BRX Pro Tip: The Planning Fallacy
Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s talk a little bit about this thing called the planning fallacy.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. A lot of people are really focused in on planning and trying to kind of anticipate things in the future. And I think there is a place for planning. But there’s an old saying that my mother used to say to me when I was young, that people plan and God laughs. Meaning that you can plan all you want, but things are going to happen that are outside of your control.
Lee Kantor: So, a lot of times the planning fallacy kind of leads you to focus on maybe overly optimistic scenarios, or a potential obstacle that you didn’t anticipate bubbles up, or a setback that you didn’t see coming happen. So, here’s some tips to overcome that planning fallacy.
Lee Kantor: Number one, try to take an outside view if you can. And I know this is difficult because we’re all so immersed in our businesses. It’s difficult to kind of look at what you’re doing through the lens of an outsider, but it is useful to kind of say, okay, how does my competition look at what I’m thinking about doing or what I’m doing? Or what would somebody that’s in a totally different industry, how might they attack this? Or even get somebody, like you’re in a leadership position, but maybe get somebody that’s kind of your boots on the ground and get their feedback on what it looks like from their end.
Lee Kantor: Just try to look at what you’re planning to do through different lenses involving different people, and that kind of might give you some ideas, and it might give you some opportunities that you didn’t anticipate.
Lee Kantor: Another thing to do is to identify obstacles. And, again, you do this from a variety of viewpoints. You don’t just do it from your lens down. It’s important to look at obstacles through the lens of your leadership team, the boots on the grounds teams, your clients. You know, the more people’s perspectives you can take into account, the better the picture is going to be and the closer you’re going to get to good planning.
Lee Kantor: And then, number three is track your progress because it’s important to understand how long things take, the different outcomes that you actually achieved. All of these things are going to help you plan more effectively in the future.
Lee Kantor: And then, most importantly, number four and this is one of Business RadioX’s core philosophies, return the learning. Share what you learned to the rest of your team and even to your clients. Let as many people know as possible that could benefit from what you’ve learned and do this as quickly as possible.
