Plan A

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You here a lot of talk in project-land about "Plan B": What's Plan B? they say.

But, I've always been a proponent of Plan A: to wit: Do no harm; in many cases, Do Nothing.
Now comes a book that somewhat validates Plan A:

I learned about this handy guide from author Keith Murningham from a book review. There, we learn about the "leadership law" (who knew there even was a leadership law?)

“Think of the reaction that you want first, then determine the actions you can take to maximise the chances that those reactions will actually happen.”

Now, the corollary is that if you don't follow the law, you may not get the results you want.
Fair enough; that happens a lot.

But, among the sins of leaders that lead to poor results, two stood out for me:

1. A focus on their own actions
2. The belief that others understand them completely.

The idea behind '1' is that although 'actions speak louder than words', sometimes the situation is best handled without words or actions. Perhaps others can get you the reaction you want... thus, we come to "Do Nothing".

The idea behind '2' is a failure to exercise the "law of communication". (Full disclosure: this is my own law, but I learned it from others)

1. Tell them what you're going to the tell them
2. Tell them
3. Tell them what you told them

In one step or the other, they are likely to 'get it'. However, Plan A -- Do Nothing -- may still be operative, since communicating may be the only action needed, and all else will flow nicely without harm

One could only hope so....

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