The balance between planning and action
#32 - 04.25.21
Brother -
Today's letter is about finding the balance between planning and action. Whether it's in your personal life or business, planning can be a helpful tool in focusing your energy and attention. Too much planning, though, will create inflexibility and delay.
At Uber, I had my team go through a large planning cycle every six months where we'd align on "what" we are trying to achieve and "how" we propose to get there. Without fail, some teams would come to me after one month and say that everything's changed and we need to redo our plans. What they meant, though, is that we just needed to change the "how."
Jeff Bezos is quoted saying that "business plans don't survive their first encounter with reality."
There is truth to this. Last year all of our plans were thrown out the window when an unknown Covid pandemic swept the globe. Even when the world was less hectic, there is always something that will cause even small shifts to what we set out to do.
So, where do you draw the line when planning?
The most important thing is to align on the vision or goal. Bezos would frame this question by asking himself what won't change in the next ten years? For Amazon, it was (1) fast delivery and (2) low prices. For Uber Eats, it was a good selection in addition to the other two I just mentioned.
When it comes to planning out the details - this is where you need to be flexible. Things will change. You have decent clarity of what needs to be done for the next few weeks, but it gets murkier as you go from weeks to months. Don't stress the things you can't control. Just ensure that what you are doing aligns with the overall vision.
This takes me to my final point. Take action. There is a mismatch in what we think we need to get started vs. what we actually need. Once we start taking those first steps, we learn to adapt and allow for flexibility in our plans.
Let me leave you with a quote and a question.
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."
-Bruce Lee
Where are you spending too much time planning?
Enjoy the dance,
Nate