thinkingahead
©
2004 by
Everyone thinks. Every one even thinks ahead. The difference is in distance and quality.
The difference is in how far
and how well we think ahead.
Distance………………………….how far I’m thinking
ahead
Quality………………………….how well I’m thinking
ahead
In this
booklet on contingency and long range planning you’ll find a few practical
thoughts on how to think ahead with greater distance and quality in your
leadership and team-building. We all can
think farther ahead and better about what’s around the next corner in our
leadership and ministry.
Try
these out in your thinking…
The Goal
Define
the goal. What is the purpose? What are we trying
to accomplish? The goal is a compass to stay on course thru the necessary
chaos of brainstorming. The goal provides a sifting system to filter ideas
thru. Define the goal.
Example: Our church decides to have a community
night to ignite camaraderie among their people. The goal of this event is to deepen former relationships and spark new
relationships. Now any
creative method for this event can be measured by the goal. This will keep the
group on task and not adopt an idea just because it’s creative. So when someone
says, “Hey, lets bring in the Barbershop Quartet to perform” it is measured
against the goal. Although, this sounds
like an invigorating night of fun and fellowship it does not necessarily
achieve the goal :-) Having the Barbershop Quartet perform for an hour does not
align with deepening former relationships and sparking new relationships.
Glass Half
Empty Brainstorming
Once
the goal has been established begin glass half empty brainstorming. Think of methods to accomplish the goal,
but ask why is this a bad idea? Why
wouldn’t this work?
Simplistic
Example: “Why don’t we have an ice-cream party?”
[The example of an
ice-cream party is just to illustrate throughout this Thinking Ahead booklet —
but any kind of an idea can be taken through these steps in planning).
Negatives: Setting up the table would be a last
minute scramble to keep the ice-cream from melting. And what about the people
who come in 20 minutes late, they either won’t get ice-cream because it’s put
away or they will get melted ice-cream. And all the toppings will just create
long lines.
The
glass is half empty. Dream them up, but try to shoot them down. This is often best done by yourself or with a
smaller group of people.
Contingency
Plan
Then
find simple solutions to the half-empty glass problems. You or your
brainstorming group re now acting like lawyers, choosing to take up the defense
of a few proposed plans. For every criticism stated earlier begin developing a
defense. Silence the critics. How could that idea be tweaked for success? How
could the problematic outcome be eliminated?
Example: “We could rent an ice-cream freezer,
roll it into the lobby, and serve people as if they were at an ice-cream shop.
This would spark relationships between the servers and people being served. And
that would be more fun than people standing in line serving themselves.”
At this
point any of the four or five plans could be the one chosen to accomplish the
goal. In fact the more developed each plan is, the more prepared you are if the
implemented plan goes wrong. You are able to adapt quickly. This is why no idea
is a bad idea, because if the selected plan goes wrong a contingency plan may
be implemented to achieve the goal. Sometimes the best ideas don’t accomplish
the goal, that is why developing contingency plans are so important. You are prepared if it rains. Your team will be ready to adapt to
the change in weather and still accomplish the goal. Leaders who never develop contingency plans
are slaves to circumstance.
Pick
a Basket
But
once contingencies are taken care of, determine what basket you are going to
put all your eggs in. You’ve already mapped out some rough sketches of a few
methods for accomplishing the goal, now pick one of those methods and put all
your eggs in that basket. Start to go
for it.
Glass Half Full Brainstorming
Once you’ve picked a basket to
put your eggs in move to glass-half-full-brainstorming. No more criticisms, or
looking around the corner, only ideal
outcomes. Dream big.
Example: “What if we had all the ice-cream
places in town come in and cater at this event. We would have the best
ice-cream available and nobody would want to miss it. It would also be a great
way to introduce those ice-cream workers into our community while they serve
ice-cream.”
Drink
up! The glass is half full.
Vision
After
the sunny dreams are completed develop the vision for the event. The vision
can’t be communicated by committee, but it can be created by
committee. Work with the group to make a concise statement of vision. Something
short and sweet. This will not only ensure your team has high ownership and is
focused, but will help with communicating what you’re doing.
The
Power of Role Delegation
There
is an incredible power to role delegation.
Delegating things for people to do is never as effective as delegating
roles for people to become. Assign
positions for the players on your team.
It’s role verses task. Don’t just
run plays endlessly. Assign positions effectively.
Task—gives a temporary responsibility to a
player.
Role—gives an ongoing/full-time ownership
to a player.
Assigning
Positions (Roles): As the
coach of a sports team you would examine your team: Who is tall? Who is short?
Who is fast? Who is slow? Who is strong? Who hustles?
Do a
similar thing with your team in your long-range planning. After assessing your team carve out
positions/roles that will maximize the players strengths and minimize their
weaknesses. Keep in mind also how these players positions will maximize the
strengths of the team and minimize the weaknesses. Explain their role within
the team structure. Coach them on how do the role. But most importantly let
them play their position.
Running
Plays (Tasks): If you
just stick with a string of tasks as the coach you will constantly have to call
timeouts to regroup. You will become bogged down trying to run play after play
(task after task). You continually have to reassign positions within each play.
Too many timeouts (meetings).
Example:
“Bob, you are great with people
and you are great with administration so I think you should have the ongoing
role of coordinating with outside organizations when we do events. On this one, start by coordinating with the
ice-cream shops. Start talking thru the possibility of them catering our event
and work thru the logistics of that. So your role on this team is to get
ice-cream to the event, and in the long run, to coordinate things with outside
groups. Sound good?”
