Plan Ahead for What You Can’t Plan For
A few weeks ago, I created a BackUp Plan for teaching about BackUp Plans.
Let me set the scene for you.
I have been working with a new class of career readiness students, and of course, we started with a 4 hour session on Time Management, as we always do. The program I teach for was also moving offices. Moving to a different building, different campus and classroom and work space, effective the first day of these students’ 12 weeks with the program. It was a chaotic first few days!
And, because of the move, the ancient VCR that we use to play the two also antiquated HR videos I have to support elements of my content had not yet been moved to the new office and classroom in time for our Time Management session on Day 2.
I learned about all of this just a few hours before my afternoon session. Which means, I needed to create a BackUp Plan to teach about having a BackUp Plan. My planned introduction to the topic of Planning is a video and that day, I needed to adjust the plan!
Why do we need BackUp Plans?
To care for and protect those people and things that are important to us.
Because the only predictable thing that we can say about life is that life is unpredictable.
Backup plans help us with:
Mitigating risk;
Emergency preparedness, but ideally, emergency avoidance;
Increased confidence; and
Peace of Mind.
In the situation I was in - please know, of course - the risk was very low. I have taught the content without the videos before, with zero notice. If I didn’t get to play the video, it wouldn’t be a huge loss. Low risk and a number of other teaching options means I hadn’t worried too much about creating a handout for a BackUp Plan before, but that day, since I had a few hours to plan, I was feeling inspired!
(And, just so you know, the team moved the VCR over with the first load that day, just for me, because they’re awesome!)
But I needed a backup plan for talking about backup plans. That's the irony. Right? And that was a fun challenge for me, and also a great teachable moment and talking point. The need to adjust my original plan provided inspiration and invited clarity to the situation.
The topic of BackUp Plans is especially timely as September is National Preparedness Month! Since 2004, this annual initiative encourages us to prepare for emergencies, reminding us “we can make a difference by taking proactive steps before a disaster strikes, and encouraging loved ones to do the same” (from ready.gov). “Preparedness is everyone’s responsibility, and disasters and emergencies can happen at any time, anywhere, and sometimes without warning.” (That’s also from the website, ready.gov) Check out their website for resources on making a plan, setting up your kit, questions to ask, situation specific guidance and more.
Ok, back to our Backup Plan!
I have a theory. The theory is that our plans can go awry at any moment of the day truly, but especially at times of transition. So a strategy is to get really good at managing our transition times, including having BackUp Plans for the important things.
For my class that day, I considered what the educational outcomes for the Planning / BackUp Plan segment are. We understand what a backup plan is, identify the situations and scenarios in our personal and professional lives where we might benefit from having a backup plan, and then we walk through the steps of creating a backup plan.
And that is what we did.
When are our times of transition?
Waking up
Getting Up
Leaving the house
The actual commute
Arrive at our destination, whether that is school or work or a doctor appointment, etc.
Leaving those destinations for our next destinations, or returning home, or getting back to work after your lunch break, etc.
Commute
Arriving home
Dinner / Evening
Any other meetings you may have
Bedtime
Maybe you have some episodic transition times, for example, I’ve gone to Michigan most weekends lately to take care of family business and visit my family, and there’s the transition of coming home, too.
The next part of the exercise was to identify who and what are important to you, in life.
My kids, My spouse
Safety
My community, at the moment and in general
Professional stability (important to be on time for things)
Good use of my resources
For yourself to answer this question, when you’re thinking about those, consider what are your non-negotiables.
I mentioned earlier that there was a low risk involved in not having the 4 minute video content to teach about Planning. Looking at what is important to me, there was no safety risk to anyone, or to my professional life, etc.
But, mitigating risk is a primary goal for creating a Backup Plan. And there are times when there is more risk, and those are the situations when we need a better backup plan!
For the exercise, we look at those two factors, transition times and our important people and values, and bring them together. I invited my students and myself to pick just a couple of those transition times to focus on creating backup plans for them.
Because, we need to have a back up plan for the important stuff AHEAD of the problem! The time to create a backup plan IS NOT at the moment we need to activate it! It needs to be ready!
After we’ve identified what is important, and when our plan is most likely to go awry, it was time to do something about it. For each possible detour in our day, we took time and asked what it was we really needed in that situation.
My students walked this through with me:
There are concerns we have all the time. For example, In the NPM resources, there are guides for making sure you have necessary medications and medical support, food and water and safety and first aid.
For all-the-time concerns, my students came up with:
Kids, money, medical like medications, natural disasters, legal complications, procrastination
Let’s lump together transition times in the morning, of waking up, getting out the door in the morning and our morning commute. I had my students think back to when the morning has gone smoothly, and appreciate what went right. And also remember when things didn’t go smoothly, and what might have helped those situations.
Some of the solutions my students suggested were:
Setting multiple alarms or having an alarm clock across the room if you have a hard time getting out of bed;
Having a babysitter for your kids, but also a second babysitter / family member that you can call in a pinch;
Having quick solutions for breakfasts or portable ones to take with you;
Knowing public transportation routes to your destination or having the Uber app set up if your car is unreliable;
Phoning a friend for a ride;
Always filling up the gas tank at ¼ tank;
Knowing more than one route to your destination in case there is traffic;
Having your boss’ phone number programmed in your phone in case you have to let them know you will be late, etc.
This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but it was a good exercise and it got my students thinking!
When we discussed our work days, a few students mentioned they are sometimes asked / required to stay a couple extra hours, and my question for them was “Who's your 1st phone call?”
If you have kids to pick up from the sitter, or a spouse or roommate or family member who is wondering where you are, or a pet that needs to be let out, who’s your first phone call? That is a backup plan, too. Thinking that through now, today, before we need to activate the plan.
And check in regularly on your Backup Plans because… plans need to evolve, too. I’ve read somewhere that over 90% of flight plans are not completed exactly as filed.
What have we learned?
September is National Preparedness Month, learn more at ready.gov
We understand what a backup plan is and why we need it
We identify the situations and scenarios in our personal and professional lives where we might benefit from having a backup plan to mitigate risk and prepare for or even avoid emergencies.
We take steps to create a backup plan BEFORE we actually need it! And we keep it updated!
So, my friends, it is time to get to work. Soften the blows of uncertainty later by planning now.
