Planning & Execution #

To plan well you need to have a the right information at the right level. Take a step forward if you need more details and a step backwards if you need to further into the future. Do not think about how exactly you will get there but about where you want to go and what success and failure looks like.

The further in the future you plan, the less details you have and less details you can control because during execution time you will learn new things, discover new possibilities and face roadblocks that might change the plan. 

The more those little changes pile up, the more changes compound and the further you move away from the original plan. For this reason, is better to plan thinking about where you want to go and where you don’t want to go instead of having a rigid plan that fails under the stress of execution because it doesn’t integrate back feedback from the execution time. Keep in mind that even buildings built with reinforced concrete have tolerance, so should your plans.

There are times that while you are planning it seems a lot harder than when you are executing and, otherwise too, when plans seem easy peasy but execution time kicks your ass.

Do not worry about how much is left and how further you are, just keep working on the next piece of the puzzle, place the next stone in the wall and soon enough you will reach the end.

For this reason, try to minimize the interruptions you have during execution time. Have a list where you write down ideas, thoughts than come while you are working for later review, things that can be improved but for which you don’t have time right now. 

After the execution session is done, review your notes and maybe you will find that other learnings cancel previous learnings, that what seemed a good idea in the moment is not so good upon review or maybe you find that you have struck gold and found an easier, faster way to get the same results in less time than you have expected.

Integrating execution time feedback back into planning is crucial for reviewing where you are and, to see if you are still between the guardrails of what you have as failure and success, to see if you are making slower or faster progress than expected. Reviewing the current status periodically helps you keep on track and always have a manageable amount of work in front of you.