Managers make plans. They do it often and over long periods of time. The rest of their time is spent executing those plans.
However, as we all know, sometimes things go wrong. Worse still, often those things going wrong are outside of your control or sphere of influence – you are simply a victim of their effects.
Effective managers have built a risk register, mitigating actions and even a backup plan, ready for such occurrences They learn that they should think through every decision and every action built into their plan and identify what might go wrong – and what external factors might affect it. Then they plan in detail or in outline depending on he nature of the threat, what actions they might take if things do go wrong.
Jim Collins, the management guru and author of the book From Good to Great, calls this ‘Productive Paranoia’, suggesting that we should all be paranoid about future events that might derail our plans.
“The question is not if bad things will happen, it’s when,” Collins said during the 2023 World Business Forum summit. “And it’s what you do before the storm comes” that determines how well you’ll react or recover.
Of course, overthinking about unfortunate events or calamities can be dangerous, but not as bad as expecting all things to turn out as you plan.
You really DO need a Plan B.