Resisting planning is more than wasteful – it's foolish, too

By William Seidman Many people don’t like to plan – have you noticed? I am working with two teams, on projects that will touch thousands of people. In each team there are people who resist taking even a few hours to plan. I’m not talking about endless meetings – I’m talking about a few hours’  planning. One person – responsible for a marketing program that effects hundreds of millions of dollars in business – said, “I just can’t afford to plan.” We have reduced the planning process, even for mega-projects, to just a few days.  One manager said: “We accomplished in 3 days what would otherwise have taken 6 months.” Yet even people who participated didn’t want to plan any more. Does being thoughtful and planning go against human nature, or are people simply in so much of a rush that planning seems like a needless process?]]>