Posts Tagged ‘plans’

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Plan B

Monday, February 28th, 2011

All the management books, coaches and gurus seem to be telling us that we have to make plans…. Hell, this morning I was in just a session with my clients!  “How are you going to do that?”  “What will you do if it fails?”  “Who could help you?”  “What’s the alternative?”  So I guess I can’t rail against the idea of plans.  However, there is a downside… They give you an illusion of control.  I suspect that is one reason that they are so popular.  After all, if you have a plan and are on-track you must know where you’re going.. .right?

The problem comes when your plan goes of the rails.  Time for Plan B… do you have one?

The trouble is before you can press the button to activate it, you have to accept that the first one didn’t work and that is never a pleasant experience.  In fact, sometimes it can be so hard that we won’t admit it, even to ourselves and deny ourselves the chance to pull the rip cord in time.  Plans give you hope, and that is hard to abandon.

Oh well, in the words of the old song, “Dust yourself off, brush yourself off and start all over again..”

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Trying to Read the Runes

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

I know people take very different views about this kind of thing but I try to understand the meaning behind the patterns I perceive in my life.  I know you can say it is all just random, and it maybe so, but I think the Universe has a way of communicating with us and not only that, but our unconscious finds all sorts of subtle ways to interfere with the plans made by our rational mind.  This week has seen a number of my “best laid plans” upset and meetings which have been long standing have been disrupted and postponed.  The net result is that my rather busy and focused plan for next week has been shot full of holes, and I’m left wondering “Why?”

I truly am not smart enough to understand what is going on or what the higher powers might be trying to steer me towards or away from, and I’m left with a feeling of frustration that my hard earned momentum is being stolen from me.  I feel a bit like on of those African women who have to walk 5 miles to collect water and who discovers their container had a small leak.

There are a number of responses one can have to this kind of situation.  You can get upset and let it throw and upset you.  You can do your best to pick yourself up and make the best of what is left, or you can ask if there is anything that you can use or learn.  I guess it is fair to say that I have done all three.  The thing is that this kind of disruption to your plans can affect businesses as easily as individuals and the way you deal with disruption to your plans is critical.  Change strategies often founder on just these rocks.  I believe that it is important to take the time to read ‘the runes’ and to ask what they are telling you.

“Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.”

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“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley”

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

I went for a walk in a local spot that which has the interesting distinction of being incredibly marshy and also cover with huge areas of sand.  This place has more different species of dragonflies than anywhere else in the country, and was so sandy that polar explorers used it to train as the best surrogate for walking through snow.  Today it was very wet and we simply couldn’t walk the route I’d planned so we just followed the driest path, out over the board walks over the marsh, until we found a drier path into the sand ‘dunes’.  The light was simply wonderful; the frost made all sorts wonderful patterns on the trees and, as you can see, the ice over the ponds and mires was just incredible!

All-in-all we had a perfect walk, in the most beautiful light followed by a rather nice lunch.  The lesson for me is sometimes, not knowing where you are going can bring all sorts of unexpected delights your way, so maybe we should not be so distressed when our plans can not be implemented…. So if your plan gang agley today, I hope that it bring unexpected gifts your way too!

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Winter Seeds

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

At this time of year the earth nurtures the seeds that were formed in the autumn.  They sit there waiting for their time to come; when the soil warms up and Nature tells them that it is time to begin.  These tiny packages of potential were created full of purpose and only wait their opportunity to grow and  express these plans. 

We also make plans.  The bookshops are full of books telling that all we have to do is either plan and follow some American business gurus 5 step plan to wealth or sit and  visualise and it all comes to pass.  My experience tells me that neither works like that.  To me it feels much more like the seeds.  We conceive an idea, we move on it, and then at some point when we have done all we can we have to wait for it to grow and manifest.  Most of our plans have some areas beyond our control and here we too a wise to let them go as the trees do, distribute them and wait…

“Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower.”    Shigenori Kameoka

“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed.  Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”     Henry David Thoreau

 

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Stuck in the Middle

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

[To be read to the dulcet tones of Stealers Wheels singing “Stuck in the Middle with You”…]  Have you ever had a time when despite your very best efforts some big cosmic finger [visualise a Monty Python intro  style finger]  keeps punching your pause button?

There are times when you have a plan, and then it snows… or then the car gets smashed up… or then the gutters fall off… or then… or then..  It is the essence of Change that stuff happens to disrupt our plans, but how should we react?  Curse and scream?  Plough straight on somehow?  Listen to what the Universe is trying to tell us?  Find a way to make lemonade?

What do you do?  Wait patiently or take up knitting?

