Why did the plan fail? This is often a question we hear in business, but it is not happening only in business. I recently was part of a planned family event. I mean, a planned event. Everything was thought out, or so we thought. At the last minute, someone changed the plan without notifying the other members of this team. This resulted in nine different events to be replanned and rescheduled. Now, let me say upfront that it was more frustrating than it was a major problem. When asked why they changed their mind, there was no good reason, and it could have stayed as-is. When we mentioned the impact of this action, we got a confused look. As we discovered the full effect, there seemed to be no awareness. Each of the nine events was minor, but a lot of time and energy was expended, correcting the course of events that could have been avoided. The same thing happens in business. If this happens a lot, the business process breaks down.
Over the years, I have seen several reasons as to why this happens. Some people just do not like planning. Not only dislike planning but can not do it and see no reason for it. For these people, they would not recognize the nine things that did not happen above, and if told about them, would not see the relevance. Their view was so focused that they never saw the big picture. That is the “being nice” side of this discussion. Some people just do not care, even if they understood the big picture. They want a specific task to do, and that is it. This last group is best assigned task to do and are not team players or leaders.
For the people that do not plan, some will become good team players if they know the details. If they are told why and what about their assignment. One way to make that information available is to include them in the planning. That is also the “being nice” side of this story. Often, they either do not have the ability to see the big picture without a detailed explanation, or they just don’t care. Back in the ole days, we would call these people high-maintenance employees. It requires more energy and time to include them in the team. It is the responsibility of the leader to provide that information and to determine the benefits to the team.
Often the changes made are individually minor and easy to ignore. It is the cumulative effect that becomes the problem. Other than cost, there is an impact on the team. Team members see this happening and gradually become a reactive only set of resources instead of a high-performance team. The adverse effect of this plan breakdown is poor process efficiency. I have seen businesses where this is the norm. They start with a great plan and a well-documented process but gradually bypass steps. Over time the strategic plan becomes a dust-gathering forgotten document. The rationale is, we always end up OK. What they failed to recognize is that it cost more in time and money than it should have. In a very competitive environment, you cannot afford to accept that deal. This becomes a challenge for the team leader.
This discussion does not mean that there are never times when a break from the process is warranted. As my father would tell me, stuff happens. What the team leader must do is recognize when this is becoming the norm. Did you find some neat ideas in this blog? What are the exciting ideas you came up with, and how are you implementing them? Let me know by contacting me at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com.
