Planning vs Adapting

There are two ways to be excellent at producing and organizing things.

The most celebrated way is being a near perfect Planner, the other is a brilliant Adapter.

For years we've assumed the former is better. These are people who consider every single option, who book everything in advance, who brief people perfectly, who create a million contingencies and have options for every eventuality. People who adore process.

Great adapters love deviation and change. The may tend to focus on the bigger things that matter most. They can think on the spot, call in favors from friends. They are always ready for action, with imagination and versatility, embracing anything that comes their way. People who look to the vision.

I don't think we live in the fastest changing times, but we do seem to live in times where things seem most uncertain.

Perhaps it's better for us to learn how to deal with them by being excellent at the spontaneous, brilliant at versatility and wonderful at focussing on the top line things that really matter, not the steps we've learned to follow.

But maybe I'm saying this because I'm a terrible planner.