Marion put the final touches on her plan for 2011. Impressive, detailed, some 10 pages in length.

“Brilliant!” I exclaimed, with all the enthusiasm of a Guinness commercial. “Very articulate. How long did it take for your team to put this together?”

Marion sat up with pride, “Why, thank you, but I have to take most of the credit. I worked over the weekend. I mean, I am sure that some of the ideas came from my team. I mean, if I had asked them, I am sure they would agree with most of the plan.”

“So, has your team seen this plan, yet?” I asked.

“No, we’re under a pretty tight deadline. I didn’t want to bother them.”

“So, exactly when do you intend to take the time with your team to talk about it?”

“Well, you know my team, once they start talking about it, they will spend all day.”

“So, exactly when do you intend to take that day for your team to talk about it?”

“Well, we really don’t have the time, just talking about it, you know?”

I nodded in agreement. “I know you don’t have the time to spend, but you will spend it nonetheless. My question is when do you want to spend it?”

“What do you mean?” Marion asked.

“I mean, do you want to spend time talking about the plan when you are planning or when you are in the middle of a crunch-tight deadline for your customer?

“Here’s the story, Marion. Your team will participate in the thinking that goes into this plan. They decide that. All you get to decide is when. You can decide for them to participate on the front end, or the team will decide to talk about it on the back end.”

“Why do you think you never looked at your plan this past year?” I asked. Rachel was quite interested in making her 2011 plan different.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “It was almost like it didn’t matter. We could re-read it and talk about, but it still didn’t seem to matter all that much.”

“That’s why purpose is so important. That’s why purpose is the first step. Purpose drives the rest of the plan. Without a well defined purpose, your plan will be uninteresting and just sit on the shelf.”

“So, we really need to have a purpose,” Rachel was nodding, enthusiasm creeping across her face.

“No,” I said. Rachel’s face turned quizzical. “You don’t need to have a purpose. You need to find a purpose that has you. You need to find a purpose that has a hold on you so tight that you can’t stop thinking about it. You need to find a purpose that captures you. When you find that purpose, you won’t have any problem pulling your plan off the shelf and working it.

“Find a purpose that has you.”

“Why and which?” Rachel repeated. We had been talking about planning. Come the first week in January, Rachel had to present her 2011 plan to the rest of her management team.

“How did you approach this plan last year?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, seems like we just got the group together and set some goals for the year.”

“Interesting. And, how did that work out?”

“It’s funny,” Rachel said. Her eyes wandered to the ceiling. “We never really looked at them again, until last week when I started thinking about 2011.”

“Did you accomplish any of the things you set out to do?”

“We knocked a couple of things off the list, but I have to tell you, some of the stuff didn’t even matter. It was really kind of vague.”

“So, why did you create the plan?” I asked.

“Because we were supposed to,” Rachel replied.

“So, you never really asked the question –why-?”

“Maybe, you are right, that is the first question.”

“I am just not sure where to start,” said Rachel. “We have to start working, now, toward a planning meeting scheduled for December. This is important, but I am not sure about the first step.”

“Think about the journalism questions that every reporter must ask,” I instructed.

Rachel started working these over in her head.

• “Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• How?”

“There are two more questions,” I prompted.

• “Why?”

“The last question is the tough one, escapes most people,” I lamented. Rachel finally shrugged her shoulders.

“Which?” I responded. “So, which of these questions are strategic?”

Again, Rachel began to test each of the questions. None passed the test until she arrived at why and which.

“Most managers spend their day thinking about what and how, but first, we have to look at why (purpose) and which (strategic decisions based on purpose).”

During the next 60 days, as a manager, you are likely to participate in either tactical planning for 2011 or strategic planning for 2012 and beyond. Remember, the first questions are about purpose and direction. Ask why and which, before you ask what and how.

A comment caught my eye, posted by Pablo Edronkin, in response to our discussion about Goals. I often run into attitudes of impatience in the design part of management. Pablo captures it well in his comment on Efficiency.

“This lack of quantification is the basis of many of the problems that we see today in the world’s economy. Nobody flies a plane without calculating the fuel needed to get to the intended destination, it would be suicidal to jump in and just fly; and the same applies to any activity in which important things might be at stake. Efficiency as a mantra for profit is just a belief, instead of a measurable goal, and money and beliefs do not tend to mix well.”

The problem with analogies, like flying airplanes without fuel, is the correct answer makes so much sense. This sense in the world can be elusive in the daily chaos of management. So, how do you see the world, so it makes sense, for your decisions?

