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Plan to Fail?

A client of mine, Kiewit Building Group, has a phrase by which they live:

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

I always thought it was just a clever turn, never realizing the value of living by that credo until it came to building a nursery for my new son in our upstairs bedroom. Due to a lack of effective planning, I ended up putting in a lot more work than really should have been necessary.

Exhibit A – drywall texture. Due to inadequate foresight, I had to bust out the drywall texture gun (which is a total pain to setup and also clean) two extra times. Why? I neglected to share my vision of a nursery wrapped in beadboard and topped with chair rail with my wife (aka “the Foreman”), and instead went about texturing the ceiling and walls over 33 inches. Much to my chagrin, the Foreman vetoed this vision and I had to re-texture everything.

The next “oops” was because the 1980-style closet doors I had “demoed” on day one turned out to be an odd size vertically. Again, the Foreman noticed this after I had already textured and painted. I had to build a soffit/header-type thing, drywall, re-texture and paint before hanging standard-size closet doors.

These issues are just a couple examples of wasting time and money by failing to effectively plan. I assure you, there were plenty more on this project.

Conversely, when the time came to renovate our family room, I developed a detailed 36-step plan complete with timeline and responsibility matrix to complete the project. Although the Foreman made fun of me, the plan (as well as communicating my vision with her), allowed me to finish the project with minimal effort wasted by reacting to unexpected developments.

The point I’m trying to make is true in the construction industry as well as the communication industry (and any industry for that matter) – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Taking the time up-front to plan your moves will save you headaches, time and money.

Next time, take the time and plan to succeed.

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