Planning and Plans - A Key to Success

Summary of Dennis Guzik's Podcast on Planning

Hi folks, I'm Dennis Guzik, the old jarhead, here to give you great career advice to help you progress in your career. Today, we're discussing the importance of planning and how it can be a key to your success.

Key Points:

• Planning is essential for complex tasks that can't be handled instinctively. Simple tasks like making a ham sandwich don't require a plan, but hosting a large dinner does.
• In the Marine Corps, Dennis learned structured planning as a war planner, helping to deal with potential threats to the US.
• When to plan: You need a plan when the task is too complex to wing it.

Components of a Simple Plan:

1. Tasks (Scope): Identify what needs to be done.
2. Timeline (Schedule): Ensure there's enough time to complete tasks or adjust as needed.
3. Resources (Budget): Make sure you can afford to do what you plan.

Example of a Dinner Plan:

• Tasks: Shopping, cooking, serving.
• Timeline: Shopping the day before, cooking in order to finish all components simultaneously.
• Resources: Budget for the meal.

Benefits of Planning:

1. Clarifies complexity: Planning forces you to think through a task, revealing its true complexity.
2. Adaptability: A plan allows you to adapt to changes and request necessary resources from your boss.
3. Guidance for others: Having a plan helps guide the actions of others involved, increasing the likelihood of success.

Additional Insights:

• Primary and implied tasks: Identify primary tasks and any additional tasks they imply (e.g., making a menu, prepping food, setting the table).
• Timeline organization: Spread out tasks if you're working alone and ensure they align with deadlines.
• Resource management: Cost out each required item and adjust if necessary.

Final Thoughts:

• Plan to succeed: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Planning is crucial for career success.
• Further reading: Check out Dennis's book, "Find a Job that Fits Your Life," for more on planning in your career.

Call to Action: Take Dennis's advice, make a plan, and watch your career thrive. Thanks for listening

Chapters

• 0:02 Benefits of Planning for Success
• 6:30 The Importance of Career Planning

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi folks. Well, I'm Dennis Guzik and I'm the old jarhead, and I am here to give you great career advice, advice that's guaranteed to help you as you progress through that great career that you're having. And part of the reason you're having a great career is that you listen to my podcast. So keep listening, tell your friends and let's get going. So today I'm going to talk about planning and plans right as a key to your success. So I got to make an admission. I got to confess I am a planner. I enjoy it. I enjoy thinking through a problem and then I feel a need to make a plan, but it's just wing it. My only exception is when traveling. I like to be spontaneous and change course and go see things that I hadn't planned on, but besides that, I like to have a plan. I've always been that way, but I learned a lot more about the structured way of planning while I was in my beloved Marine Corps.

Speaker 1: 1:09

In the Marine Corps, I was a war planner. What does that mean? Well, the US National Command authorities developed what they think are threats to the US that necessitate not good at English having a way to deal with them. This gets pushed down to the services, and that's where I came in For one of those threats. I was one of several Marine Corps planners, so learned a lot about planning there and I'm going to try to help you out with this as we go through. I want to break this down a little bit for you here.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Okay, first is when you need a plan and what needs to be in that plan. I think you need a plan either on paper or in your noggin, when the task is too complex to just go by and do based on your instincts. For example, if you need to make a ham sandwich, you probably do not need a plan. If you do, you're probably a knucklehead. You know what. All you need to do is put the ham on the bread and eat it. It's natural. But what if you're going to host a large dinner? You got a bunch of people coming over. You probably should have a plan to make sure that dinner is a success. But what should a simple plan consist of? Okay, easy, first. What needs to get done, when and how do you resource it? That's what's in a basic plan the what are the tasks In project management.

Speaker 1: 2:47

That's called scope. Then you need to put it on a timeline to make you think through whether or not you have enough time to finish those tasks, or if you have to adjust either your tasks or your timeline. And finally, in its most simplest form, resources usually means budget. That ensures you can afford to do what you plan to do. So, using our example of a dinner right, your tasks might be go shopping, cook food and serve. It Sounds pretty simple. The timeline might include shopping the day before, cooking the food in an order that makes all the components of that meal finish at the same time, and the resources is your budget for the meal Simple stuff. Next, let's talk about the act of planning. Ok, and we'll continue on a little bit with that dinner thing there. So now you know when you should plan and what's in your plan. So let's talk about first the tasks or, in PMP language, the scope.

Speaker 1: 3:49

The key to getting this right is to take all the major things that you need to get done Okay, the primary tasks and think about what those tasks also imply need to get done. So, in our simple example, your simple tasks were cook, serve, shop, cook and serve. Well, what other things might you have to do? Well, how about making a menu before you go shopping? How about prepping the food before you cook and how about setting the table before you serve. Each one of those implied tasks are necessary and take time, and if they're not accounted for, you can find your plan falling apart. So then you take those tasks the primary and applied tasks and you put them on a timeline and you find out whether you have the tasks that you need and are they in the order. Some have to happen at the same time and some overlap. If you're only one person, you need to spread them out. It also shows you whether you can get the job done by the deadline you set, which, for our example, is when that great meal you bought and cooked is to be served. And finally, is the resources. In our simple example, you need to cost each thing you need to purchase. If, after doing that, it comes in above your budget, then you need to decide whether to cut some costs or adjust your budget.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Many folks who do not plan end up saying, wow, that was more expensive than I had planned for. That's because those knuckleheads didn't plan. Okay, what's the benefit of doing all this? I just told you how to do a bunch of stuff. It takes time and you're going, so why? Why do I need it? What's the benefit? So I think let's focus that. You know. This is where you can see the benefit and also the benefit to your career, right?

Speaker 1: 5:35

I think there's three main benefits of planning and they make a solid case for doing it, and I think that if you think about this in terms of your career, you'll be better off. First, the act of planning forces you to think through a task in a way that just jumping in to solve that task does not do. You may be surprised to find out that the task you were assigned to do by your boss is more complicated than you first thought, and that's not something you want to find out halfway through that task. The second is that having a plan gives you something to shift off of once you get started. If something changes, then you can go back to your boss and say, hey, boss, yeah, something changed, the plan's changed. I need either more money or more time or something along those lines. If you don't have a plan, you're just kind of winging it, and your boss may not like that.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Then the third benefit of planning, especially on your career and having a plan, is that you're working with others. You have something to show them, something to guide their actions by just whatever comes out of your head at the moment, their actions by just whatever comes out of your head at the moment, they'll appreciate that and your task or project is much more likely to succeed with that shared plan. All right, rambled along enough about this thing, about having a plan, but it's serious. You should have one for anything. That's more than just an instinctual task. The bottom line if you want to succeed, make a plan right. There's an old adage that says if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail, and I think that's true and that's not good for your career. So now, from the old jarhead, take my advice and you will do better within your career than you would otherwise. And take a look at my book Find a Job that Fits your Life. It also demonstrates the use of planning in your career in a larger scope. Thanks for listening and goodbye, thank you, thank you.