I’ve just spent the week in San Antonio with more than 100 staffing professionals at the Affiliate Staffing Group’s Fall Conference. What was everyone talking about?
Now that the election is over, what will the economy do?
How do I embrace AI in my technology stack?
Do I have the right people on my team?
What’s my plan for next year?
The keynote speaker* talked about being ‘agile’ and planning for a crisis before one actually occurs. The acronym he used throughout his presentation was VUCA:
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity
We can create the most intricate plans and believe that we can achieve them, but with VUCA lurking in the shadows, no plan is ever certain. So how do we account for things we can’t see or anticipate?
We plan for it! By building “check points” into the plan, we create hard stops that allow us to look around and see what is going on around us. To blindly keep pushing forward on a plan that no longer fits the environmentis a waste of time and resources.
Business plans are critical. As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you you there.” But develop an agile plan — one that allows for frequent review against reality. This way, the plan can be modified to consider volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
Once you’ve done that, you can rest assured that your plan, even if it’s not what it started out to be, is still the path to your goal. And isn’t reaching your goal the purpose of planning?
*Mike Richardson of REF Global