Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

KG Charles-Harris sent me an article about goals, neuroscience, and “Temporal Myopia”— the inability in the decision-making process to consider the long-term consequences of an action. Good information that scientifically confirms the idea that the best way to accomplish a long-term goal is to break it down into short-term pieces that provide daily gratification.

It reminded me of this post and the real importance of planning. Rereading it I can say without reserve that the most important point you can take away is found in the final sentence.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Plans are made and remade over and over again, so why plan at all if it’s going to keep changing? Because the most valuable part is the act of planning, not the result of it.

Planning forces you to think in depth—an often painful process that most of us would rather avoid.

For example, it is impossible to plan an upcoming product launch without considering all the things that could go wrong simultaneously with defining the steps to take and the results you seek.

The discussion (even if it’s with yourself) engendered by stating that you are going to do A forces you to consider what will happen if A doesn’t accomplish what you want or what to do if doing A becomes an impossibility for whatever reason (time, money, manpower, etc.)

It is plan-the-verb that distinguishes the winners from the also-rans and it is the verb that keeps you ahead of the competition.

Just as importantly, it is plan-the-verb that should be pushed down throughout your organization.

This is accomplished by giving the goal to the next level down and asking them to plan how they will achieve it. They, in turn, should create multiple goals from it and pass those down to their direct reports and so on down the organizational ladder all the way to the lowest level.

At each handoff the goal is divided again and again and each person has to plan how to achieve it with the help of their group.

Always plan in pencil, because plan-the-noun needs to be a living organism that grows and changes, just as a tree bends in the wind to avoid breaking—just be sure to recycle the paper on which plan-the-noun is printed.

The benefits of this process are enormous, first, because it makes plan-the-verb a part of your corporate culture, as well as a core competency, which gives your company the ability to react far more swiftly as the waves and eddies of the economy and your industry constantly change your market.

Plan-the-verb boosts initiative, encourages taking responsibility and speeds professional growth, providing you with a stronger in-house bench from which to grow.

It is always detrimental to value the noun—plan, leader, manager—more than the verb—plan, lead, manage—but in the business world it can be devastating.

Image credit: Robert Nunnally

Planning isn’t most founders’ favorite thing.

Mainly because plans are made and remade over and over again, so why plan at all if it’s going to keep changing?

Because the most valuable part is the act of planning, not the result of it.

Planning forces you to think in depth—an often painful process that most of us would rather avoid.

For example, it is impossible to plan an upcoming product launch without considering all the things that could go wrong simultaneously with defining the steps to take and the results you seek.

The discussion (even if it’s with yourself) engendered by stating that you are going to do A forces you to consider what will happen if A doesn’t accomplish what you want or what to do if doing A becomes impossible for whatever reason (time, money, manpower, etc.)

It is plan-the-verb, as opposed to plan-the-noun, that distinguishes the winners from the also-rans and it is the verb that keeps you ahead of the competition.

Just as importantly, it’s plan-the-verb that should be pushed down throughout your organization.

This is accomplished by giving the goal to the next level down and asking them to plan how they will achieve it.

They, in turn, should create multiple goals from it and pass those down to their direct reports and so on down the organizational ladder all the way to the lowest level.

At each handoff the goal is divided again and again and each person has to plan how to achieve their part with the help of their group.

Always plan in pencil, because plan-the-noun needs to be a living organism that grows and changes, just as a tree bends in the wind to avoid breaking.

The benefits of this process are enormous.

Embedding plan-the-verb in your company’s culture means it to become a core competency.

That gives your company the ability to react far more swiftly as the waves and eddies within your industry and the economy in general constantly change your market.

Plan-the-verb boosts initiative, encourages taking responsibility and speeds professional growth, providing you with a stronger in-house bench from which to grow.

It is always detrimental to value the noun—plan, leader, manager—more than the verb—plan, lead, manage.

But these days it can be devastating.

Image credit: Robert Nunnally

There are many ways of taking a career risk besides making over-the-top bets for a financial business or starting a company.

Risk may be easier to spot these days, because decisions are no longer personal; more often they are crowdsourced, whether that means your spouse, close friends or 500 LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook connections.

While spotting risk may be easier, evaluating that risk is much harder, because determining whether a risk is worth taking can’t be crowdsourced.

The best way to decide whether to take a risk or not is through worst case analysis, i.e., think about the absolute worst thing that could happen if you do it. Then think through whether and how you would deal with that result. If you can handle the worst result you go forward; if it’s too much you go back to the planning board.

It used to work every time, but these days fewer and fewer people are willing to think independently, so the input you get is unconsciously based on whether that person could handle the worst case result.

But they aren’t you.

Consider Beth Comstock, currently senior vice president and chief marketing officer at General Electric, who took a major risk that put her on the path to where she is today.

“I was at CBS, and it was rocking,” she said. Then she got a call from NBC, her former boss, offering her a position that involved being responsible for media relations and marketing in the news division. “I think the job had been available for a year. News was not doing well anywhere…. People were saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ It seemed like career suicide.”

The ability to perform worst case analysis clearly, sans rationalizations, means you need to take time to accurately know yourself—not just the self you project to others.

