Not often in life do things go perfectly as planned. Overcoming adversity and challenge is routine in all parts of life and business. No doubt, 2020 has thrown its share of challenges at us which have challenged and stressed our systems. Though some are looking forward to quarters three and four with high optimism, assuming it will only be smooth sailing, there is no guarantee and we can not afford to throw caution to the wind.
Remember December of 2019. It wasn’t that long ago. We were brimming with excitement as we set our goals for 2020, wrote our business plans, and made New Year’s resolutions. I saw many jubilant posts reading “20/20 in 2020” and the like. How many of us planned for a global-health event which would pause our economy for three months, legislation and regulations challenging the operations of our businesses, riots, and maybe even murder hornets! Truth is, there is no way we could have planned for any of these things.
In the military, when special units plan their operations, they don’t simply write one script. Their experience has taught them that things, often outside of their control, can and will go wrong. Many top tier special forces teams don’t even create just one backup plan… they create three! They use the acronym PACE, which stands for:
Primary
Alternate
Contingency
Emergency
In the 2011 raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, special forces units had rehearsed the operation for weeks, on their primary objective. They built a replicate model of his compound and rehearsed the assault until it was perfected. The only flaw in the rehearsal was that they used chain-link fence to replicate the outer walls of the compound. When the mission was executed, the solid and impermeable walls of the compound did not allow the first Black Hawk helicopter’s rotor wash to disperse and it deflected it back at the helicopter causing a controlled crash landing.
Fortunately, an alternate plan had already been devised and the second Black Hawk landed outside of the compound’s walls and the raid went according to one of its alternate plans, leading to a successful outcome and the removal of one of the world’s worst terrorist leaders.
The primary plan is where most of us stop. When life throws us a curve ball, we are forced to react in real time, more than likely when we aren’t prepared to do so. Having even just one alternate plan would allow us to pivot quickly, should our circumstances change. The reality is that many businesses are regularly affected, in big ways, and have been for as long as we have been building and operating businesses. The difference now is only that it is happening to many industries all at once.
Regardless of whether you made a contingency plan, or even a business plan at all, you do not and should not wait until December to review your progress toward your goals and plan ahead for next year. We all need a halftime to assess our performance from the first half, re-orient, and determine what we’ll need to do in the second half to achieve our goals this year.
If you are behind on your goals, stuck on where to go next, or unsure about what you should be doing, we need to talk. I’m offering free business assessments to help you identify the next move which will propel your business forward.
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