Photo Inquiry Friday: That was you intention, tell me about your plan?

At your level of work a certain time-span for completing goals is expected. At your level of work handling choices and complexity is expected. Developing plans, solving problems and making decisions is what you are paid for. The Exponent Leadership Process _ develops skills in planning and working through complexity to increase the productivity of your team and effectiveness of your leaders; Contact Mike.

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team building and leadership expert michael cardus

Complexity” has overtaken “Change” when it comes to poor excuses for organizations, teams and leaders failure to make 5 – 10 year plans or longer depending upon the size and role within the company.

I was in a conference and the speaker showed a quote (I believe from Kissinger and I cannot find the quote) with a line about 5 – 10 years of planning being necessary for organizational survival. Then in the next breath she spoke about how dealing with increasing complexity is more of an organizational challenge than change.

So I asked the question -  “With the earlier quote and what you just said about complexity, how can time-span of planning be combined with the challenges of complexity?”

OH BOY! She stared at me, turned the question to the audience. Then came the unicorn’s bullshit;

  • We cannot plan further than 2 years because the world is more complex
  • I see 10 years as more of an intention and the plan is the action that can change as that intention also changes
  • In todays complex world time-span in shorter
  • etc…

I had to sit on my hands and smile. Time-span management, the ability to match the length of goals to specific roles within an organization is requisite for getting work done. For a C level executive the ability to plan for AT LEAST 2 – 5 years depending upon the work and size of the organization is necessary.

Which brings us to this week inquiry:

 

That Was Your Intention, Now Tell Me About Your Plan?

  • What is the longest goal time-span (period of proposed completion of the goal) that you are asked to complete?
  • Who do you have to report to about this goal?
  • Who did they report to about this goal?
  • Who created the plan for achievement?
  • What method was used for progress markers and feedback? How often were you asked to turn in progress markers and receive feedback?
  • In this project describe your plan?
  • What obstacles or challenges did you encounter?
  • Describe how you either solved or utilized resources to navigate theses challenges?
  • At what point did you go to your manager for assistance in these challenges?
  • While you were involved in this plan, knowing yourself as well as you do – when were you the most comfortable and effective?
  • While you were involved in this plan, knowing yourself as well as you do – when were you the most un-comfortable and felt lost, confused?
  • Once the goal was completed, was it part of a larger (longer time-span) goal that aligned with your managers goals?
  • During this plan – what if anything did you have to delegate?
  • In the delegation what was the time-frame what-by-when that you established?
  • How often did the person you delegated the task to meet with you for progress and feedback?
  • Did you receive more work assignments of a similar time-span for completion?

 

With the questions above you can better determine others and well as your own ability to handle the necessary complexity of planning. The time-span of the goal must align with the persons ability to plan, not their intention.

 

michael cardus is create-learning

image by kevin dooley

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