Simple Plans for Great Results: Lab Rats Week 6
By Alex Fayle

I’m just so proud of my Lab Rats this week! (Well actually I’m proud of them every week, but this week especially).

The maze I set for them was a doozy – reducing their dream or a part of their dream into a one-page plan, and they all rushed right to the end no false turns. Of course they all reached the end a little dazed and not quite sure they had taken all the right turns, but I can assure you – they were awesome!

So, what exactly was the maze? What’s a one-page plan?

Personally I hate plans and by hate I mean love them so much I can spend my life working on the plan and not on the actions in the plan.

So, being a person of extremes, what do I do? I tend to wing it and fly by the seat of my pants, but that’s not good either because then I miss important opportunities and my energies are scattered all over the map.

There is, however, a happy medium, a middle ground where the analysis paralysis is kept at bay but energies are properly focused and things move forward according to a timeline.

It’s the one-page plan which consists of four or five actions that will move you towards completing your dream. It doesn’t have to be the whole dream. In fact, to make each step doable, the plan should only focus on the next few steps. When you’ve completed those you can re-evaluate and make a new one-page plan.

It’s not a typical plan either. Yes, it has due dates, measurements and minimums, but it also includes fears, strengths, supports.

Let’s take one step from each of the Lab Rats’ plans and you’ll see what I’m so proud of them. (Jim is away this week, but will have lots to report back to us next week!)

Brett:

• Goal: Finish downstairs renovations
  (note that this is just a part of the overall home makeover dream)
• Where he is now: Sitting on the couch
  (I love the way Brett interprets questions!)
• Step: Install and paint walls
• Due date: July
• Fears: Losing my way; I don’t know what I want it to look like; Wife and I always differ in decorating taste
• Strengths: It is in my face. I can’t ignore it and hope it goes away; It is a good upper body workout
• Assistance: Wife has got my back; Also possible to get external colour consultant
• Measurement: Walls in place and surfaces painted
• Minimum: At least the equivalent of a day’s work each weekend

In his commentary on the exercise Brett said:

I found it surprisingly hard to think of the strengths, yet the weaknesses flowed like a the incoming tide. I guess that says more about where I am at than anything. Perhaps a review of my past tasks and posts is in order.

I love that Brett found his own answer to the challenge of coming up with strengths: past victories. He almost made a turn down a dead-end maze path, but then remembered to look back at where he’d been and pulled back, and continued on to the end!

Barb:

• Goal: Be a Psychologist
  (but specifically enroll in one course)
• Where she is now: About as far away from being a Psychologist as I can be
• Step: Identify 2-3 schools that I could attend
• Due date: May 15, 2009
• Fears: That I won’t find school in the area that will meet my needs.
• Strengths: I can be flexible and look at schools near work.
• Assistance: Not sure on this one
• Measurement: Number of schools for consideration
• Minimum: At least 1 school

Barb’s commentary also highlighted her challenge with writing the plan:

I struggled some on the ‘minimum’ and ‘assistance’ columns; not sure if it really fits or not with what I need to do.  May also have something to do with not wanting to ask for help and my tendency to bite of more than I can chew and then not be able to achieve my goals.

Being the first time she’s run this particular maze, it’s not surprising she second-guessed her decisions. And by recognizing her challenges she can be open to accepting the help that she has difficulty asking for (Barb, in this case the assistance could be in the form of asking colleagues, friends and family for ideas of local schools – or asking your sons to ask at their schools for a few recommendations from their career center).

Cat:

• Goal: Leaving my job for something better
  (choosing as the first piece investigating going back to grad school)
• Where she is now: Frustrated and trapped in my current job
• Step: Make my school selection
• Due date: May 2010
• Fears: I’ll end up being unhappier in my new situation than I am now; I won’t like my colleagues/boss/professors. I’ll have to move and be even further away from my family and friends.  I’ll start something and find out I hate it, quit and then be further in debt with nothing to show for it.
• Strengths: I’m ready for some new challenges and a change of scene.
• Assistance: Talk over opportunities with family, friends and hopefully make the right decision.
• Measurement: Quitting my current job.
• Minimum: If I’m not accepted anywhere, throw myself a pity party, get over it and start from square one.

I suggested to the Lab Rats that measurements and minimums be something countable like X numbers of schools accepting her. But in this case there is only one option. It’s an on-off switch – Cat either quits her job or not, depending on whether any school accepts her. She acknowledges that she might not get accepted by not putting quitting work as the minimum – that would create an ultimatum and the pressure might force her to accept a program that doesn’t fit her needs.

Besides I really love Cat’s minimum in this case. It shows she isn’t taking herself too seriously - a bit of humour always helps! Plus it’s realistic and allows her the opportunity to continue pursuing her goal in other ways (such as teaching English in Japan) if this particular situation doesn’t result in the outcome she hopes for.

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