John Cutler’s Post

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Product Enablement @Toast

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. We've all heard this. Common sense. But NO...not all planning is helpful. ❌ Planning before the last responsible moment is bad ❌ Planning in ways that cause premature convergence and sunk-cost bias is bad ❌ Planning because you have over-worked shared teams, and everyone needs to "lock in commitments" is bad ❌ Planning by creating artificial deadlines is bad ❌ Planning purely for the comfort of having "a plan" is bad (the plan has to add value) ❌ Planning as a performative activity—for show and optics—is bad. It is a big waste of time and energy ❌ Planning as a way to avoid conversations—"hey, we have a plan, now execute and don't ask questions"—is bad ❌ Planning without the people involved in the room is bad ❌ Planning in order to maximize output (or maximize allocation, utilization, etc.) is bad. Over-taxed systems collapse tl;dr... it is HOW YOU PLAN that matters. So yes, coherence, situational awareness, direction, etc. are important. But not all planning is good.

Alexander Apostolov

Founder, LeanPM.org and Projecta, PhD

1y

"Planning before the last responsible moment is bad" Do you actually mean "making a decision" instead of "planning"? Don't you plan how to get to the decision point?

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Dave Smith

Improving the world by improving the people in it

1y

I'm not sure "Plans are worthless" is true - "if you fail to plan, you're planning for failure". Nonetheless, "no plan survives contact with the enemy" - not everything goes according to plan, so any plan must be deemed temporary and amendable when new information comes to light. But I'd prefer to have some rudimentary plan that none at all. As for your points: this doesn't look an argument supporting that not all planning is helpful, it looks more like planning for the wrong reasons / for the wrong outcomes / at the wrong time are the flaws here. Perhaps "all plans are worth little, but that doesn't mean they can't be useful"

Carl Weller

Principal Consultant and Ways of Working Practice Lead at Sentify

1y

That famous phrase is a corruption of the work of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a Prusian military strategist. He is the father of “commanders intent” or decentralised execution that underpins things like McChrystal’s team of teams, which has gotten moderately popular in Agile circles. I think, if we ignore the plan, which is just an output that dates very quickly (by the first contact with the enemy or the punch in the face as Mike says), the value is in the THINKING that happens when we plan. We should get alignment on purpose, validate assumptions, identify and put things in place to manage risk… That is the valuable stuff. And thats pretty much what the quote says if you take it literally, the plan is worthless, but the act of planning is everything. Totally agree with your points though John Cutler, if the focus is on getting a plan (any plan, just to force commitment) or ‘planning theatre’ then the plan AND the process are worthless.

Sara Wood

Philosophy, mentorship, & the future of work through the lens of Ai

1y

a thousand times yes to all of this! 💥 an ongoing examination of behavior is so important (as is a cursory understanding of logical fallacies ;). been speaking a lot on ways of working myself lately, it’s the zeitgeist. (some notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ASXiU96JMMTKrHWvpaGJT2BPDrqf7WOOfIpmLLlYuPE/edit)

Biplab Subedi

Agile Consultant | Scrum Master

1y

My fav one: Planning as a way to avoid conversations.

This is exactly why I don't think algorithms or AGI isn't going to take over the world for at least next 10 years :) :) :) There are no absolute right or wrong answers. Planning can be bad. Or planning can be very good. It all depends on the context in which you are trying to do it. The person who can sense and respond to these nuances will always trump the people or machines who cannot :)

Antonio Polo 💡

Enterprise Agile Coach | Service Delivery Manager | Gerente de Projetos | AKT - Kanban Trainer

1y

Very good approach, no planning is bad, planning too much is worst, fixed date only if this dead line is not under our control

so true, and thought-provoking when you see it laid out like this. Good challenge to pause and reflect on my plans!

Holly Wright, PCC

Helping organizations strengthen their leadership teams & drive high performance ➹ Leadership Coach ➹ L&D Professional

1y

Great points. As Mike Tyson famously said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."

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