assign someone that task. A task that must precede “Choose a picnic ground” is “Create a list of possible picnic grounds.” Assign someone that task. A task that must precede “Create a list of possible picnic grounds” is “Decide what types of activities you want to do.” For example, do you want to row canoes around a lake or go ice skating or play sand volleyball or go bowling or so on. Keep working backwards until you reach the point where you are today.

I hope the above illustration shows how to start at the end and work you way backwards. Do the above for each of the major items in the bullet list. Soon you will have a bunch of tasks. I suggest you write each task on 3×5 cards or other slips of paper with only one task per card. Arrange the tasks in a logical order. Now you have a plan for hosting a picnic.

Sure, a picnic is simple. Most enterprise work is more difficult. The idea of starting at the end and working backwards is appropriate for large and complex projects. I have been involved in planning hundred-million-dollar, five-year projects. We used the same basic technique successfully.