Plans were made to be broken

A big part of my job as project manager is to make plans. People need a plan to get things done. When I make a plan, the best thing in the world is to be able to predict what will be happening in the next little bit.

That’s what a plan is: I will do this, and this will be the result.

Plans are like science- they love to be sure and stable. Reliably executeable.

But the world changes under us. We use what information we know, and then we find out more. Then, as more people find out more even bigger changes happen.

I remember the plans that we made for COVID a year ago, back when it was still called the Coronavirus. I took steps and made concessions. And then I found out more and did things differently.

It was only a year ago but it seems very distant now. I had such limited information, and plans were made and remade on a very frequent basis.

The reality is, things are always changing. But I can’t help but make plans.

I’m a kid with a set of blocks. I will stack them, build them with delight and then they get knocked down.

They are always knocked down.

Plans are what I do, and yet I also know no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

The blocks crash. They always crash.

It’s sad when they are knocked down. But the happiest kids start making a new stack immediately.

I’m not always the happiest kid.

But it helps to remember that the blocks are all still there. I can build again, and this time it will be magnificent. Until it falls again, but I don’t have to think about that yet.

Something new is ready to be created, and I can’t wait to get started.

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