Do Your Planning, But…

It is impossible to overstate the importance of good planning. You really need some idea of where you want to go, how you expect to get there, and how to know when you have reached it. Otherwise, you can end up wandering around, wasting time and money, and you can miss out on some pretty great opportunities.

That being said, do not feel like you have to stick to every detail of your plan, and realize that big changes may arise that totally kick you off your charted course. That is not necessarily a bad thing, and if you had a good planning process, you should be able to regroup and adapt your plan to take advantage of the changes rather than them taking advantage of you.

Part of a good planning process is accumulating knowledge and understanding about your environment. Not only does that help you make a good plan for your existing environment, it also gives you the situational awareness to be able to adapt when that environment changes. If all you focus on is what you produce then you are going to have problems when nobody wants that anymore. But if you have also worked to understand your clients, your competition, alternative products and services, production methods, and the overall economy, then you will be in a position to move faster when changes occur.

Try not to get too stressed out by change; after all, it may be the best thing for you, though it’s hard to see it at the time. An event that seem unfortunate now may create new opportunities, or may drive you to be better than you were before so you can overcome this challenge as well as future ones. Look back later and ask yourself honestly, “was that actually a pretty good thing that happened?” If you have responded well, then there’s a good chance it was.

Major change is pretty common in knowledge industries, particularly in creative fields. Large investments in physical capital, such as is found in manufacturing, lead you to be kind of inflexible because of your sunk costs, but investments in human capital, the key resource in knowledge work, are much more adaptable. You may see new opportunities yourself, or a new environment may be thrust upon you by your competitors, or changes in technology or in client demand. Since change is so common , you need to be ready to respond to it (or, if possible, lead the change yourself, so you are out in front).

So have a plan, but realize that much of the benefit of that plan comes from the planning process more so than from the plan itself. Use your plan as a guide, but always be ready to shift your path when that is the best thing to do.