# Low-Resolution Planning By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-02-22 Very rarely do elaborate and detailed plans for the future workout. Often something happens that throws the plan off course, or it no longer makes sense. As a child, you wanted to be an astronaut and go to the moon, but along the way, your eyesight worsened and governments stopped caring about going to the moon. As a business leader, you wanted to implement a new policy that would generate millions of dollars in additional revenue, but the market changed and you failed to implement it in time. Everyone can recount hundreds of times that their plans did not work out, yet we still make new plans. While planning is valuable as a tool to achieve something, it is far from foolproof. If taken to the extreme, as most organizations do, planning can easily become a hindrance and distraction. How often do yearly plans within an organization make sense the following year? In my experience, you'll spend a lot of time trying to creatively and awkwardly fit what work was done into last year's plan to justify your existence. In reality, you did good work, but the plan was just bad or became irrelevant. Yet, managers and leaders grade success almost purely on the execution of these plans. So, workers are incentivized to execute these bad plans versus doing the work that is needed right now. If the workers decide to deviate, they better hope that their management team forgives them for going off script during performance reviews. It is clear that planning taken to the extreme is negative, and I think it is safe to say that having no plans at all is also a negative. So, what is the right amount of planning? Here are some guidelines. First, plans are the manifestation of your values and strategy. Focus on getting your values and strategy aligned before making any plans. Second, disregard plans whenever they no longer make sense or help you execute your strategy. Do not be afraid to move on, and do not make organizational success dependent upon them. Plans are merely time and situational-based suggestions made to be broken. Finally, only make low-resolution plans. In other words, don't get into the details. If you can't write down the plan on a piece of paper with a big marker, it is too detailed. Detailed plans create too much focus on achieving those details and not on whether those details make sense. Undetailed plans create a focus on figuring out what to do with latitude, inquiry, and creativity. #### Related Items [[Planning]] [[Strategy]] [[Business]] [[Progress]]