Skip to main content

Planning to Fail?



Failing to plan, is planning to fail.


This article is a sequel to an earlier article 
Sir, we might have a problem

As owner and head of my own manufacturing organisation, initially I had to face numerous embarrassments because of failed commitments to customers. Commitments made by me or members of my team.

We all face this problem. Colleagues, subordinates or even we ourselves fail to deliver on commitments. Monday comes and goes and then another Monday passes by as we fail to deliver. We land up with muck on our face and our reputations. We lose both our money and our sanity along with our reputation.

Failure often occurs due to bad or no planning. Here is an approach that I adopted and it worked very well.

It seems that one of the most difficult thing for most people is to sit down, think, focus and plan out things in detail. Thinking, analysing, planning are the bane of most humans because, it is intellectually demanding and can be exhausting. Rarely if ever has any great success has taken place without focus and planning.

Most commitments are made based on a cocktail of optimism, hunches and guesstimates. In 90% of the cases there is no workable underlying plan for achieving an objective or goal, if there is a plan at all.

The devil is in the detail. 
I did not accept commitments on face value and demand to look into the underlying assumptions and planning details. No details means the commitment stands on a weak foundation.

Verbal plans are unacceptable,  A documented plan based on valid assumptions, logic, and responsibility is a must. Focus on the 5W and 1H that is who does what, where, when, why and how had to be very clear.

All people responsible for resources had to be consulted and their acceptance and commitment confirming the plan was always obtained, usually in writing. (People are more careful when they sign off on a document.)

Fortunately we had competent and committed people in our team. All that was necessary from me was to simply support the team with necessary resources and then got out of the way. 
Planning and doing is just one part, with some luck a good plan works out perfectly. However usually somethings simply do not happen as planned, thus regular reviews and corrective action are essential. I had learnt the hard way that, 'What is not reviewed is not done'
Effective planning makes life so much easier. Before we started this approach our 'On Time Delivery' success rate was 21% and within 3 years it had reached 98%.

It is lighter on the pocket and invest fewer resources in good planning rather than spend 
a lot more and take much longer to fix problems caused by bad or ineffective planning.

That is why effective people and organisations can rarely be seen complaining or working furiously, they appear calm and almost bored while achieving so much.
___________

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Office Efficiency - Central Social Institution, Prague, 1937

The offices of the Central Social Institution of  Prague,  Czechoslovakia. April 1937 “The offices of the Central Social Institution of Prague, Czechoslovakia with the largest vertical letter file in the world. Consisting of cabinets arranged from floor to ceiling tiers covering over 4000 square feet containing over 3000 drawers 10 feet long. It has electric operated elevator desks which rise, fall and move left or right at the push of a button. to stop just before drawer desired. The drawers also open and close electronically. Thus work which formerly taxed 400 workers is now done by 20 with a minimum of effort. Ref: B196_095071_3660 Date: 26.04.1937 Compulsory Credit: UPPA/Photoshot”
Post a Comment
Read more

You have to play the game to win it.

In life its not sufficient to be merely efficient but to also be effective. Someone once asked my father Man Singh ji, 'What is the secret of your success?'  He remarked, "I do not always make right decisions. I make decisions, and then almost always make them right" Read more ..........
11 comments
Read more

The neck of the bottle is always at the top.

        F requently requested to assist organisations large and small, I observe a common and recurring theme.  The issues revolve around the struggle of owners /managers to manage effectively. This is visible predominantly in companies that have started small and are growing, in family run businesses and families themselves. They are invariably puzzled that management approach, style and methods which worked so well in the past, now just don't work anymore. They resort to even more hard work and effort, yet the situation only worsens. Finding themselves in unfamiliar situations they dart here and there implementing fads, half hearted strategies alien to their thinking and character. They do this because they are getting frustrated and doing something is considered better than doing nothing. They change staff and managers. They churn product mix, vendors and even customers and markets. They try so many things but nothing seems to work. They chang...
20 comments
Read more