Planning and It's Cousin Failing (CL Series)

In 1785, Robert Burns penned that famous Scots poem with the penultimate stanza which read:

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane                     / But mouse you are not alone

In proving foresight may be vain:                   /  Planning for future can be in vain

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men        / The best laid plans of mice and men

Gang aft agley,                                             /  Often go awry

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,          / And leave us with nothing grief and pain

For promis'd joy!                                           / For promised joy

Putting down a plan on paper is great. It helps crystallize your goals and gives you a defined target to aspire to. It's just as true though that no project plan can expected to be perfectly executed and "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"

In every project expect challenges. The most common are the notorious three: scope creep, time constraints, and resource constraints. To ground myself in reality, I will outline all the pitfalls I expect in this journey so that I may also adequately prepare for them.

1. Scope Creep
I am very attune to certain personality flaw of myself: what I call "the Idea Junkie Syndrrome" which I compare the Plant in Belbin's Team Role Theory. Belbin says of the Plant “This is that person who will come up with new solutions midway into implementing an agreed on plan which results in disrupting the implementation process of the plan.”  Scope creep meanwhile means casually adding tasks and roles to an existing plan. While these are being added, they seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things but in reality they end up consuming vast yet scarce resources to complete.

With my Idea Junkie Syndrome, I find myself continuously excited by new, ever more ambitious, ever more elaborate ideas despite the first idea I started out with being quite adequate. For example, I will decide to undertake the CL in 10 months; then I will realize that I can do the same with my ACB, shortly thereafter I will read about banner raids and determine it’s a great way to encourage commitment and attendance; then I will think we have two few meetings and propose weekly meetings, then I will notice that we need to improve on our evaluations so I will start conducting Successful Club Series sessions every week, then I will…

Idea Junkie Syndrome is real, and while each idea on its own might deserve merit – continuously adding them to your plan results in targets not being met, burnout and frustration. Cognizant of this flaw, I committed to involving my mentor in my toastmasters’ decisions. This meant that I needed to justify every step and I had wise counsel to temper my over-exuberance. This would help me focus on my CL goals which remained my central and most important objective as per my plan.

2. Time Constraints

To complete both the CL and the ACB I had to complete 29 roles: 21 for the CL and 8 speeches for the ACB. This translated to preparing for and attending at least 29 meetings with the majority being regular toastmaster meetings. The first challenge was how much time each role required to prepare. If I was to do it properly, I would need 147 hours as calculated below, which translated to about 15 hours a month. Assuming I had a maximum of 2 hours a day to allocate to Toastmasters, this meant a whole week of preparation for my roles. In addition, I had the ACB speeches which would need an extra 5 hours each per month for preparation.

Project	CL Roles	Preparatory Hours
Listening	Speech Evaluator	1
	Ah-Counter	1
	Grammarian	1
Critical Thinking	Speech Evaluator	1
	General Evaluator	3
Giving Feedback	Speech Evaluator	1
	Grammarian	1
	General Evaluator	3
Time Management	Timer	1
	Topicmaster	2
Planning and Implementation	Speaker	5
	General Evaluator	3
	Toastmaster	8
Organization & Delegation	Help Organize a Club Speech Contest	10
Facilitation	Topicmaster	2
	Befriend a guest	1
Motivation	Toastmaster	10
	General Evaluator	3
	Chair of Membership Contest	40
Mentoring	Guidance Committee of High Performance Leadership	10
Team Building	Chair a Club Special Event	40
TOTAL HOURS		147

The second challenge was getting the opportunity to undertake 29 roles or 25 if you count only the meeting roles. We remain with a maximum 21 meetings until the close of the Toastmasters year, and it would be hardly sufficient or fair to expect to perform these roles at those meetings.

The solution would therefore need to be two fold. Allocate predicable and sufficient time towards Toastmasters preparations in my calendar and utilize the opportunity to take up roles in the other clubs in Kenya as well as doing speeches outside the club setting.

I resolved to prepare for both my speech and my roles at least three weeks in advance where possible and book for slots in other clubs with similar notice period. To book for meeting roles in other clubs I would ask my Vice President of Education (VPE) for assistance. I would carefully read and re-read the objectives of every role in my Competent Leadership manual and reflect on it with regard to my own work environment that it may make more meaning to me. This would also help me apply the lessons I would learn more immediately for practical benefit. Such preparation in advance would avoid a last minute rush which would inevitably be inefficient use of my time.

3. Resource Constraints
Sure Toastmasters doesn’t cost much but one still needs to be ready to invest to reap the rewards. My first challenge was that I didn’t have a CL manual. I had made the order from World Headquarters but the manuals were yet to arrive. So far I had made do with borrowing someone’s manuals to read the objectives and prepare but this wouldn’t work for long. With my first role confirmed for 19^th of August, I  would need to get my manual so that I could carry it and have it evaluated.

Attending a minimum of four meetings a month would also be a requirement if I had to achieve the goals I had set out for myself.

"An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!" 

Planning is great, but too much planning to accomplish one's goals might have the opposite effect and leave us burnt out and frustrated. Consider then how we should emulate the "living for the moment" mouse which is the inspiration of the poem in Burns' final stanza


"Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!  / Still you (mouse) are blessed compared to me
The present only toucheth thee           / Only the present affects you
But och! I backward cast my e'e       / But alas, I cast my eye in the past
On prospects drear                          / On drear prospects
An' forward, tho' I canna see           / And to the future though I cannot see
I guess an' fear."                              / I foretell bad things and fear it.


As much as I need to plan for days ahead and keep in mind what has brought me to this stage so far, I must enjoy the present. Have fun in the present and be unburdened by worry that my plans might not come to fruition.