Planning is Easy. Execution is Hard

How many planning sessions have you been in during your career? How many New Year’s resolution have you made? How many times have you followed through with your best of intentions?

Why is it so easy to plan and so hard to execute?

One reason lies in the concept of inertia. Good intentions need inertia.

Unfortunately, the amount of inertia inherently found in good intentions is not all that great. Hence, when we embark on implementing any plan and an obstacle pops up, the momentum needed to push through or overcome these small seemingly small and insignificant obstacles is just not there. There is not enough inertia. In order to muster up the needed inertia, another factor needs to come into play.

In a recent NFL playoff game, the New York Jets won the game in part because of an important statistics: yards gained after the catch. This statistic is important because when a receiver catches a pass and turns up field there is usually one, two or three defenders there ready to take his head off. Many receivers opt to head for the sideline or simply drop to the ground when they see 1200 pounds of muscular beef barreling down on them. The exceptionally talented receivers have conditioned themselves to focus on getting one more yard – not a touchdown. Those receivers that do this consistently have impressive yards gained after the catch statistics and in some cases even break it for big yards plays and an occasional touchdown.

Is there a lesson here?

Consider this. Obstacles will always be there. What you do after you hit the first obstacle is critical on whether or not you achieve plan or not. If you do not focus on the yards after the catch statistic, you will never get through obstacles.

Case Study:

Your business depends on closing deals. You have developed metrics that show that in order to close a deal, you need to make 30 contacts and make 9 presentations to close three deals.

You have good intentions to get out and make your 30 contacts this week. You come into the office to get a few things done before heading out of the day. The phone rings. You take the call. Ten minutes later you get an email. You take the time to read it and response…20 minutes later you finally get out the door, albeit much later than you wanted.

You decided to drop by Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and bump into a friend. Nearly 30 minutes later, after catching up, you are back in the car. Oops, you forgot your call list for the day. Back to the office…..and so it goes.
Before you know it, it is nearly noon. You cannot call on prospect during lunch – heaven forbid. Back to the office with a commitment to get out before 1:00 pm but all you get sweep into the Black Hole of Operations and by the time you extract yourself from the office, it is nearly 3:00 pm. Your good intentions are sidelined by seemingly small obstacles that could all be overcome with very little difficulty, if you focus on how to recognize and push through them.

NFL receivers that excel in the yards after a catch statistic practice catching and turning up field until it becomes intuitive.

Moral of the story: Flawless execution takes commitment, focus and practice and turning up the field.