To Plan or Not to Plan… Is that the Question?

The joys of spontaneity.? Waking up to a beautiful morning, not thinking about what you ‘need’ to do today, but what you ‘want’ to do.?

“the quality of being natural rather than planned in advance"

Being spontaneous allows you to live in the moment.? In a world where we are inundated with technology in all realms, such as telecommunications, the internet, and more importantly, the security and privacy aspect of these advancements, it’s not so easy to just turn off that switch and decide to put it all aside and not worry about it.? When you look at your own reality and what you are in control of, can make your choice more satisfying when you elect to take the plunge to, say, take a day trip to a place you’ve never been before, volunteer your time to help the disadvantaged, animal shelters and rescue organizations. Maybe challenge yourself to the hobby you’ve always thought about, but never had the gumption to take on, or simply, enjoy your own solitude in a space where you feel comfortable, exhilarated and soulfully warm.? Happiness is the key to life.

Being spontaneous is a healthy attribute in a controlled manner.? It allows you to stay connected within yourself so you can take time out to key into your emotions.? If you find yourself being spontaneous way more often than what you think you should be, there may be something underlying that is stopping you from making plans on a daily or weekly basis.

Spontaneity is a good thing when performed in a healthy way.

Let’s now dive into everyday life, which is mostly about planning.? If you have children, you plan to get them up in the morning at a certain time, so they can go to school and meet the establishment’s start time policy.? You plan to pick them up after school, take them to sports training, have dinner at a certain time so they can complete their homework, and finally, have a deadline time for them to go to bed.? If it’s just you or you are with a significant other, maybe live with your parents/in-laws, you plan to have meals at a certain time, schedule to start work at a certain time, if transport is involved, allow enough time to get to work, do the all important grocery?or other shopping, and anything else you need to get done before earth’s tilt sends us into the starry night of darkness.? Phew!.. sounds exhausting, if ... you don’t plan.

Planning, be it in your personal or professional capacity, allows you to reduce uncertainty in your life.? Its purpose is to help you achieve your objectives, have visibility around utilizing resources, reducing costs, improving competitive strength, and guiding decision making.

Let me tell you about a wonderful experience.? I recently participated in a planning session with staff across multiple teams within my department.? Before I get into details, a quick high level from the top.

Like any organization, it is about making sure we are all on the same page.? We establish goals and objectives.? We have a vision and a mission, and we make plans to work together to realize the vision.? Most importantly, we need to move with the times and make ‘change’ a healthy and collaborative word.

Outcomes cannot become a reality without the support of leadership.? As such, I commend the gravelly road our leaders have had to navigate through to arrive at decisions to set the course of ‘onward and upward’.

Here are some key areas to take into account for progression and improvement:

Conduct Analysis – Internal or External

Establish whether you have the skills and expertise internally, or require a proven external partner to conduct analysis to set you up for success. ?A good place to start would be looking at the first four areas of ITIL’s Continual Improvement model:

1.?????? What is the vision? – Have a clear direction on where you are headed.? Your vision, mission, goals and objectives should be consistent and interconnected throughout.

2.?????? Where are we now? – Be truthful about where you are at this very moment.? The whole point of the exercise is improvement. No matter how bad it looks, this is the perfect starting point.

3.?????? Where do we want to be? – After establishing your baseline, realistically look at where you would like to be in the short-, medium-, and long-term.? If you try and do everything at once, the likelihood is that you will not be as successful as working in phases, where you can involve your employees at each incremental step and thereby, creating some meaningful quick-wins for the greater good.

4.?????? How do we get there? – After the analysis has been performed, work on how you are going to make your vision a reality. What methodology or framework will you be utilizing?? ** TIP **? Working across multiple methodologies or frameworks for your planning session will more than likely end in confusion and not reap the results your are after.? Establish what approach you will be taking.? Look at what has and has not worked in the past.? For example, if the waterfall approach has been used and reused in hopes that it will work, only to fall flat, then change it up.? Introduce agile, DevSecOps or others.? Look at your company structure, maturity, goals, timelines and skillsets.

Remember, don’t cross the bridge unless you are clear on any potential dangers or pitfalls.? Keep it simple, but exceptionally realistic.? It should be detailed enough so that each step can be executed with minimal or no questioning.? Communicate what the plan is to your potential participants.? Perform workshops, lunch and learns, put together a training compilation of what the vision is and ‘how we are all going to get there’.

Think and look ahead. ?What is reporting going to look like?? Consistency is key for quality analysis, improvements and results.

Time For Action

The fifth area of the ITIL Continual Improvement model is ‘Take Action”.? This is where your participants are fully involved.? Where is this improvement planning session going to take place - Internally, externally, virtually, or a combination thereof? ?What is the timeline for the planning session – a day, or two, or more? An important point to note is that participants should be fully immersed in this improvement.? Away from daily distractions and work (other than emergencies).?

