Going off plan and staying on strategy

When I was a broke student and single mum, I remember doing countless household budgets to try and keep on top of things. I’d put the ideal budget together, and then think “well, it won’t work this week, because the car registration is due, but next week, this will be the ideal budget…”

Next week never comes though, does it?

No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Our current operating environment is proof of this.

But here’s the thing – when it’s not pandemic, it will be something else. Natural disaster, weather, regulatory change, financial upheaval, restructuring, political scandal, community change… see what I mean?

The ticket is knowing that while it’s perfectly acceptable, desirable and in fact unavoidable to go off-plan – we need to stay on strategy.

The big picture that you’re aiming for, the priorities that you’ve set, and the way you want to work with people need to be guiding your change response, not put aside. If you’ve set a priority for high-performance culture, or community resilience, or making internal operations easier, this is time that those priorities are being tested.

Rather than seeing your strategy as an extra thing you don’t have time for now, it should be the lens you use to filter your decision-making.

Ask yourself:

- How do we respond in a way that reflects our priorities and gets us closer to our long term vision?

- What is the opportunity here for us to ‘prove’ we are dedicated to our why?

Stay safe out there everyone.