When You Don’t Plan Out, Your Future Won’t Pan Out

The Dutch proverb, “Measure twice, cut one,” is wise advice, but only if followed. Yet, so many in business give all of one nanosecond to plan before cut, cut, cut. Then, when their efforts don’t pan out, they’re reduced to revising and reworking.

Here’s the problem. We know that life moves fast, that competitive advantage is lost if we move too slowly. So we treat speed of execution as a virtue, and often demean planning and thinking as the domain of plodders. “Fail to act and the world will pass you by,” we say, so we do before we think the plan through.

There is a place for quick execution, but it’s only when we have high confidence of success. To act quickly without understanding the implications can be signs of imprudence and arrogance. And those traits will doom your chance to succeed.

The other issue with behaving reactively is paying the toll of opportunity costs. In these lean times when staffs are stretched thin, businesses can ill afford to do work twice. Not only do you pay for the waste, you lose the opportunity to tackle the next critical item on your to do list.

So when the din of “cut, cut, cut” rings in your ears, take a deep breath and measure a second time.

Dave Wesley