Fail to plan; plan to Fail

What we have here is one of my favourite business adages; perhaps of all time.

I don’t know why I love it so… is it the alliteration, the symmetry, or the fact that I can actually remember it? I’m not sure.

One thing I do know is that it has only recently resonated with me…

I had this axiom proclaimed to me a long while ago by a great Business Analyst… perhaps the greatest Business Analyst I’ve ever met. I nodded along in feigned agreement when he said it… at the time it went through one ear and out the other and got stored away in my ‘sayings to use when patronising a Project Manager’ box.

Why, all of a sudden, has this 6 word sentence become my mantra? Well, I shall tell you.

Dishes.

Yes; Dishes. You see, despite my insatiable tech-lust, my household doesn’t have a dishwasher. There is room for one, however, all available funds are presently being diverted to the ‘new bathroom’ and ‘new windows’ projects.

It is therefore my responsibility, nay my *duty* to undertake the washing up of the dinner plates, cutlery, pots, pans, cups, and goodness knows what else in the evenings when I am home.



When I enter the kitchen, and see piled high practically the entire contents of every cupboard sullied and grimy sat menacing and taunting by the kitchen sink, it is fair to say a part of me feels it may be prudent at that time to close the kitchen door, and run… run like I have never run before… and not to stop until my legs are overrun with lactic acid, my lungs stop functioning, my heart-rate is unregisterable and I have sweat 90% of my available hydration (yah… that would be about half-way down the road then…)

However, as a man born of process optimisation, and armed with the proverb “Fail to plan; plan to fail”, I have come to realise, that when something seems insurmountable… take a step back, assess, plan and execute.

I rinse everything off first, which get’s rid of 80% of the grunge anyway (and stops the water getting really dirty), and then organise everything in to appropriate sections (which makes the whole task seem more manageable since everything is compartmentalised and structured).

I then wash up… put everything neatly on the drainer and marvel at my accomplishment for about half an hour.

Ok, so the fact that the next morning Jodie tells me that she had to re-do 2/3rds of my washing up because half of it is still dirty we can overlook I think… but you get the picture! Plus; it most perfectly and literally demonstrates the truism “Rinse:Repeat”.

This whole concept is wholly transferable… in fact, I take exactly the same approach when I change my son (obviously I refer to the “planning before execution” and "outsourcing to Jodie" parts… not rinsing, washing and leaving him on the drainer… that would surely get me in to far more trouble than the quality of my washing up).

So, in conclusion, adequate and appropriate planning can lessen the daunting prospect of holistic delivery by offering the opportunity to step back, assess, resource and deliver against strategic milestones.

Furthermore and most important, I think this clearly demonstrates that all problems can be addressed and resolved with the introduction of technology solutions; in this case, a dishwasher. (If you’re a bit gullible… you may wish to take that last part with a pinch of salt. Dishwasher salt is fine, sea salt would be better).