Almost anyone can write a brilliant plan full of great ideas and wonderfully inspiring concepts and objectives. Far fewer can actually pull that plan off, which is why many good plans fail.
I am a student of plan creation and execution. The subject fascinates me; here’s why.
Plan creation is that part of the process where you get to self-express and detail out what the future will be. There’s no pressure here – you’re just writing up a bunch of intentions and hoped-for conclusions. It’s fun. It’s creative. And relatively easy. You feel exhilarated as you’re writing. There are so many good things that could happen. It’s a positive experience.
And now the plan, with some minor revisions, is approved.
And the drudgery begins. Now you have to deliver. Now you’re on the front line facing headwinds, changing circumstances, failure, opposition and a host of other energy-deflating events. Now it’s hard. And lonely. And it’s all on you.
So you want to quit or delay, and do other things that are more fulfilling. The temptation is big. Execute the plan, or find some relief and peace and do something else. And that “do something else” bit is why your good plan will not be executed properly – which means that the plan you had will not stay on its intended course.
Tom Peters, the co-author of In Search of Excellence, says the following about this dynamic: “Cut the BS. Can the excuses. Forget the fancy reports. Get moving now. Get the job done. On this score, nothing has changed in 50 years, including the maddening fact that all too often a business strategy is inspiring, but the execution mania is largely AWOL.”
Get moving! Get the job done! Stay with it! Execute.
If you’ve done your caseload planning right, you have a plan for each donor on your caseload. That plan is about 60% accurate, meaning that you did the best you could when you wrote it but, because you can’t possibly know all future circumstances and events, a good portion of your plan will need to be changed and modified.
But you have the plan. Now, get to it! Execute. And stay with it no matter what. Yes, and as you execute that plan, some days will be so boring and tedious that you will want to quit and do something else. Don’t do it! Stay with it. Execute.
And as you discover those elements of your plan that aren’t right, just change them without giving it a thought. Do not, under any circumstance, let the lack of rightness be your excuse to stop executing. Adapt, revise and keep moving. Execute.
Too often, Jeff and I hear MGOs say: “I meant to…” or “I was going to…” This is procrastination at its best, and it is why that good intention you had – and that good plan you wrote for your donors – is going nowhere.
If there is one New Year’s resolution we would hope you would make, it is to execute ALL of your donor plans fully and faithfully in 2019. Because if you do it, you’ll have happier donors and a better result – and you yourself will be in a much better place. Do it. (Tweet it!)
Richard