Planning vs Reacting
21/Nov 2013
Background Meta Discussion
In many cases we like to set two behaviors or natures against each other and argue how you should handle or correct this or that behavior to achieve the hallowed middle ground where all will live happily ever after. The only obstacle we face are the fact that we are in fact not perfect and fail at achieving this lofty goal.I think that in fact this goal is not as lofty and perfect as we make it out to be, actual wisdom is the understanding and insight to apply a combination or sliding proportion between the two extremes to solve a situation optimally. Optimal in this meta discussion is to denote the most desirable outcome in which ever paradigm you find yourself.
Planning VS Reacting.
With that said, let’s get a bit more concrete by looking at the two specific extremes of planning for contingencies vs reacting to events. For example, you can either plan out a time table describing when you will do your chores and work on you projects/assignments that are due at a certain stage, or you can just tackle your tasks one by one as each approaches its due date or deadline. If you spend any time observing how different people behave when assigned tasks with a deadline in a large enough sample group like a class, you would have noticed that some people procrastinate until they are under pressure and that motivates them to work hard and complete the task.Most people naturally prefer one strategy to the other and tend to get better at the preferred one while neglecting the other strategy, because it does not work for them that well when they try to use it. Partly for the lack of practice and partly because most likely by the time that they choose the other strategy they already tried and failed with their natural strategy. Similarly dooming the backup strategy because of lack of time or information just as the first strategy failed.
In much the same way you have people that like to meditate on an idea and thoughtfully examine each angle before they are ready to defend or state their position or reasoning in a discussion. On the other hand you also find people that seldom contemplates a concept or idea by themselves. Instead, they like to develop their thinking as they discuss and probe at the possibilities as the discussion develops.
As I stated at the start with the meta discussion I believe that these two strategies are both valid and can be applied to the same kind of situations in general. But we observe that in a heterogeneous group, working to a common goal, these two ideas clash in a very demoralizing and counterproductive way, especially if there is no clear leadership. It is just not always the case in a discussion A certain person that has not reasoned on the subject before can take part in the discussion and could add a new perspective just as easily as the person that has thought about this before. But I will continue to examine the area where problems arise to give more clarity.
If we can’t use both of them at the same time in the same group, we have to choose one for each situation by understanding the advantage and disadvantages of each of the approaches, and applying the best one for our current situation. This, of course, is predicated on the assumption that we can learn to apply both strategies as the situation requires. Which I believe is possible if practiced and worked at as alluded before in the meta discussion. I don’t think that we will ever become as comfortable with our secondary preference, but we can become sufficiently adept to be able to choose the best strategy with confidence.
Planning
Advantages
- Better estimation
- Less stress
- More complete results
- Clear leadership
- Can allow one effective leader to make a lot of people more effective.
Disadvantages
- Analysis paralysis
- Slow to adapt
- Requires a lot of communication to make sure that everyone follows the plan
- Requires a setting in which the leadership direction is followed and even respected
Reacting
As you should be able to see that some of the advantages of planning is disadvantages in reacting and I will not discuss them again. I will only add some of the advantages and disadvantages that are unique to reacting, or merit more thought.Advantages
- Can adapt to rapid change
Disadvantages
- Requires everyone involved to be able to make decisions and act on them without much support
As we can see from this list of advantages and disadvantages, we should almost always plan if we have the time and we should be able to react to unexpected and unplanned events because there is no plan. For this very reason we should force ourselves to learn to be flexible. For example, by finding someone with the opposite natural strategy and learning how to effectively apply that strategy.
But one of the most important aspects of self improvement, especially in an area that can be emotionally or stress laden, is the reflection after the heat of the situation has cooled down. I don’t mean the internal navel gazing that is so destructive, but a constructive analysis that highlights areas that you succeeded and ones where you failed. Then consider how you should have acted to improve on those failure areas. Finally, after the analysis, accept what had happened and leave that situation behind, only carrying the lessons learned with you into the future.
The Emotional Impact.
Another factor that I was alerted to was the emotional impact that the different strategies can have on us as we implement them. I thought about including these in the disadvantages of the respective strategies, but I want to handle them separately here because I think that the way we feel emotionally about what is going on in our lives are a part of our being that we should strive to control and influence. We should not become emotional wrecks if our plans are foiled or if we could not get what we wanted.We feel sad, drained and many other emotions when we fail, but we should strive to grow as people to overcome these obstacles with more and more emotional maturity. I say strive because I don’t think that we will ever be perfect in this but we should not be discouraged by this fact to grow and mature in our handling of the matter. I just want to be able to look back after a certain time and be able to say: yes, I have grown in this aspect that I set out to improve on.