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The best laid plans…

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Often go astray wrote Robbie Burns, and I had just such a start to my week.  I had a long list of things  I wanted to do this week, but on Sunday I contrived to put my back out so had to take things very easily yesterday.  Today, I had to attend to some family chauffeuring first thing that kept me from having the early start I had wanted.  It then took me several / hours just to clear through the mail and make a couple of calls.  Suddenly it was gone 1pm and I hadn’t stopped.  A useful morning but hardly the one I’d hoped to have.

I find I need to clear my desk (both literal and electronic) before I can start one creating something new.  I know that I could then have ‘begun’ my day, but by that stage it felt as if the metaphorical tide was out.  I know that sometimes one simply has to do what needs doing but increasingly, I find that I try to follow the flow of the energy.  I know some of my time management expert friends out there will have another perspective on this but doing things at the right time seems to have a value.

Plans are valuable and vital, but there is a less talked about skill of working with what comes up, and finding the middle path between these two approaches is a key success factor.

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,”  Robbie Burns

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“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Life has a wonderful way of interrupting your plans, both personal and business, rather as John Lennon observed “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”

I run both a mental and an electronic ‘To Do’ list.  I tend to go to bed with the former running through my brain so that I can spring from bed clear and focused.  However, sh1t happens and rewrites your plans.  Last night we had a some ‘out of the blue’ news that affected one of our daughters.  Now I know that as parents we can’t live their lives, but we still need to be there for them.

I think there are two possible responses to this kind of thing.  The first, and very English one, is to show the good old ‘stiff   upper lip’ and carry on regardless, not letting oneself be blown off course by these random happenstances.  The second one is allow oneself to respond to events and adjust one’s plans.  I am increasingly drawn to the latter course.

Change can be driven, but it also drives.  Modern managers are always being told about the former, but but perhaps have little skill with the latter, which is equally important.  A silly example is, if it starts raining, do you put on a raincoat?  Adapting to circumstances and conditions is a key skill especially in today’s economic climate.

What do you do in these circumstances?

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.”   H. G. Wells

“One should act in consonance with the way of heaven and earth, which is enduring and eternal. The superior man perseveres long in his course, adapts to the times, but remains firm in his direction and correct in his goals.”   I Ching

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Ends, Beginnings and Continuations

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

I was thinking today about all the ideas and advice that we get at this time of year.  Reflect on the old year, celebrate its achievements, learn from our mistakes and make plans for the new year based on this review.  I can see the value in this and certainly intend to do some of it myself.  However, for all this, I think we also need to remember that we are in a continuity too.  One day slides into another and, in the midst of that, is the ever-present Now.

I know that physicists have some very clever ideas about the true nature of time, all of which go right above my head.  Whatever the reality is, it is a concept and construct, and as such, essentially a tool.  So we need to use it in the most helpful way possible.  Review, make plans, set goals, but don’t forget that the only time you can make any difference is Now. 

I wish you all a fabulous 2009, but if you want to make changes, Now is not only a good time to act, but the only time to act.

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”  Anais Nin

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A Canterbury Tale

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Despite having lived in the South East for all my life, and in Surrey for over 30  years, I have never got round to visiting Canterbury.  On Friday night we realised that we would have an empty nest this weekend and thought that we ought to take advantage of this.  So it seemed an excellent time to correct this oversight and visit this historic city.

As expected it has some fabulous old buildings, we found a great little B&B in the neighbouring countryside and dined in a nice pub.  There is something very restful about just removing yourself from your normal environment where you are surrounded by all sorts of distractions and little jobs that beckon.

On the way home we visited Scotney Castle.  We had an interesting little experience en route.  The satnav wanted us to go left on a roundabout, which I did.  It soon became clear that this was a new exit and ‘Jane’ thought we were driving in the middle of a field.  I had no choice but to drive on and look for an exit.  I arrived at the next roundabout only to find the road had taken us directly to Scotney.  I thought it was interesting how Life could take you ‘straight to Go’ sometimes.  Sometimes when one thinks one is lost in fact you are just being taken right where you need to go… isn’t Life wonderful?

PS>> for those of you tempted, as we were by this fabulous view, this isn’t the castle you get to visit.  The National Trust property is a Nineteenth century country pile

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You never know..

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

what you don’t know.   I had an enquiry from my website yesterday from a German business, and also a call from an old contact that I had not heard from for 2 or 3 years who now works for another organisation.  Neither of these events was predictable but both could have an impact me.     

In modern business plans are elevated to almost divine status, but every plan I have ever seen has always had limitations & flaws.  In the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld:-

“As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.”

The fact is that the unknown can have a positive as well as a negative impact on our lives and planning is all well and good, but our ability to handle and even enjoy the unknown is often a key ingredient to success.

“Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.”

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