By Mike Myatt, Chief StrategyOfficer, N2growth



When things don't go as expected, what do you do? The best leadersalways have a back-up plan, so my question to you is: what's yourPlan B? My experience with most executives & entrepreneursis that they are totally committed to and focused on success. As aresult, many of them tend to have a major blind-spot(translation: weakness) when it comes tothe anticipation of set-backs. While this is understandable,it is nonetheless naive, and it constitutes a major flaw in thebusiness logic of most strategic plans. This is so much the casethat the most often overlooked aspect of strategicplanning is adequately addressing contingencies as part of theplanning process. In the text that follows, I'll take a closerlook at the value of contingency planning... The realitysurrounding the success of any implementation is found byunderstanding that no matter how smart you are, things rarely go asplanned. Those that plan in advance for changes in circumstancescan adroitly address issues when they occur, while those who mustdeal with "unforeseen" circumstances don't tend to fare aswell. Smart leaders view obstacles as a constant rather than avariable, and incorporate that thinking into their planning. Any well crafted strategy anticipates obstacles and factors inmultiple "what if" scenarios. Leaders that waituntil a problem occurs to deal with it place themselves and theirorganization at a huge strategic disadvantage. The two mostcommon outcomes created by a lack of contingency planning are:1.) watching things grind to a halt as you scramble toevaluate options, and; 2.) having fewer options to assess basedupon the new found time constraint. Speed is your friend and shouldbe leveraged to your advantage. Speed is aided by anticipationand slowed by a lack thereof. Smart leaders will do everything intheir power to keep a decreae in velocity frombecoming a self imposed adversary due to a lack of contingencyplanning. It is important to remember that contingency planning isa key to avoiding costly mistakes. In most casesyour wins won't put you out of business, but your losses mostcertainly can. The three most critical items to focuson when conducting your planning are:

1. Insure that personal accountability ispresent on any major benchmark, milestone or
deliverable.
2. Make sure that someone has identified the 5 worst things thatcould happen with any
initiative, what steps can be taken toprevent their occurrence, and what measures will be
taken to overcome them if theyhappen?
3. Make sure that advance warning signs for potential failures areidentified and understood so
that you have plenty of runway in front ofyou to implement your contingency plans.

My final suggestion is that you take the time to review allmission critical plans to insure that the proper contingency planshave been put into place. Sidebar: Thispost was inspired by a conversation I had last month Mark Oakes(@MarkOOakes) about the historical origin of the term"Plan B." As told by Mark, the story goes like this: Baron VonBismark was tasked with unifying the axis powers in WW1. He had hisaids work for months preparing the perfect unification plan. Uponcompletion they wanted to immediately put it into action. Bismarksaid "NO...prepare a second plan in the event the firstdoesn't work." It became knows as 'Plan B' (B)ismark Plan = Plan'B'