The organization should think about whether the cost of bringing everyone together is going to justify the improvements at each incremental stage and overall.? The forum should be one of comfort, open space, communication and most importantly, collaboration.

Ensure you have a facilitator to answer any questions and provide guidance.

What methodology will be used? – A popular and effective approach is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

“The?Scaled Agile Framework?(SAFe) is a set of organizational and workflow patterns designed to guide enterprises in scaling lean and agile practices1. It provides a structured approach for implementing agile principles at an enterprise scale. Here are some key aspects of SAFe:

·??????? Agile Practices at Scale: SAFe extends agile practices beyond individual teams to address the complexities of large organizations. It helps align multiple teams, programs, and portfolios toward common goals.

·??????? Roles and Responsibilities: SAFe defines clear roles and responsibilities for different levels within the organization. These roles include Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Release Train Engineers, and more.

·??????? Planning and Work Management: The framework offers guidance on how to plan and manage work across teams and programs. It includes practices for backlog refinement, release planning, and iteration planning.

·??????? Values and Principles: SAFe emphasizes values such as alignment, built-in quality, transparency, and program execution. These principles guide decision-making and behavior within the organization.

·??????? Continuous Learning and Improvement: SAFe encourages a culture of continuous learning and improvement. It provides mechanisms for retrospectives, inspecting and adapting, and fostering innovation.

·??????? Scalability: SAFe addresses scalability challenges by organizing work into Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and coordinating activities across these trains. It also incorporates Lean thinking and DevOps practices.”

One of the best ways to move forward with how participants can think about their current and future work are with S.M.A.R.T goals.

These are:

S = Specific:? Specific goals have a desired outcome that is clearly understood.. Define what needs to be accomplished and the actions that need to be executed to accomplish the goal.

M = Measurable:? Have a quantifiable objective so that you can track progress. Define what data will be used to measure the goal and set a method to compile and report.

A = Achievable/Attainable:? Goals need to be realistic so there is interest amongst your employees to achieve them. If the goal is not doable, check on whether you need to look at your resource level to give yourself a shot at success.

R = Realistic/Relevant: ??Goals should be aligned with the vision and mission of the organization. Don’t set goals just because you ‘think’ you can do them in the timeframe allotted.

T = Time-bound: Goals should have a deadline. ?If a goal does not have a deadline, don’t include it.? S.M.A.R.T. goals are time-bound so you can evaluate the success of the endeavor and update or set new goals.

To add an extra layer of thought and have your participants totally engaged is ITIL’s 7 Guiding Principles.

“The guiding principles and the continual improvement model are both important parts of the ITIL service value system (SVS) that are applicable to all of the other SVS components, ensuring that the SVS as a whole operates with integrity and agility.

The continual improvement model provides simple and logical steps for an improvement initiative of any scale, and the guiding principles help in this by supporting good decision making at every step of the process.” - Axelos

Throughout the planning session, gather participants’ feedback.? How do they feel about what’s involved in the upcoming session and its delivery? Are they comfortable?? What can be Improved?? What do they love?? Are you getting a sense they can pull it off, do you need to scale back, or rework?

Once the planning session is complete, share thoughts, voices and interactions that were experienced throughout.? Be transparent.? We are all in this together and each person has a vested interest working towards the greater good.? Provide the information complied from all participants onto one accessible platform.? Make the final result one that respective teams can take away and immediately start working towards their commitments.

Is it Working?

The ‘did we get there?” section is about whether all the phases of your planning session is working.? After each increment, bring all the teams together to produce an update on their teams’ performance.? This is not about who is being the A-grade student, but establishing whether what was committed by each participant/team in the planning session is actually doable or not.? Is the capacity good for the workload, or does it need to be adjusted?? Is time a factor?? You will likely not see meaningful results until you’re a few iterations in (two or more quarters).? Keep in mind that your results may be a mixed bag of successfully completed, on target, or, ran into roadblocks or barriers.? This is a learning and evolving exercise, and not about who comes on top when.? As you progress through each iteration, participants will feel more comfortable, knowledgeable and will have gained a keen intuition on time, resourcing and capacity all round for current and future work.

Keep the Momentum Going

Don’t stop there, your baby crawl has turned into learning steps, which has strengthened you to walk and finally hit the ground running.

Take every opportunity to consult your team members on the experience, not just those who participated.? Your boots on the ground will provide you with a wealth of invaluable information to keep the momentum going.

And….. For the Last Word….

Plans are crucial as?they align your team on a forward path by expressing and communicating the intended course of action, and ultimately, making all the hard work you’ve put into this worthwhile and a true success for your organization (despite the number of tries).

You can now squeeze in a little spontaneity in your life to spice things up!? Be proud of what you are able to achieve in your professional and personal here and now.