How to plan for the unexpected

Planning as has been discussed before is key to success and essential for growth. When it comes to planning there are always areas that cannot be planned for… or so we are all told.  When something cannot be planned for things start going wrong, mistakes are made, delays are caused but these are merely a result of not planning correctly or not planning for unforeseen forces. There is truly no such thing as being unable to plan for something even something so remote it may never happen, if you can imagine it you can imagine how you would deal with it… Correct?

A plan is not merely a set of instructions that takes a person from A to B to C in a set time at a set pace, with certain tasks undertaken and completed, planning is a process and a process has to manage the exceptions or the very simple “what if” scenarios to move forward to an end goal. A plan, in business, should also be measurable.  Without considering the exceptions your plan cannot remain watertight, and its these that make you plan you plan.  Perhaps the best example of not covering every possibility or eventuality is that of the Titanic that sank when it hit an iceberg. Hailed as unsinkable and setting sail with great pomp and ceremony, it was essentially planning that sank the unsinkable.  The designers of the ship built the ship in such a way that bulkheads could be sealed to contain water should the hull be breached, but it was never foreseen that multiple hull breaches would occur and bulkheads even damaged by the side of the ship being ripped open. Perhaps the only 2 sinking options considered were torpedo and a terrorist attack, I don’t know, but the ripping open of the hull with multiple, conjoined breaches wasn’t foreseen. It was essentially a lack of planning and even more so a lack of imagination.

In your planning have you taken into consideration, imagined, all the possible options and answered all the “what if” scenarios? In life these can be overcome with relative ease, if for example you hear the weather report saying heavy rain the next morning, you will pack a rain coat and leave earlier. Do you have a plan though for when your car won’t start?  Most people don’t have an immediate plan, they make a plan for sure but the plan is a process that if followed you overcome. 

In business planning is less easy, planning or lack of planning costs time, money and even the business itself in some cases. Every business has processes, but how many of them cover the many “what if” situations that may seem unconceivable but nevertheless can occur? In most cases for businesses the planning or process management falls very short at this stage and when the unforeseen happens the business goes into a tailspin.

How well planned is your life or your business? Do you have a coping mechanism? Do you go into the “tailspin” when the unseen happens?

In life you simply have to manage how you react to the circumstance, you can’t go putting in business process management software to manage your life. You can though ensure you have a list of numbers you may need, write them down and keep them somewhere safe and accessibly not just on your phone, for when you have to call for help. Letting others know where you are is also a simple solution. Try not to think or worry about the unseen, we all know that what you think about comes about, but in the back of your mind just reassure yourself that no matter what comes you will be ok.

In business, control has to a little but more rigid. Instruction manuals for fire drills and the like are common and these can be either manual/paper based or can be put into a business process tool. Ensuring staff know where the process or manual is, ensuring they know how to use it is vital. Mapping out the many processes takes time but the value when it comes to the unseen happening in time vs cost will be worth every second if done and done properly. If your business is looking for a solution that can manage your unforeseen the click here.

Ask yourself, “have planned and can I or my business cope with the unexpected?”

Planning is essential, planning for the unseen more so.