Bob
fits the position (role) perfectly. Assign positions. Give people a ongoing
ownership of a role and coach them along the way.
Role
Delegation Tips
Affirmation: When delegating a role affirm the
person the persons strengths in front of the team. Then ask for the teams
affirmation. This shows why you have chosen them to play that position on the
team and encourages them to embrace the role.
Example--“Bob you are great with people. You are
really easy to talk to and well received by everyone it seems. Wouldn’t you all
agree? You also seem to have seem to have a way of pulling logistics together
to make something happen. Your administration skills are excellent. That is why
we want you to be our logistics person in the long run and the point person for
getting the ice-cream to the church for the event we’re currently working on.”
Bob has
been affirmed by the coach and his teammates. Bob has also had his role defined
so he can focus on being that player within the team.
Make
them Step Up: Sometimes
a person will carve out a role for themselves. A person might suggest an idea
and be really passionate about it being implemented. If the idea seems to be
beneficial for accomplishing the goal throw the ball back in their court. Force
them to take action and ownership of the idea. Since it is something they are
passionate about they will most likely be more motivated to follow thru than
any of the other players. If they balk, and no one else steps up to the plate
you know to strike the idea.
Example...
Player:
Karen says, “Why don’t we bring
in a bunch of couches in to create more of a living room feel, that way it will
be more laid back and relax for conversations and eating?”
Coach: “That sounds like a great idea! Karen
would you like to take on the role of creating the appropriate atmosphere for
the room?”
Coaching to
Completion
Schedule
timeouts (touch-in meetings). I have given the players their positions, but I
need to continue to check their progress. The timeout serves as encouragement,
assistance, and equipping of my players. This is all so the team is functioning
at its maximum capacity. The timeouts also help the players regain their focus
on the vision and goal.
The Meeting
Before the Meeting
We’ve found that the meeting
before the meeting is sometimes more important than the meeting. Many times you may walk into a meeting and people
haven’t done much before you met.
Everyone feels like: “why are we having this meeting?” Instead, if you’ve met with team members
individually before the meeting on key action items and responsibilities—then
they bring a lot to the table. The bar
is raised. People think: “Man alive,
there’s a lot happening, glad I didn’t miss the meeting.” It may even be helpful to meet with every
single one of the team members at some point between meetings — then you’re not
using up everyone’s time at the meeting to determine things that should just be
between you and the team member.
Crunch Time
Strategy
O’ No!
Something went wrong! It’s CRUNCH TIME! You have to adapt. You have to pull out
a contingency plan. You are ready to respond because you have contingency
plans. The man with the plan is the man with the power and you’ve already got a
plan. Why? Because you were thinking ahead! You’ve already done your homework
and were ready to adapt if and when the “rain” hits.
Example—“All but one of the ice-cream shops
bailed on us at the last minute because they couldn’t recruit employees. One
ice-cream shop can’t support the event.”
When
it’s crunch time you must make strategic decisions, not crisis decisions. You
want to implement plans that align with the goal not the plans that would
provide the easiest solution to the immediate problem. This is why it is so
important to have the contingency plans before the crisis, because in the midst
of a crisis people are more likely to go with what’s easiest option instead of
what backup plan actually accomplishes the goal.
People
think they won’t like strategic planning because it sounds rigid and
structured. They like to stick with what they planned. But by doing so you lock
yourself into more structure. You can’t maneuver. Contingency plans in the
crunch offer adaptability. So the person without a plan in fact becomes the
most rigid and structured in a crisis.
By thinking ahead you have given yourself a rigid commitment to
flexibility.
Implement
Contingency Plan
In the
need of implementing a contingency plan, just confidently present plan B or
whatever it is to your team. Reassure them that it’s not a big deal and the
goal will still be achieved. Applaud and commend the team for being prepared.
“Rain” is not going to keep us from our goal.
It just changes which plan we’ll use to get there.
On Spot Strategy
Make all decisions, whether
large or small, based on the goal. Strategic decisions can sometimes be hard,
but it gets the job done, it accomplishes the goal. In a time of crisis it’s
easy to want to give up, but the decisions can’t be made based on those
feelings of defeat. They should be made
to achieve the goal.
Permanent
Integration of Lessons
Apply
past lessons into future planning. Learn from successes and mistakes. Then permanently assimilate those as a part of your
thinking ahead strategies.
Example—As a coach I used to delegate tasks
for people. They would accomplish their task and report back to me. I would
then have to give them another task. It was draining for me and for them. They
didn’t have as much ownership and I had too much work. So I began delegating roles (as
we talked about above). That worked much better so I have made that a part of
my permanent coaching style. It is in my thinking ahead tool box and I always
use that for accomplishing any goals in front of my teams. Instead of learning a lesson and then
repeating the mistake, I try to assimilate the lesson permanently.
Long-Range
Planning
This is
planning for a pattern of events. Long-range is the sequence of what’s next.
Example—Community nights occur once every two
months. Long-range planning for those events may be weaving a theme thru the
next 6 to 18 community nights (1 to 3 years)
Next community night = NOT Long-range
planning
Next 12 community nights = Long-range
planning
This
planning is done best in a team. Start with the calendar and work backwards. This is the key. Don’t start with the present. Start with the future. Start with a specific time in the future. Describe that preferable future
(vision). Then plan out what gets you
there. That’s strategic long-range
planning. Then in future meetings use
long-range plan, bring up the big picture ideas and use those as a guide for
short range planning. Asking the question, how
does this fit in the grand-scheme of things?