In Our Hands – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

Three basic reflections before strategic planning

Photo by Rita Morais on Unsplash

A new month begins with the end of the year in sight, and plenty of questions may come up about the goals set back in January. It would be no surprise to have spotted, months ago, some that never left the drawing board, others that will probably be half met and some that were very likely exceeded, by a wide margin. Taking an honest look at all three isn’t easy, yet these are the months to focus our efforts on next year’s goals (without forgetting that we’re in the middle of a five-year horizon, or a wonderful decade). What do the three cases have in common: goals met, goals half met and goals we won’t reach?

Everything that is, or was, in our hands to do is the spearhead for knowing whether we did the right thing. The main analysis had to start from having done everything within our reach, including how we might have protected ourselves from what was completely uncertain. This comes from a student I think very highly of, who asked me in class this week whether anything can be completely uncertain. Knowing there are internal and external risks in everything we do, we’ll always have a way to protect ourselves from what’s coming, what we can foresee and what we can’t. What I take from his question is that we’ll always have the option of doing what’s in our hands.

Looking at what we achieved, half achieved and missed comes down to three reflections I believe should always be made, which I sum up as lessons learned: What did I (we) do well? What did I (we) do badly? What could I (we) do better? What did I do well? Since we’ll always have done what was in our hands, or at least started out doing everything we had the resources for, and thanks to good luck, a good strategy or plan, or the stars and divine providence lining up, absolutely everything went well. It’s important to write down exactly those things, the "strategies" that worked for us and will surely work again.

What did I, or we, do badly? "Badly" isn’t my favorite word, but being honest about the recipe is what lets us perfect it. Too much salt or pepper, or none at all, changes the flavor of any recipe. If we simply did nothing toward our goals, we can’t expect them to have happened by magic. And here’s something very powerful about purpose: most of what we do badly very likely comes from actions that go against our purpose, vision or values.

What could we have done better? This is one of my favorite reflections. It may take the most gray matter. It gathers great lessons learned and generates the most ideas. We’re very good at working out everything we could have done better, and it’s the best shovel for digging up diamonds for whatever we may later want to do differently. Before taking on any strategic planning, around this time of year it’s worth running a small workshop on three key questions (I didn’t invent them, I’ve been learning them from the Stoics) that show us what we did WELL, what we did badly and what we COULD HAVE DONE BETTER.

Warm regards and all the best,

• Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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