Plan Before You Act: A Simple Technique for Achieving Business Success
To succeed in anything, it is important to know where you are and where you want to go. This applies to driving across states, building a business, growing your family positively, or helping your community or religious organization grow.
Action is essential, but thinking out a strategy before you begin is more critical. Doing so will save you days, years, and a lifetime. Before you make a move, you must always think ahead of all the possibilities that could happen. If I do this, this happens, or these three options could present themselves. Knowing ahead of time how you will utilize which possibility presents itself and how you will react before getting there will make all the difference between your success, a setback, or total disappointment. I’ve used this philosophy for years, which has helped me tremendously in my life, education, career, and family. I was sharing this strategy with a friend, a psychologist by trade, over lunch one day, and he told me I didn’t play checkers; I played chess. I thought this was an interesting observation and saw the truth as I thought about it. Here is how you can do the same. The secret is thinking ahead, several moves ahead.
This technique works on a simple premise: visualize before you act. Think of all possibilities and the next steps you will take toward achieving your goal based upon which one of the options is chosen by the other person. You do not have control of how others will act. You do have control of what your next move will be if the other person chooses option “A” or option “B.” It is easy to act; it is difficult to ponder all of the what-ifs. This method has little risk unless you don’t take the time to play it well. Nothing is over until you either say it is over or blow it. I’ll give you two examples. One day, I wanted my child to do something in her best interest, but I wanted it to be her idea, not mine. (I’ve found people like to do what they think of rather than what you try to get them to do.) I thought of several ways to get there. The first two didn’t work. The third option did. I had a fourth and fifth option but didn’t have to go there. I got there in three. My daughter “thought” of what would be in her best interest, and she did it. It was a win/win for both of us. Another opposite example: I was speaking with a branding “expert” who wanted to collaborate with me. To his shock, after several meetings, I told him I wasn’t ready to work with him on a project. Rather than go to the next option (which might have been labeled What if Clay says “no” at the juncture), he became defensive and blew the deal. I’ll not work with him again. He had every opportunity to work with me in the future but lost the chance because he didn’t plan out all the what-ifs and simply reacted to a temporary setback.
So, how do I calculate this? I take a piece of paper (usually several) and create a Top. It is a tree to some extent that will get me to the top, whatever that is (a child loving to do homework, getting another child to eat spinach, working with a particular business on an opportunity that I think would be good for both of us, planting blackberry bushes in the garden, it doesn’t matter).
Before we start, think of a Top, like one of those things you spin with your fingers. It’s little on the top, a globe in the middle, and trim on the bottom.
First, you need to recognize where you are and then define where you want to be. This is the top. Now, create your Top with all the possible yes/no/maybe branches to get to where you want to go. What it looks like is a spinning top: trim at the top (where you are), widening in the middle (all the options – these are downward lines, maybe three for each option that says “yes,” “no,” “maybe” and from there more downward lines that indicate what I’ll do if this option is chosen, and then this continues to build until it starts to grow inward as options narrow), and then small at the bottom (ultimate objective). Everything leads from where you are to the ultimate aim.
It may sound trite, but for everything we want, someone else has it or can give it to us. It is your job, through strategic planning, to make that happen. I want to add this because it is incredible how many people forget this part: we all want to win. The only good deal, the only satisfactory solution, is when everyone wins. Including two things in every option is important: what is in it for you and what is in it for someone else. Include this in your Top diagram. Not including either creates a lose/win situation. You want win/win. You want others to feel delighted with you, and by working with you, they also profit. Win/win is the only way to go. Never make it one-sided. Remember, from your side, a win can appear to be a loss if you don’t look at it from high above, as in the second example I cited above. Taking one step back to next take three steps forward means you have gained two steps towards your goal. You didn’t lose anything; you gained two steps. It doesn’t work that way for the other person (they don’t like to take even one step back); this is something only to remember strategically for you. Be willing to take one step back to help the other person get what they want so you can take two steps forward.
You have the option ahead of you to compete successfully and to dominate in whatever area of your life you choose. The choice is yours. This is not manipulation. If it is win/win, it helps everyone. Having my child get good grades in school helps me with college scholarships ten years later. Getting someone to open a business door for me by giving them something they want is helping both of our lives. Regardless of your ambition, though, thinking ahead and using the Top diagram as a planning tool will help you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.
Plan before you act.
Like this blog? Sign up for Clay’s newsletter, which offers encouragement, skills, resources, and knowledge relating to a balanced life while writing, marketing, promoting, and living. https://claystafford.com/newsletter
