Getting Things Done

Natural Planning Is Not Necessarily Normal
But is the process described above the way your committee is
planning the church retreat? Is it how your IT team is approach-
ing the new system installation? Is it how you're organizing the
wedding or thinking through the potential merger?
Have you clarified the primary purpose of the project and com-
municated it to everyone who ought to know it? And have you
agreed on the standards and behaviors you'll need to
adhere to to make it successful?
Have you envisioned success and considered
all the innovative things that might result if you
achieved it?
58
Have you
envisioned wild
success lately?

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CHAPTER 3
| GETTING PROJECTS CREATIVELY UNDER WAY: THE FIVE PHASES OF PLANNING
Have you gotten all possible ideas out on the table—
everything you need to take into consideration that might affect
the outcome?
Have you identified the mission-critical components, key
milestones, and deliverables?
Have you defined all the aspects of the project that could be
moved on right now, what the next action is for each part, and
who's responsible for what?
If you're like most people I interact with in a coaching or
consulting capacity, the collective answer to these questions is,
probably not. There are likely to be at least some components of
the natural planning model that you haven't implemented.
In some of my seminars I get participants to actually plan a
current strategic project that uses this model. In only a few minutes
they walk themselves through all five phases, and usually end up
being amazed at how much progress they've made compared with
what they have tried to do in the past. One gentleman came up
afterward and told me, "I don't know whether I should thank you or
be angry. I just finished a business plan I've been telling myself
would take months, and now I have no excuses for not doing it!"
You can try it for yourself right now if you like. Choose one
project that is new or stuck or that could simply use some
improvement. Think of your purpose. Think of what a successful
outcome would look like: where would you be physically, finan-
cially, in terms of reputation, or whatever? Brainstorm potential
steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next actions. Are you
any clearer about where you want to go and how to get there?
The Unnatural Planning Model
To emphasize the importance of utilizing the natural planning
model for the more complex things we're involved with, let's con-
trast it with the more "normal" model used in most
environments—
what I call unnatural planning.