How do you usually plan something? Usually I build one plan and if it’s not working then move on to next plan. But recently I find that 3 out of 5 plan didn’t work out and I need to use next plan. I find this quite “tiring”.
Being perfectionist myself, I like to plan thoroughly. So I spend quite sometime in building one plan. When the success rate is not in my favour these days, I get discouraged of planning. Or rather, I have high expectation about my plan but it was not going well as I thought.
I learned in the hard way.
After talking to some friends, here is what I concluded
A. Build your plan in parallel
There are too many “what if” which can happened along the way. When you build plans in parallel, sometimes you can use it for other “what if” happened in later days.
Sometimes the “what if” is related to people, which you can’t predict at all.
B. Set what’s the acceptance criteria
I should have remember the P-M-O rule which I learned during my PMP class. Although we all hope for the best, but we also need to be realistic. So, what would be the pessimistic, most likely and optimistic could happen to the plan
C. Change the action
I read this quote somewhere some time ago, however I forgot to note down the source. I wrote it on my wall board. “If you can’t achieve your goal, change the action. Not the goal”