A Perfect Halloween Strategy--The Value of a Plan

A Perfect Halloween Strategy – The Value of a Plan

 

She was way ahead of me on this one, as older sisters often are with their little brothers.

 

Halloween was, and is, a great time for children.  The best part for me was the stash of candy you collected.  For a period of time, your mom indulged you having some candy from your bag that normally you would never be allowed to eat.

 

My strategy on Halloween night was to go with my buddies (when kids without accompanying parents was safe) to the houses in the neighborhood.  The neighbors, of course, saw past our costumes but they never let on they knew us.

 

My sister, three and a half years older, had a different strategy.  She and her best friends would get one of the parents to take them to the richest neighborhood and they would work those houses pretty well.  Being cute little girls dressed up as gypsies didn’t hurt.  Who would not want to give some extra treats to a cute little gypsy girl? 

 

At the end of the evening, my sister and I would dump out our stashes on the bed to see how we did.  The vivid picture in my mind’s eye of the visible evidence of this more thoughtful strategy has stuck with me all of these years. 

 

But what really has stuck with me is that my stash ran out sooner than hers.  I had to endure what seemed like weeks of her still enjoying her candy after my candy had run out.  Sometimes even cute little gypsy girls will rub it in to their younger brothers. 

 

The humorist, Lewis Grizzard, told the story of the little boy who was accused of getting into his older sister’s Halloween candy.  He blamed it on their dog.  When confronted with the reality that the family had no dog, he replied “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it”.

 

The failure to have such an innovative long-term Halloween candy strategy makes for a good story, but it does not impact us as adults.  But the “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it” story line is very much with us.  And its impact can be very damaging to our careers. 

 

The reason most of us do not have a long-term strategy is because we do not have a short-term strategy either.  We do things pretty much as we have done so for a long time.  For many of us, that’s all we know.

 

But the challenge for every business and profession is dealing with not only change, but rapid change.  We better have a strategy that takes us beyond the narrowing confines of what we know and what we have always done.

 

If we do not build a solid, specific plan to deal with change, it is just a matter of time before that formless, no-plan shape will be pressed against the solid and unyielding angularity of the New Economy.

What I’ve learned about life on the way to the courthouse is this:  You better have a strategy and the discipline to see it through.  If you do not, the New Reality will come knocking on your door one day.  And it’s not going to be a cute little gypsy girl.