Episode 013: Fulfilment by design: The Power of Planning.
Fulfilment will largely depend on your ability to anticipate and prepare for the foreseeable future. The ability to envisage imperatives and prepare for tomorrow by articulating actions, defining milestones and negotiating possibilities is known as planning.
In this series on fulfilment, I will define Planning as the process of organising activities to achieve a goal; it entails resource allocation. Planning can be done at the individual or enterprise level. Planning can refer to several things, such as a project management process, which is at the heart of many professional performance objectives.
Instead of passively observing things take their course, you take charge and prescribe a scope of possibilities. You proactively premeditate, interpret, and simulate them, running a scenario analysis with your future. This act of preparation not only amplifies your performance but also reinforces your resolve, and limits the effect of challenges and disappointments, giving you a sense of control and confidence.
As earlier established, Planning involves setting objectives, identifying tasks, allocating resources, and establishing timelines. It’s a fundamental part of intelligent behaviour, based on foresight and the ability to think ahead. To define or pre-empt the paradigm shift, you must develop a template for possible outcomes. If you wish to preserve the status quo, you must identify and reinforce the promoters of sustainability. If, on the other hand, you want to change, you ought to locate and fertilise the drivers of change. In both cases, you will (Planning is necessitated by)
-Establishes the benchmark for comparison, the yardstick that assesses progress, improves accountability and supervision. Planning must lend relevance to developing strategies for change management. If what is currently obtainable is adequate, why change?
-Set goals, define intentionality with outcomes.
-Scrutinise or weigh the sustainability of accomplishments as a driver of optimisation, efficiency and effectiveness. Why?
-Use your plan as a tool to regulate outputs and outcomes
-Scrutinise the sustainability of possible accomplishments.
Planning is required at both the personal and enterprise levels. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought—the capacity to think ahead—as a prime mover in human evolution. Planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behaviour. It involves the use of logic and imagination to visualise not only a desired result, but the steps necessary to achieve that result. Once people have developed a plan, they can measure and assess progress, efficiency and effectiveness. As circumstances change, plans may need to be modified or even abandoned. Bottom line, implement only those ideals that gravitate towards personal and professional growth, on an individual basis or on an enterprise scale.