No plan, no matter how beautiful, thorough, sensible, and practical, survives contact with reality.
No blueprint, template, model, road map, or script will survive contact with your change initiative.
Let me be clear: there’s a place for a solid model of any process.
And let me be even more clear: I am 100% a systems-and-process person, and I’m 100% in favor of plans and planning.
But a model of a real, changeable, variable situation is only a model; it’s only guidance. No situation is going to perfectly match up to whatever model (blueprint, template, etc.) you’re hoping to apply.
Don’t get stuck on the model, thinking it “should” be that way.
Don’t get stuck on the plan, thinking it “should” work out.
Fluid situations never follow the model – or the plan.
Systems, processes, and plans must be flexible enough to adapt to the reality of changeable, variable situations.
As the inimitable Mike Tyson pointed out, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face – and as Dwight Eisenhower remarked, “Plans are nothing: planning is everything.”
What do you do when your plan bumps into the reality of resistance to change? Drop me a note through my contact form and we’ll set a time to have a conversation – not a sales pitch!