Pros and Cons of Planning

What is the right amount of planning for a team?

By Lenka Davis

Who has sat in a room or on a call with their team working on a plan and feeling that it might not be worth it to spend any more time on it? Or maybe the plan needs to have much more refinement. Or you have been in a quarterly or yearly review meeting and found that a majority of the plan was not completed.

On the one hand, you envision a full plan of what needs to be done and then it is a matter of executing that plan, or you feel as if the time it takes to work out that plan could have been better spent just getting started. It’s a conundrum.

Plans are supposed to be a process that decides what is to be done and then how those goals or strategies in the plan are to be achieved.

So what are the pros and cons of planning, especially for a startup that has ever changing variables happening at a much higher rate than an established business.

Cons

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

— Gloria Steinem

Time consuming

Planning can get in the way of actually getting started. Finding the right moment to say the plan is done and starting action on that plan is key. Plans don’t need to be formally written down, they can be in notes or even in a team discussion. As long as the team knows what direction the project will take then the method of communicating the plan is not critical.

A Project Management Institute article describes a plan review meeting when anywhere from nothing to half of the plan was done as a coin-flip, “mathematically, that being on the plan was no better than a coin-flip as to if it would complete (at best), or a direct sign that something would never get done (at worst.)”

Overconfidence of the plan

Plans can cause managers to be a bit complacent because they think that everyone is moving along doing what they need to do. What is missing is monitoring the activity or the team members. Small adjustments may need to be made, team members may need clarification to what is being done and so it can be detrimental to the project if the team skips checking in with each other or not doing minor revisions to the plan.

“Just because you made a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.”

— Taylor Swift

Limited Flexibility

Startups need to stay flexible and a plan might just be too rigid for a small business that is trying to find its niche in the marketplace. That does not mean there is not a larger goal or strategic direction for the company. It could be that there needs to be more research done or that team members need to stay flexible to what needs to be done each week or month.

Pros

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— Warren Buffett

Better resource allocation

A kid’s birthday party, a group of friends going hiking, a free day of a family vacation, etc, if you have ever been the leader for one of these situations you know how fast it can get out of control. Without each person having something to do or a role to play it is a big messy situation. Team members will be much more productive and you will get more effective use out of them if there is a plan. Allocate your resources wisely and you can keep a small startup moving forward until you get the next customer, milestone reached or round of funding.

Increased success

Planning helps startups or small businesses to anticipate challenges, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to achieve their goals. If businesses have discussed and thought about what they would do for multiple scenarios they will be prepared, coordinated and can act fast when the opportunities arise.

Attracting investors

A solid plan will show investors where the potential for profitability and growth are for the business. A plan does not need to be elaborate, it does need to give investors what they need to know to convince then this is an investment they won’t want to miss. Companies that want to attract investors and have a well thought out plan are at an advantage since they are more organized and have a clear documented direction.

Fun Fact

Goal setting is not a new concept. Historically, the ancient Greeks believed in the concept of "telos," which referred to a purpose or end goal that everything was striving towards. Not only the Greeks but also in Hinduism, the concept of "Dharma" emphasizes the importance of setting goals and working towards fulfilling one's life purpose.