Imagine you’re going on a 3-day hike.
You’ll need to carry food, water, clothing, and a tent. You’ll need to plan what time you’ll set out, and where you’ll stop along the way. You’ll need to check the weather. You’ll also need to let someone know when they should expect to hear from you once you’re done.
When we’re going on a lengthy journey, planning is required.
Yet it’s funny how often people in the workplace just launch into meetings, writing document, or starting projects without doing the thinking upfront.
Few meetings are worth having unless we’ve prepared for what we want out of them, and what decisions need to be made to get there.
Few documents are worth reading if we’re writing them on the fly without some structure to guide us.
Few projects are impactful without a solid plan.
Doing the thinking upfront almost always pays off in the long run.