Nugget of gold from Jim Highsmith and his white paper on Adaptive Leadership.
“Changing the Plan-Do management culture won’t be easy. An Envision-Explore culture understands that innovative answers to complex problems emerge over time. This idea of letting solutions emerge rather than having them pre-determined up front in the plan takes a leap of faith for many managers—they want to know the precise steps from here to there. They are uncomfortable with a process that says, “lets plan a little, get started, and we’ll see what happens.” They want answers where there are none. They are comfortable with a detailed plan, which they know won’t work out, but offers the illusion of a known end point.”
Adaptive Leadership white paper V1
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It’s an appealing concept and a leap of faith. There are so many reasons managers not only want but need a well thought-out plan. A) their butt is on the line w/ not only their leadership but ultimately their investors and B) lack of planning sometimes = lack of due diligence and thinking through. If you fail and you didn’t have a well considered plan it will hurt. But the concept is appealing and under the right conditions with smart motivated people it can work. Thanks.