“I know planning is important, but I have so much to do today,” Lauren explained, hoping I would let her off the hook.

I nodded my head. “I know you have a lot to do, today. How much of what you do today will be effective?” I asked.

“What do you mean? I have phone calls to return, emails to answer, meetings to go to. I have a couple of employees I have to speak to about things they were supposed to take care. I have a couple of projects that are behind schedule. A lot of things piled up over the holidays.”

“How much of what you do today will be effective?” I repeated.

“Well.” Lauren stopped. “I know some things are more important than other things.”

“And, how do you make that decision? How do you know what you do is effective? How do you know what you do is important?” Lauren’s posture shifted. She backed off the table between us. She was listening. “I will venture that 80 percent of what you do today will be wasted time and only 20 percent of what you do will be effective. How will you know you are working on the 20 percent?”

Rory sat at his desk, adding machine with paper tape streaming to the floor.

“What’s up?” I said, breaking his concentration.

“Oh, man. I have to put a budget together, never had to do this before. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Where does any plan start?” I asked.

“In class, you said, we start with vision, painting a vivid picture of the future, but this is a budget. This is all numbers.” Rory was bordering on whining.

“You still start at the same place,” I said. “The first step is visualization. You have to imagine the colorful detail, the heat of the moment, the status of success, problems solved and the new capacities. It is only when you have a very clear picture of the future that you will remember the detail for all the things that go into the budget.”

The wheels were already turning. I was losing Rory in his own imagination. His eyes were tracing images of this picture inside his mind.

“The more detail in your vision, the more likely you will imagine the resources required to create that picture.” I backed out of the room. Rory was on his way.

Lucinda was impatient. “I have been waiting for a promotion from Project Assistant to Project Manager for some time now. My manager has put my promotion off for the past six months. I worked hard, attended workshops, gained the confidence of clients. In my review this past week, my manager again said I needed to wait, that I wasn’t ready. As a Project Assistant, I do the work of a Project Manager, but get none of the credit.”

“So, what are the reasons that your Manager feels you need to wait?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He just tells me I need to wait, a bit more training, perhaps, but I have been through training.”

“Lucinda, does your company have other Project Managers?”

“Yes.”

“And what kind of projects do they handle?” I was probing. There must be some reason for Lucinda’s manager to hesitate on this promotion.

“Well, they handle larger projects, but they have more experience. They had to start somewhere when they were young.” Lucinda protested. I smiled as I watched her stand up for herself.

“Lucinda, I want you to do a couple of things. First, I need you to take a longer view of this. I know you want to become a Project Manager in the next three days, but I want you to imagine your career three years from now.” Lucinda nodded. She didn’t like what I had to say, but she nodded. “It is likely that three years from now, you will have been a Project Manager for some time, probably handling larger projects than you handle now. I don’t want you to focus on the next three days. I want you to focus on the next three years and begin to map out a course for the kind of Project Manager you want to be then.

“Next, I want you to spend some time with other Project Managers in your company. You said they all had to start somewhere. Find out how they started. Find out about their first projects. Find out what skills they see as most valuable during their careers. Ask one of them to be your coach.

“Then, go back to your manager and ask his help in mapping out a three year plan to become a Project Manager. Tell him you know you will be promoted, and whenever that is, will be fine, but that you are looking further into the future at what kind of Project Manager you will be in three years. Ask what areas you need to work on, what future skills you need to develop.

“Lucinda, you will get your promotion, maybe in the next three weeks, maybe in the next three months. Look further in the future, that’s where the real payoff is. What kind of Project Manager will you be three years from now?”

It’s business planning season. It’s our focus at Working Leadership Online. It’s a focus in my executive groups.

“I drew names out of the hat, and you are going first,” I said.

“But, I have never done this before,” Thed resisted.

“That’s why you are known as fresh meat and believe me, the rest of the group will appreciate that you volunteered to go first.” This week, Thed is scheduled to present his 2010 Business Plan to an executive group he belongs to.

“Thed, here is how it works. Make 15 copies of this 4-page plan. Everyone gets 2 minutes to read your plan. You then get 10 minutes to present additional information to fill in the details.

“At the end of your presentation, I will break the group into three person teams. They get 90 seconds to write down three questions about your business plan.

“Then, I let them loose on you for the next 20 minutes. It will be painful, but it may be your most valuable strategic exercise of the year. Any questions?”

If you want to truly get something valuable out of this planning process, grab a group of your colleagues and let them poke holes in your business plan. The feedback will be priceless.

And if you want a copy of that 4-page Planning Template, it’s on the home page of the blog. Let me know if you have questions.