A very good consultant friend of mine, Lisa, just asked me to share the planning (and execution) approach I am using in 2010. It is the culmination of many years of trying to find the optimum balance for planning. Why is finding the balance so hard?
Planning is tricky. If it is too comprehensive it becomes too complicated and the form (of the planning) trumps the function (of getting things done). If it is not sufficiently comprehensive it becomes too thin, and there is not an adequate form through which to get the things done. In either case, the most important things don't get done. The song remains the same.
Striking that balance in planning (and executing) is a very personal thing--hence, one size never fits all. Therefore, I know my approach won't work for everyone. No approach will because every person has a different combination of self-discipline, inner-directedness and magnitude of goals.
Planning (and doing) requires inner direction (knowing what is important), self-discipline (getting it done), and time. Most executives (and others) I talk with want the benefits of planning without the costs. Like most things in life, you get out of it precisely what you put in to it. No planning approach will save you from your own self, from insufficient inner direction and/or self-discipline. However, committing to a planning (and executing) approach that is a fit for you, and consistently doing it, can profoundly affect both.
This brings us to a key point: my belief is the purpose of planning (and executing) is not just about getting your goals achieved. It is equally about mastering your self. Therefore, my approach is a fusion of pragmatic planning tools & disciplines and an intensely practical approach to self-mastery, to forging yourself into a leader of stronger mettle in the fires of the forge of planning and executing.
This brings us to the one key principle of my planning approach you should know. It is this. It is not enough to know the results you want to produce (though that is essential). It is not enough to understand theprocess you will follow to produce those results (though that is essential). There is a third essential, and it is the taproot, and it is this.
You cannot sustainably produce results you have not produced before without changing your self.
If you don’t buy that—or if you don’t at least want to test it—then I can tell you there are simpler planning approaches out there that you might want to try. What makes my planning approach unique is that it addresses all three required levels—results (what), processes (how) and source (who—that being you).
The aspects of my planning approach gelled for me when I saw Otto Scharmer’s simple graphic (see insert) and overlaid to his model the various planning tools I’ve developed over the years. (The darndest things often happen when I am dreaming.) Otto uses the graphic to explain what he calls the “blind spot” of leadership today--that is, the lack of understanding regarding the source of our behaviors, thoughts, emotions and feelings.
What's the net? To understand the comprehensive nature of my planning approach, it may help you to consider that you do indeed have a blind spot, that it is costing you more than you can fathom, and that the next level of leadership and the next level of results will elude you until you begin to illuminate it.
Here's what Otto says:
“Why do our attempts to deal with the challenges of our time so often fail? Why are we stuck in so many quagmires today? The cause of our collective failure is that we are blind to the deeper dimension of leadership and transformational change…
"We know a great deal about what leaders do and how they do it. But we know very little about the inner place, the source from which they operate.
"Successful leadership depends on the quality of attention and intention that the leader brings to any situation. Two leaders in the same circumstances doing the same thing can bring about completely different outcomes, depending on the inner place from which each operates. The nature of this inner place in leaders is something of a mystery to us.
"… in the arena of management and leading transformational change, we know very little about these inner dimensions, and very seldom are specific techniques applied to enhance management performance from the inside out. In a way, this lack of knowledge constitutes a “blind spot” in our approach to leadership and management.”
In short, the blind spot is that we do not understand our own source, the inner space from which we operate. All the imbalance you see in the world today is nothing more than a mirror of our collective blind spots. So, if you want to change your results, work with the blind spot. If you want to change the world, work with the blind spot. If you want to establish right relations, teamwork, co-operation and collaboration with those around you, work with the blind spot.
My hope is that you will find that the planning approach I will share with you in the next post provides to you a partial solution to the problem Otto highlights, that "very seldom are specific techniques applied to enhance management performance from the inside out." I believe you will find, if you consistently follow the planning and execution process, that you will not only achieve results that have eluded you, but you will begin illuminating your blind spot, freeing your self to be a leader truly relevant to these times, and becoming an epicenter of the transformational change the world needs at this time. Charity, it seems, truly starts at home. That is, with developing the leader in us. Planning (and doing) is a wonderful form through which to do that, to purify your metal, and to become a leader of a stronger, more fluid... mettle.
