In The Blink of an Eye
The new year is upon us and most of us are preparing to usher in what we hope is a better year than the one we just sent packing. From a new President moving into the Oval Office, to rapidly changing technologies and their associated economic disruptions, it seems like everybody is rapidly trying to plan and prepare for what will surely be an amazing and challenging year ahead. However, the planning is not just constrained to organizations and businesses. Families also set out hopes and aspirations for what they want to accomplish in the upcoming year, and of course, the annual personal new year’s resolutions are fully in place, with some already being nibbled away at the edges.
Planning is important, and leaders understand the importance and value in front-loading any major undertaking with proper planning.
Planning is an essential discipline that helps train the mind and the enterprise to fully comprehend what will be required for the successful execution of a mission. Resources necessary, cooperation required, timing and contingencies for things that might go wrong, all become clearer. Once they are fully understood and communicated, they go a long way to ensure that we have tipped the scales in our favor as we undertake the difficult tasks that all leaders face. It’s not fun, it’s not glamorous, and it’s not even natural for people to invest a lot in planning. It is simply imperative, and it is a leader’s job to ensure that it is conducted thoroughly. Sun Tzu may have summed it up well with his words of admonishment, “No Battle is to be fought without a plan”.
We could leave our leadership thought of the day here, but, recently I’ve been motivated by three independent stories that illustrate the fact that all of our planning is no guarantee for success, and that circumstances, and indeed life, can take drastic turns “in the blink of an eye”.
Three stories:
In the memoir, “Coming Back Stronger” (by Drew Brees with Chris Fabry), the hard changing and promising young quarterback Drew Brees recalls playing the last game of the season in 2005 for the San Diego Chargers against the Denver Broncos. In the latter half of the game, Drew committed what he referred to as the cardinal sin for a quarterback. Following a fumble, Drew, “jumped into the pile” of nearby players in an attempt to recover the loose ball. The line in his book that jumped out at me was, “It took only one play to change the course of my life and my career.”
Being extricated from the pile, Drew knew instantly that a crisis had occurred. Indeed it had, as he suffered a badly torn Labrum in his throwing arm’s shoulder, along with severe rotator cuff damage.
This is normally a career-ending type of injury for a football player, especially one who makes his living throwing bullseye passes. Fortunately, Drew was able to fully recover, and go on to forge a long and successful career, ultimately leading the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl victory. His book is aptly titled, and is definitely on my recommended reading list.
In another sports story titled, “Finish Strong” (by Dan Russell with Craig Borlase), we read about the incredible story of two close brothers, Dan Russell and Joe Russell. Dan and Joe, from extremely young ages, (2 and 3 years old) began training with the goal of becoming Olympic and World champion wrestlers in the Freestyle and Greco Roman sport. They were dedicated like no others, driven to unbelievable sacrifices in training, and they indeed piled up win after win as they pursued their dreams.
As Dan tells the story, his brother Joe was the more natural and gifted athlete of the two, and had the highest potential and likelihood to achieve their goals. Even in high school, Joe was beating college level wrestlers.
As young high school students, they were putting their plans together on how they would approach the next season. On their way to the school to begin yet another grueling work out, Joe caught a ride on a friend’s new motorcycle, and Dan hopped a ride from his coach. As they drove to their school, Dan recalls, “Pulling around the corner near the school we caught sight of them again. They were ahead, just making the turn into the parking lot. We saw a truck pull in from the other side and watched the bike swerve to avoid it. Our friend was new to his bike and unsure of the weight, and he banked right too sharply. The weight of the bike took over, the side of the bike hit the ground and the bike flipped."
Witnessing the crash of his brother and his friend, Dan sprinted to the scene to administer aid to his brother, who suffered a terrifying skull fracture, laceration and he tried to cover a hole the “size of a baseball” in the top of his brother’s head. Dan describes this blink of an eye moment like this. “We were on our way to practice. We had been having a water fight. Joe and I had just been sharing our goals. How could I be here, covered in my brother’s blood?”
Like Drew Brees, Joe fought back. But simply learning to walk, talk, and eat became his new goals. The Olympic platform dreams that he had planned for and worked so hard to achieve changed in the blink of an eye.
As if those two stories were not enough to give one pause in the planning process, in another reading I came across a parable that Jesus shared with a man who was overly concerned that he might not be getting his fair share of an inheritance. In Luke 12: 16-21, we read,
"And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ "
Here we find a business man planning, allocating some capital for new storage facilities and even preparing for a well-deserved retirement. Great story, right up to the part where he finds out that he is going to die that very night. What a bummer. In the blink of an eye, not only would his plans change, but his life would be ended as he knew it.
In light of these thoughts, our leadership lesson of the day can be expanded a bit. Indeed, planning is good, necessary and even imperative to the successful execution of our missions. But while no battle is to be fought without a plan, so too must we acknowledge that no plan survives the battle. Our knowledge is not perfect, and things do not always go the way logic, rationale or hard work would predict.
That being the case, leaders need the wisdom to refrain from becoming married to their plans. Above all, be agile and adaptable to our ever-changing situations, to the environment and to the world in which we live.
As leaders, let’s not lose sight of the bigger truth; dedicate ourselves to live each and every day as the blessing that it is, knowing that life is precious, without guarantees and can change in profound ways, in the blink of an eye.
Plan well and continue to dedicate yourself to great things. Enjoy the many successes and joys that 2017 brings your way, and roll with the punches when they don’t. And if it ever gets overwhelming, take comfort in the fact that this year too will soon be gone, like the last one, in the blink of an eye.
Stay Strong,
Terry
