The disease of excessive planning and of functionalism. When a leader plans everything down to the last detail and believes that with perfect planning things will fall into place, he or she becomes an accountant or an office manager. Things need to be prepared well, but without ever falling into the temptation of trying to eliminate spontaneity and serendipity, which is always more flexible than any human planning. We contract this disease because it is easy and comfortable to settle in our own sedentary and unchanging ways.
Gary Hamel, The 15 Diseases of Leadership, According to Pope Francis
The ‘Fish Eye’ was cruising through the Pacific en route to the Pearl Islands. The rising sun, the salty breeze, and the occasional shower -generously provided by a larger than expected wave- kept us awake, excited, and eager to reach Mogo Mogo. The weather forecast had been accurate and the day screamed joy and fun non-stop.
Everything -and I mean everything- had been dutifully packed. We had the beach chairs, umbrellas, food, snacks, drinks, medicines, emergency kits, all kinds of lotions, hats, fire-making and cooking devices, lamps, waterproof gear in case of a storm, eating utensils, and every possible gadget created to have the ‘perfect’ beach and boat experience.
It was the perfect vacation picture -fast boat, sunny day, lovely island, happy family- and yet it was not. As I navigated and tried to surf the waves, I wondered how many of these ‘perfect’ beach and boat experiences we would be able to withstand.
Grant me a bit of family indiscretion. An unwritten rule in the house was that my -then-wife managed the family outings. Once an activity or destination was agreed upon, she would take charge and would plan everything to the last detail. I would follow her lead and execute. She was brilliant! Once we got to the destination anything you could possibly crave for, you had available. Almost any contingency had been foreseen, and the children and I were spoiled rotten with comfort and safety.
However, even before we started our journey, we were stressed and I was exhausted. So much energy had been put into planning the ‘perfect’ weekend, that it was no longer ‘perfect’. We had not left the house and we already were short-tempered, on edge. Now that I’ve read Pope Francis’ message on the leadership disease of excessive planning’, I’ve come to realize that we -I was as responsible as her- fell into the “temptation of trying to eliminate spontaneity and serendipity […]”.
We so wanted to have everything under control, to enjoy to the maximum, to avoid any danger, that we forgot that all we needed was to have fun, to travel light, to run risks, to be happy.
I cannot turn the clock back on time, I can assure you I would like to, but you can assess whether you are now responsibly planning to achieve the expected results, or if you are -as I was- pretending to play demi-god with the power to foresee, prevent, and respond to every little hiccup life threw at us, even profiting from someone else’ willingness and ability to take on the hefty responsibility of ‘having everything under control’.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating ‘winging-it’, ‘playing-by-ear’, or improvising every time. That is not professional nor desirable. I’m encouraging you to avoid falling into the other extreme, pretending to be able to plan and prepare for everything and anything, or expecting others in your family or your team to be able to do so and chastise them when they don’t.
A leader requires to think ahead, plan the way forward, identify and mitigate risks and put in place safety mechanisms to avert or respond to a crisis. A leader is equally, and particularly, expected to manage the unexpected, lead through the crisis, and make decisions innovatively and effectively, while accepting that some of them -maybe many- might be wrong.
In a nutshell, a leader must be assertive enough to take action in the face of uncertainty, and humble enough to accept that -despite the good intentions- those actions might be wrong and would need to be corrected. Of course, a leader should also enable others to take risks, make decisions and make mistakes.
Please recall that the best team is not the one making fewer mistakes, is the one able to respond and learn from them most quickly. In the end, as Paul Hanna says in his conference “Everyday Serendipity”, living a happy and successful life -a goal most of us share- might come to simply be more resilient, more optimistic, and more appreciative. What do you think about that?