• [On an annual planning exercise] To me, it’s still largely planning for Q1, but I treat it as a time for the team to do a look at their mandates (we use quarterly 1 pagers). If you are trying to plan the year in a waterfall fashion, you are wasting your time. Use the time for the team to make sure they are clear on objectives, to make sure that they are adapting to the changing environment if they haven’t done it as well during a challenging year, and to make sure that you evaluate your operating processes and op mechs with a bit more focus since that’s often a lot harder when you’re going through the normal sprints that happen.

  • [On annual planning] To me, it’s still largely planning for Q1, but I treat it as a time for the team to do a look at their mandates (we use quarterly 1 pagers). If you are trying to plan the year in a waterfall fashion, you are wasting your time. Use the time for the team to make sure they are clear on objectives, to make sure that they are adapting to the changing environment if they haven’t done it as well during a challenging year, and to make sure that you evaluate your operating processes and op mechs with a bit more focus since that’s often a lot harder when you’re going through the normal sprints that happen.

    • “I also find it’s generally a good time for the team to give feedback on what’s working and what’s not working with their team and structure and to use it as a time to change that. Not that these conversations aren’t happening organically all the time, but usually there’s more time set aside for proper reflection and I try to use it for the team to think a bit more deeply about how things are working when they are slightly removed from the day to day.”
    • One other common thread that every leader I spoke with emphasized was that an “annual planning process” isn’t the only time for both planning and reflection. If your planning process is a forcing mechanism for re-alignment and reflection—and you’re only doing that one time per year—you’re doing it wrong.
    • Source: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/annual-planning-is-a-waste-of-time

  • Plans are great if they help you adapt. Everything today changes in real time. Plans are great when they accept that as a tenet of the plan vs. pray it doesn’t happen.

  • Plans are a vehicle to communicate, align, and document decision-making for everyone outside of the “room where it happens.

  • Good plans are a what and a why, but most artifacts from annual planning are just the what, so the why gets renegotiated whenever someone challenges it, rather than when the underlying reasons for why actually change (market shifts, opportunities, etc). This isn’t just about plans, but org communication and documentation in general and it shows up very clearly in the planning process.

Some links to topics I want to further follow up on.