General Douglas MacArthur said, “Every military disaster can be explained in two words. Too late.” His wisdom is transferable to most things that go wrong in business and in life.
The general is, of course, speaking on lack of preparation and planning. Another famous individual, Benjamin Franklin, said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” He is also speaking about preparation and planning.
Through analysis of options and anticipation of what can go wrong, we can better prepare to prevent problems. Even if the problems still arise, the preparation and anticipation process will make us better able to deal with them.
What we are talking about here is preparing to take an action. I have spoken about the ladder of inference before and there is a webinar about the ladder Here.
Essentially, we want to be sure to ask the right questions, and to get the right answers before we act. Part of the process should be to ignore irrelevant information so it does not interfere with the preparation. We also need to realize that emotional tagging may have too much influence in the preparation process. Emotional tagging is what happens when we store information in our memory. The emotions involved with the memory are attached and stored with the memory. When we recall the memory, to use it in a similar circumstance, the emotional tag may unduly influence the new decision. For more on emotional tagging see the 7 Triggers to Yes webinar. Click Here
Asking “What is the worst that can happen?” will put the decision in proper perspective by determining the possible damage of the wrong action. I find this question helps me realize that not all actions may lead to disaster.
Another perspective clearing quote is that “what can’t be changed must be accepted and what can’t be accepted must be changed.” There are things that just cannot be influenced or changed.
The biggest advantage to preparation is that you need not fear the outcome. You have done all you can and even if the outcome is undesired, you probably have avoided the “military disaster.” The General spoke about.
If things go awry, you can always take actions to redirect the outcome. Or….accept it and open a bottle of wine.
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