How to make a plan

Nov

13.08

Today my business partner (and as it happens, wife) will be sitting down to make plans.

We do this every six months or so, a time to hit the pause button, step out of the minutiae and ask ourselves just what the heck is going on around here.

We’ve already started sketching out the topics and issues we want to talk about, and I’m noticing how they fit on four different levels:

The immediate, everyday business level. “What’s happening on this project?” “Did you send X to Y?” “Is it you or me who was supposed to do Z?” This is all about tying up loose ends from the daily and weekly work we do.

That typically leads to…

The 2009 plan. “What would be the two or three big wins in 2009?” “What’s our Great Work for the year?” “What other structures do we need to build?” “What’s the right balance between travel and staying at home?” This will involve calendars, figuring out what to say No to as well as Yes to, and committing to what I once heard someone call “the valuable few”.

Sometimes that then bounces down to…

The personal level. “What do I want to achieve in the next little while?” “What do I want to learn?” “What will be my own adventure this year?” “What’s my Great Work?”. This is all about shifting the focal length and getting clear on your own agenda and what makes you tick.

And rarely, very rarely, you get to

The Meaning of Life level. “What does happiness look like?” “Where will we live?” “What’s the life we’re trying to build?” This shifts the focal length again and makes you ask whether the life you’re building is actually the life you want … or whether it just happens to be the life you’ve gotten into the habit of.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be bouncing around all four levels … I can see that gleam in Marcella’s eye, and I can feel my own nervous excitement about it too.
=> By the by, what plans are YOU making?

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