On Planning

Last week Seth wrote a blog post titled When execution gets cheaper, so should planning.  Provocative statement, specially when planning is at the score of your business!

Here is how he concludes:

The goal should be to have the minimum number of meetings and scenarios and documentation necessary to maximize the value of execution. As it gets faster and easier to actually build the thing, go ahead and make sure the planning (or lack of it) keeps pace.

Facilitating meetings is also core to our work here at IISC! Should we do less of that too?

Seth’s point is actually consonant with a lot of what we’ve been learning and moving forward.  As we shift away from the technical to the adaptive, from the complicated to the complex, planning becomes less and less relevant.

Our work is about collaboration. It is about working well together in an increasingly complex world. It is about experimenting probing sensing – it is about learning as we do.

Our work is about building in the reflection and connectivity that is necessary for true innovation.

Yes! There is planning.  But planning is no longer a place to hide.  Planning becomes the process by which we distill our intention.  Planning here is how we become clear about our vision and the desired outcomes all of our work.  Planning is how we determine what it is we trying to learn.