Preparation or Denial?

It’s COLD.

I saw a story on the news this morning about people’s water pipes freezing and bursting because of the extreme temperatures, flooding kitchens, bathrooms and the storerooms of local businesses. The result was property damage, insurance claims and lost sales.

I feel for these people, no doubt, but I also wondered: couldn’t some of that have been avoided with a little planning?

Winter comes every year. And if you live in an area that usually gets freezing temperatures, you know what can happen if your water pipes freeze.

Every year, I shut off exterior water valves in my home, I have my in-ground sprinklers blown out and I clean my gutters to avoid ice dams. I’ve considered insulating my water supply pipes (and probably should, to make them more efficient), but since none are in exterior walls where they could freeze I figure I am safe. If the house is cold enough for the pipes to freeze it means my family is ice cubes, too.

What I am driving at is simple: planning. Most of our success – in work, family or fun – comes from preparation and anticipating what may happen in a given situation to drive toward the desired outcome. Our chances of avoiding disaster rise dramatically when we think through the possibilities of what the universe will do if we don’t intervene. Then all we have to do is devise a plan to arrive at a different destination and execute a plan to get there.

The alternative is waiting – and hoping – for a good result. When it doesn’t come, we’re left to mopping up the damage we have allowed to happen through our inaction.

Vision and Execution

I was on vacation last week, blissfully sitting on a beach. It was calm and peaceful. Hours from anything, I was able to recharge.

But getting to that nirvana took a ton of planning. In addition to just booking the trip, we had to pack, get in the car and drive, get on the ferry, get off the ferry, stop for lunch, roll into town, meet the owners of the rental house, move in, unpack, tow all our stuff to the beach, set up our chairs and slather on sunblock. A lot of work to get to that finish line.

A good PR campaign is like that: it takes a ton of smart planning, mixed with some research and due diligence, to be able to execute a strategy that achieves the results you want.

In this world of instant gratification, where we push a button and something comes out the other end of our friends’ phones that can be loosely termed “impact,” we can’t lose sight of the benefits of proper planning and preparation for the things that truly move a needle.

I’m reminded of that time I helped move a Space Shuttle. It took weeks to invent, plan and arrange all manner of media coverage opportunities – and then assemble a good team and a clear set of instructions to execute for maximum impact.

Nothing good comes from something easy. Plan, execute and repeat. Then sit back and watch the coverage roll in like waves on a beach.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again.

Time when every media outlet known to man puts together their year-end lists:

“Best of…” and “Worst of…”

“Top 10…” and “Top 100..”

“Things we want to remember…” and “Things we’d rather forget…”

They all make the rounds, competing for your attention, your likes and shares, your retweets and plus-ones.

And while my favorite kind of list – “Words for the New Year” – is nothing new, I’ve never made one of my own.

So to get my desire to do new things in 2014 kicked off right, I’m going to start today. Here’s my first ever “Three Words for the New Year:”

Community & Kindness – OK, so my first word is actually two, but that’s only because I think they’re inseparable. 2013 was a divisive year, with sides taken on almost everything. Anger, hostility, and a general incivility seemed to be everywhere we looked. In 2014, we need to be better at working together to achieve common goals and not just give lip service to “getting along” when all that is doing is providing yet another way to point a finger at someone. If you can’t start a conversation with a compliment of some kind, then you probably shouldn’t talk.

Economy – With so many resources, so much technology and so many things to do in a day, we could each make a full time job out of just managing what’s coming over our transom. In 2014, we need to slim our intake in order to make our output more productive. That doesn’t mean do less – it means eliminate the noise. Stay on course. Keep checking items off your to-do lists and adding new ones. Get to the finish line as fast as you can, and then go find a new one.

Creativity – Perhaps a perennial word, but one that should be repeated anyway. New years mean new starts, new things to discover and new records to smash. It means bending your brain in ways you haven’t yet – or haven’t in a while – to achieve that thing that’s been on your to-do list for so long it’s starting to collect dust. Creativity is the leaf-blower of your life, so plug that sucker in and go all Carl Spangler on it.

There are other words that came close to making the cut, but for now I’ll stick to these. A year from now, we’ll look back and see how these words – and the ideas behind them – held up.

What are your words for 2014?

Happy New Year!