The sun, the sand, the snow, the après ski, the wind, the rain, the bad hotel, the cancelled train, which memories do you take from your last holiday? We all look forward to our chosen destination but how many of us seriously consider what vital resources need to be in our suitcase to ensure its success?
Packing a suitcase for a holiday is analogous to organisational management, project management or personal career planning. You need to arrive at a destination that will deliver the expected benefits; and you do that by packing sensibly for the journey and the intended environment.
Effective resource planning is more likely to get you there and ensure you benefit in the expected ways even when the final destination is not the expected one.
When you consider the endless possibilities for disappointment on just a two-week holiday, why do we fail to plan properly for the other 50 weeks? It doesn't matter if we are talking of individual goals or organisational ones, the outcome will be the same. We concentrate on a poorly conceived destination, throw together a few things for the journey, and then wonder why things go awry.
What happened the last time you found your Sun City paradise a torrential torment, or mountain slopes awash with Bermuda shorts in January? Perhaps you made it no further than the airport's departure lounge? I suspect that it was a complete disaster. I am sure you keep colleagues and friends amused with anecdotes of misery and wasted time. I say it was a wasted opportunity.
With skilled resource planning you could be sure of getting what you wanted, even if it was not where you wanted. Once you understand that the important outcomes are in the benefits not the location then you have the ultimate in travelling resources. Flexibility.
If you have flexibility you have choices and with choices you have confidence and purpose. You cannot be easily diverted from your intended benefits because you understand the many ways and places to get them. You have a plan b, a plan c, and a plan z. Don't get so hung up on the destination that your forget what draws you there.
Before deciding upon a destination, consider the qualities it must have to meet your goals. What do you need it to have? What should it feel like, what kinds of people live there and will you like them, does it matter when you arrive? How long should it take and will you enjoy the journey? The world's best island-holiday retreat won't impress if they don't have an airport and you get seasick.
The questions of quality are concerned with the qualities of the individual, the team and the organisation.Where must you travel to be successful? Will your qualities be appropriate when you get there? Are they compatible with the destination? If you don't bring the qualities with you don't expect to find them there. Feel free to let blind optimism accompany you to a Las Vegas casino if you must, anywhere else it should be treated with suspicion.
Skilled resource planning will make sure everyone is a winner no matter what numbers the dice delivers.
