What is your clear desired end state?
Borrow One Idea: Slowing Down to Speed Up
Personal and professional life planning, on an individual or family level, is challenging. The timeline is not fixed, the long-term constraints are variable, and the the penalty for failure is presumed to be high.
The challenge is perceived as either overly complex (there are too many options and unknowns) or overly simple (life planning = retirement planning = financial equation). Entire industries exist to convince us of both.
Life planning is complex (there are, in fact, a lot of variables) and necessarily must include some math equations (finances are important), but it is not rocket science. Life planning is within our intellectual grasp.
And yet, when pressed, would not most people admit that their life plan is to 1) manage the circumstances they find themselves in at present, 2) try to keep a bucket list and financial plan in balance, and 3) assume they will figure out a plan before time and new circumstances make the plan for them.
The overwhelming demands of the present, coupled with a lack of definition (and/or alignment) on what is trying to be accomplished, is the combination that leads to indefinitely pushing off detailed life planning.
The open-ended question that derails most life planning exercises is not scientific, it is personal: what is the desired end state?
What are we actually trying to accomplish?
While no one can resolve the demands of the present, there is a solution to a lack of defined end state.
It requires putting in time and energy to answer the hard question first.
To be slow and deliberate up front in order to then speed up detailed planning (or even make it possible at all).
Businesses invest significant time and resources defining their desired end states and developing the plans to achieve them. Where you find organizations investing the time and resources (strategy, product development, etc), you will frequently observe a methodology being deployed: design thinking.
It’s just not all the rage, it’s been all the rage for some time. More than a fad, more than a buzzy phrase for executives to use improperly, more than a thing to pay consultants to facilitate, design thinking is presented as the interdisciplinary antidote to overly analytic problem solving. It moves beyond the financial equation.
It should not surprise you that the military has thought through the applicability of design thinking to the crafts of leadership and planning.
The purpose of Army Design Methodology (ADM) is straightforward: it helps us figure out what the hell we are trying to do.
4-20. … When problems are difficult to identify, the operation’s end state is unclear, or a course of action (COA) is not self-evident, commanders may choose to conduct ADM. Some questions commanders consider when assessing whether conducting ADM is appropriate include—
Is there enough information about the situation to conduct detailed planning?
Are problems and solutions generally self-evident?
Is there a clear desired end state?
Is a COA evident?
Are the known unknowns significant enough to distort detailed planning?
Are means (resources and force structure) undetermined?
Are there unexpected effects to actions?
Are actions falling short of achieving the expected impact?
4-21. When problems are intuitively hard to identify or an operation’s end state is unclear, commanders may initiate ADM before their headquarters engages in detailed planning. This is often the case when developing long-range plans or orders for an operation or a new phase of an operation. … This approach is time consuming, but it provides the greatest understanding of an operating environment (OE) and its associated problems.
FM 5-0, 4-20 through 4-21, PDF page 61
Using ADM is a time consuming process, just like any exercise dedicated an important topic.
Life planning is an important topic; commit to giving it the time it deserves.
This week, borrow with pride and choose to give yourself a slow-down to think deeply: what is your clear desired end state? What is necessary to determine this? How can you create space (time and location) to think and execute a design thinking exercise for your life plan? Who else needs to be involved? What detailed planning (or real time execution) needs to be paused until you have defined the desired end state?
Get Familiar With: Army Design Methodology
4-2. Army design methodology (ADM) is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe problems and approaches to solving them (ADP 5-0). It entails framing an operational environment (OE), framing problems, and developing an operational approach to solve or manage identified problems. ADM results in an improved understanding of an OE, a problem statement, and an operational approach that serves as the link between conceptual and detailed planning.
4-4. ADM is an interdisciplinary approach to planning and problem solving. It combines military theory, writings on the nature of problems, and the challenges of critical and creative thinking. Some of these concepts, such as operational art, have long been associated with planning. Other concepts such as systems thinking and framing have taken on increased emphasis. Key concepts associated with ADM include—
Operational art.
Critical thinking.
Creative thinking.
Systems thinking.
Collaboration and dialogue.
Framing.
Narrative construction.
Visual modeling.
FM 5-0, 4-2 and 4-4, PDF page 67
What is your clear desired end state? Have you considered it from an interdisciplinary approach or have you relied on analytics and equations? If not, when will you slow down to properly frame the situation and define your desired end state?
The Guided Discovery for this week will review the US Army’s Design Methodology as a tool for (re)starting life planning and how we might deploy an interdisciplinary approach to determining our desired end state(s).
Learn More: Suggested Reading
FM 5-0, Planning and Orders Production
Chapter 4, pages 55-67 based on printed document (PDF pages 67-88)
US Army instructions on when and how to use Army Design Methodology
These materials will be the focus of Thursday’s Guided Discovery
Catch Up: Last Week’s Content
Study: Your Problem Has a Type
Guided Discovery: Problem Solving
Always be asking:
1. What is the connection with my leadership development?
2. How does this change my thinking on management?
3. How does this influence planning for life?
4. What can I borrow with pride to use this week?