Article at a glance:

• The act of planning is more helpful than actual plans.

• Planning helps you survey your options, while plans can keep you locked into a course of action after it no longer makes sense.

• This approach can feel like it makes things take longer…but it actually helps us pivot more quickly.

• Planning requires reflection, flexibility, and curiosity. All things we love at Redmond!

Time to read - 3 minutes

If you’ve worked with Redmond for more than a month, you’ve probably noticed we aren’t big on goals or even plans.

But, we do a lot of talking and a lot of planning, even though we know full well that we probably won’t follow the plan to completion. At least not the original plan.

This is because rigid plans just aren’t that helpful. Planning, on the other hand, is invaluable.

Why Planning is Essential

The act of planning requires scouting, exploration, gathering info, coming up with backup plans and contingency plans, and raising important questions. Another term for this is understanding what is.

Because we’ve explored, mapped the terrain, and we know what our options might be, we’re able to pivot when something inevitably changes. We can stay nimble and in a position to handle change, work through challenges, and deal with bumps without slowing down too much or major losses.

Also, this exploration never ends, so we’re always discussing and figuring things out as we go, so we’re well positioned to pivot. We’re always ready to jump in and explore possible next steps.

The planning process is crucial for success.

What’s NOT crucial for success, but is actually detrimental, is following a carefully laid plan to a T and forgetting to stay curious and keep our eyes open for new information. It's also not productive to freak out or waffle when something goes differently than we expected.

Patience, Grasshopper

This also means that sometimes, it feels like things take a long time to happen at Redmond. This can be really frustrating for go-getter personalities. (These tend to be people with a lot of P, or Producer work style.) We might ask what’s taking so long or why can’t we just get started already? Let’s pull that trigger!

If something takes forever, there are probably still conversations going on, and explorations of things we haven’t seen yet. Sometimes the way forward still isn’t clear.

Sometimes, slow is fast. It’s worth slowing down to do something right rather than moving too fast. We don't want to run in the wrong direction. Instead, we walk with purpose. If we take a wrong turn, we aren’t too far from the path.

Redmond is growing. This works. It pays off.

Reflection. Don’t skip it.

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

— Peter F. Drucker

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear shares the story of the British cycling team, who would reflect on every tiny aspect of performance, from seat adjustments to the type of massage gel used. This process of constantly reflecting, analyzing, and improving led to remarkable results over time!

Reflection is one of our core values because it helps us understand what is, what’s working, what’s not, and why, and it allows us to look back and see how far we’ve come!

This is one reason why we have the end of year review videos at our parties. It might seem like things move at a glacial pace from day to day, but at the end of the year when we step back and look at what we’ve accomplished as a company, it’s staggering.

Planning > Plans

There’s no use in creating the perfect plan, only to have to change it the next day. Sticking to a plan that’s obsolete or not getting the results you want is just silly.

But the act of planning, exploring, and asking what is and what could be, that’s where the magic happens, and that’s the process that carries us through the ups and downs of elevating the human experience!

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