The Value of This Chapter
What Most Managers Do
Most managers have heard that they should have a plan. Once again, however, polls have demonstrated that most businesses don’t have a plan—other than the plan in the managers’ heads to keep doing whatever is that they’re doing.
The reasons for this are many, but it is clear that managers don’t perceive that the value of creating a plan is more important than doing what they’re doing. This is especially true today, when we often hear managers say, “If I make a plan, it’ll be outdated in no time because things change so quickly.”
What Winning Managers Do
Winning managers agree—things do change so quickly that today’s plan may soon be outdated. But these winning managers also know something significant that other managers have missed: The real value is in the process of planning rather than in today’s plan. And the more that things change, the more valuable that process is and less valuable is a specific plan.
This is simply not taught to most managers. Although they might believe that making a plan once in a while might actually be helpful, it usually it doesn’t seem as valuable as paying attention to today’s crises.
Conversely, the skills, strategic thinking, and organization needed to create any plan are learned activities. Winning managers are very adept at these activities, because they use a planning process on a regular basis.
They know that when the conditions change, they will be able to adapt just as quickly. The managers that are very skilled are even able to anticipate the changes, and they are able to create new plans that provide them with a significant competitive edge.
All of these winning managers are planning constantly. To them, today’s blip is merely that—a blip. Those with little or no planning skills are being left behind—way behind.