Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I like to plan my work and work my plan. Sometimes, however, thoughts hit me and that plan gets all jumbled up. Plan for, “I just thought of something.”

I like to plan and work the plan. I like process. I like procedure. Let’s do this before that. Why? The past has shown me that this before that saves time and effort and blood, sweat, and tears and all that.

And then, “I just thought of something. Wait, stop, listen to this. This is a better idea for what we are doing. Let’s stop what we are doing and do this instead.”

That happens sometimes. The new thought is much better than the thought I had a month ago. That old thought is driving this plan. I can figure a way to wiggle the new thought into the plan we are executing and squeeze a bit here and there and …

NOPE. STOP. START OVER. Use the new idea in the plan from the beginning.

Well, that’s not good either. What of all the waste and blood, sweat, and tears?

Okay, combine everything, plan for, “I just thought of something.”

The plan has loops and feedback and spirals or whatever term we want to use to build flexibility into the plan. Let’s acknowledge that our plan was based on the best of intentions and thoughts and that smart people have new ideas. Let’s put places in the plan where we can use new thoughts and new ideas.

Plans can be fluid. We can do this. We can do better.