Planning and Ready-Fire-Aim

In business these days, there's an increased emphasis on the need to act before you have everything perfected. That's true in a fast-paced world of business, where the first one to "get it out there" may be the winner. Or, as Seth Godin now refers to it, they need to "ship". Ready-Fire-Aim (RFA) is a spin in the old [firing squad] terminology that said "Ready-Aim-Fire" (RAF). (Perhaps there's a metaphor in there somewhere.)

The business problem is that too many companies get to "Aim" and keep tweaking the Aim to "make sure" they hit an exact bulls-eye. Or, maybe they keeo getting Ready but never get to Aim. Meanwhile, the competition left them behind - since they had Fired long ago. Even beyond that, is the question of what do we do after we've Fired?

Project work needs that same sense of urgency, and many Projects need an improved level of planning. Although planning is critical, we can't afford to be stuck in planning mode. We have to act. We have to put the plans to work. But, once the plans are working, we have to be aware of what's happening. Are we getting the desired results - in terms of quality, time, money, people, Customer, outcomes, safety, etc.?

If we use RFA, that may be okay. But we have to remember to cycle it. We can't afford RFA and then stop. We have to use RFA-RFA-RFA-RFA... Much like Plan-Do-Check-Act. Once the plan is implemented, monitor results and adjust accordingly.