Planning for Flexibility: A guide to changing course with intention

“Flexibility” can be a buzzword. Everyone wants their plans to be flexible, and a completely inflexible plan is likely to fail. But how can we plan for flexibility? Too many people make half-hearted plans and justify it by saying that they’re “leaving room for flexibility.” Allow me to argue for a better way.

Start your planning by writing down your goals and your definition of success. These two elements should remain constant as they they are rooted in the business need driving your project.

Next, write down the methods you’ll use to achieve your goals and how you will measure success.

Your methods will become the core of your project plan. This is the work that will bring you from your starting point to your end state. At the planning stage, the best it can be is your (and the teams’) best guess at what will work. As your project progresses, you might realize you need to change course. Maybe an assumption or planning factor was wrong. Maybe something changed with the resources available. Any number of variables can cause you to change course.

There is where it’s time to be intentional. Respond to the changing situation, changing your plans and methods, but be intentional about what you’re changing and why.

• What specifically changed in your circumstances that is driving the need to change your plan?

• How will this change make the project more likely to succeed in the new circumstances?

• Are there tradeoffs that need to be considered and/or approved?

This approach will allow you to pivot as dynamic circumstances evolve while keeping you focused on the outcome that matters. By working in this way, you can minimize scope creep and set up your project for success. Remember, intentional flexibility is not just about changing plans, but rather making informed decisions that keep your goals front and center.