Only you live inside your head and only you knows what really goes on there.

Flickr image credit: Michael Coghlan

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

I confess; I don’t do Facebook or Twitter, but I do watch TV at night when I’m doing stuff that doesn’t require full focus.

I watch enough to detest the lack of creativity in most ads, but I save my greatest antipathy for the drug ads.

Mostly because the images are in such opposition to the warnings.

Cymbalta (anti-depressant) is a great example.

It is being sold as a pain reliever for people with arthritis and uses the tag line, “Imagine you with less pain.”

All I can think when they say that is, “Imagine you with all the side effects.”

The ads focus on best case analysis and only list possible side-effects because the law forces them to.

There is no real risk analysis; the good outcomes are used as cover for the downside.

This works because most of us prefer to focus on the positive.

In a 2008 column about entrepreneurs and risk Bill Buxton said, “The most dangerous way of all to play it is so-called safe. Safe leads to atrophy and certain death—of spirit, culture, and enterprise. There is not a single institution of merit or worthy of respect in our society that was not created out of risk. Risk is not only not to be avoided, it is to be embraced—for survival.”

That hasn’t changed, but there is smart risk and there is dumb risk and you need to know the difference sans dogmatic belief in your vision and rationalization.

The best way to evaluate risk, whether of a drug, promotion, romantic offer, etc., is to give equal thought to three things.

1. Best case: what positives do I expect from this action? (no pain)
2. Worst case: what negatives do I need to consider? (side effects)
3. If the results of number 2 can be handled go forward; if not revise the action.

The problem is not risk; risk is good, as well as necessary, for you or any entity that wants to move forward.

But ‘good’ requires balanced evaluation of the best and the worst.

Option Sanity™ neutralizes excessive ISO allocation  risk.

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Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

I came across an old article I’d saved and thought it would be of great value during these trying times.

Thinking about and understanding risk is important whether you consider yourself a risk-taker or not.

Last year, Bill Buxton, researcher, professor, and author wrote a great column on risk in Business Week.

“Entrepreneurs, like ice climbers, are often said to risk their necks. But there are ways to cut danger to sane levels—and some very good reasons to try.”

People often comment that both groups are, politely speaking, nuts.

After offering up a detailed explanation of ice climbing Buxton says, “…the four considerations employed by the ice climber are exactly the same as those used by the serial entrepreneur or the effective business person…”

They are training, tools, fitness and partners.

But to me, the most important thought is found in the final four sentences.

“The most dangerous way of all to play it is so-called safe. Safe leads to atrophy and certain death—of spirit, culture, and enterprise. There is not a single institution of merit or worthy of respect in our society that was not created out of risk. Risk is not only not to be avoided, it is to be embraced—for survival.”

It is risk without evaluation that helped get us where we are today.

Evaluating risk requires not the best case analysis of which Wall Street is so fond, but also worst case analysis wherein you think about the absolute worst results if the risk is taken.

Then think through whether and how you would deal with the results. If they can be handled go forward; if not revise the action.

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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr

In a post last spring, I listed Warren Bennis’ leadership skills and in 7 follow-up posts discussed why today’s managers find it hard to do their job without these skills.

But, in fact, everybody needs them in today’s world; they’re the skills that help you live a better life, raise kids and make a better world—no matter who you are or what you do.

Many of my posts touch on the same facts, but we’ll zero in on more how-to information in this series.

Bennis says that “leaders are originals, whereas managers are copies,” but what does that mean to an individual?

Foremost, it means that you think for yourself, instead of buying into an ideology, religion or what parents, friends, colleagues or the commuter who sits next to you every day say.

That doesn’t mean that you always do things differently or ignore everything you hear, but it does mean that you reserve your right to question, modify and partly or totally reject whatever it is.

This isn’t always obvious. Most adults honestly believe that they are originals, but they forget that their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) has been shaped since childhood by all those outside forces.

This is even truer of business and political leaders who are rarely original; rather they conform to a general pattern laid down by pundits, benchmarks, and expectations.

As an individual, your MAP is still your own. You can reject all or part of the external forces and, as it used to be said, ‘do your own thing’.

Being an original means that you choose what is best and what to do in each given situation; it means taking in all the wisdom, mundane advice and foolishness and synthesize them into the best decision that you’re capable of making.

As you’ve probably figured out, being an original isn’t the easy way to go. It’s far more comfortable to be a copy; to follow without question the ideology, religion, parents, friends—anyone or anything that takes away the fear of making the wrong choice.

I’ve always been an original, much to my family’s consternation when I was growing up, and to many of the bosses I’ve had since; I even adopted Frank Sinatra’s My Way as my personal theme.

I don’t really remember feeling scared as I careened through my early life doing what I thought was right, but I do know that I learned what my thought process was called when I was in my early twenties. From then on I did it consciously and it’s never let me down.

It’s that process that I want to share with you, because it works.

It’s called “worst case analysis.”

What you do is look at what you’re planning and think about the absolute worst thing that could happen if you do it. Then think through whether and how you would deal with that result. If you can handle it, then you go forward; if it’s too much you go back to the planning board. Works every time.

Do this, and at the end of your life you, too, will be able to say,

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows –
And did it my way!

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