The problem with 90-Day Planning

All of a sudden, 90-day planning is now sexy. Schools across the country are claiming that they are shifting to a 90-day planning cycle.

Problem is, they are creating 90-day plans that look a LOT like their yearly plans. Too many goals. An over-focus on data without taking time to make sense of the data first. And, using the 90-day plans to add MORE work on their already overloaded plates.

As a result, they are giving 90-day planning a bad name. Here's why:

1. Most 90-day plans pick a problem (or 2 or 5) to try to solve. Usually, it's the loudest problem, or the most recent problem, but rarely is it the right problem to solve. And, once leaders have landed on a problem (or 2 or 5) they then ADD a bunch of stuff to what they are already doing over the next 90 days in order to see results. So, their 90-day plans throw everything at the problem over 3 months in hopes that something will work, creating MORE work for everyone involved in a way that is hard to sustain once the 90-days are over.

Builders take time to FIRST identify their ONE thing -- their biggest obstacle in the way of their vision, mission, and core values. Once they are sure that they have found their biggest obstacle, they work to REMOVE that obstacle over the next 90 days so that they NEVER have to deal with it again. The purpose of the 90-day plan is not to do more. For Builders, the purpose of the 90-day plan is to find ways to achieve more by ultimately doing less.

2. Most people write a 90-day plan, meet monthly (if at all) to go over "the data" and make adjustments often when it's far too late for those adjustments to impact the outcome. They comfort themselves that they are looking at data but rarely are they tracking the right data. Nor are they looking at the data often enough to really learn from it.

Builders create a weekly scorecard that helps them track their progress towards removing their biggest obstacle. This scorecard focuses on both leading and lagging indicators and they monitor it weekly to keep them on track. Additionally, they meet monthly to take a wider view of their progress to make sure that the work they are doing really is moving them closer to their vision, mission, and core values and that they are working together as efficiently as possible. Thus, they don't get caught up in "moving the data" in ways that they cannot sustain over time.

3. Most 90-day plans aren't sustainable. Sure they offer a quick shot in the arm and you can often see a lift in the data. But, when leaders write 90-day plans, they are often looking for a fast pay-off instead of long-term sustainable results. Once the 90 days are over, they find it hard to keep up the same pace, or they move on to other problems and soon things return to where they were before.

Builders create 90-day plans with an eye towards long-term results. By focusing on removing obstacles, they solve their biggest challenges once and for all so that they can focus on the work that really matters. Every time they remove another obstacle, they create more momentum, more progress, and they can sustain that momentum and progress over the long term.

So before you jump on the 90-day planning bandwagon, make sure that you are not just substituting one ineffective planning process for another one. If you really want to see a difference this year, make sure that you are approaching 90-day planning #LikeABuilder.