LEADERSHIP

EVEN SUPERHEROES NEED A PLAN • 13
an easy stroll into a frustration-filled, finger-pointing, mudslinging
quagmire. It never fails to amaze me how quickly
team assignments that begin as "good fun" can turn into "good
grief!"
The unexpected can and often does happen. And as the
ubiquitous Murphy's Law reminds us, ever since that fateful
day several decades ago when Edward A. Murphy Jr.'s hot-offthe-drawing-board
prototype accelerometers failed to work
on Dr. John Paul Stapp's test sled, as it rocketed him across the
California desert and slammed him into a water breaking system
(facing from whence he came) at 632 miles per hour:
"Plan as if whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Furthermore,
plan as if it will go wrong at the worst possible moment."
Some say Murphy was an optimist, but I believe the
real optimist was the guy riding the rocket sled.
No project or initiative is ever as easy as it first appears.
For the moment, please restrain your optimism. Take a step
back from the edge of over-optimism and build as much flexibility
into your plan as time and resource constraints allow.
You need a plan. You need to plan. And you need to engage
your team in the act of planning. Those who invest in planning
typically finish faster, better, and safer than those who
don't.
Want to finish faster? Start slower.
How "Slow" Should You Start?
When dealing with challenging timelines and deliverables,
too many project teams assume that they know enough to get
started. They rush through the definition and planning activities,
diving headlong into execution. It's difficult not to when