Originally written as COVID began and prior to the launch of Maestro-level leaders, this description of multi-scenario planning received a lot of response and discussion. Updated and republished for our post-COVID world, and just in time for baseball playoffs (Go Brewers!).
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Some of my Executive Clients immediately began moving toward opportunity and hope as COVID grew into a longer-and-bigger-than-we-thought crisis. They either had a multi-scenario plan in place that included what to do in a pandemic, or they took the opportunity to do new multi-scenario planning with a pandemic in mind. Multi-scenario preparation is a posture that, ironically, helps the leader and their organization respond to what they cannot anticipate. It is useful at all times.
Athletes are among the most visible examples of what continuous multi-scenario
planning is and why it works. Consider the photo of this Karate master—ready to move forward or backward, to spin left or right, to defend or attack, each movement leaving her in a new position, poised to continue.
planning is and why it works. Consider the photo of this Karate master—ready to move forward or backward, to spin left or right, to defend or attack, each movement leaving her in a new position, poised to continue.My boyhood training as a baseball infielder was much the same. Every pitch—even an intentional walk—is designed to prevent more people from traversing the bases. Any ball hit is an undesirable circumstance. Where the ball will go can be planned for and guessed at but never fully predicted. As an infielder, I’m balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to move forward or sideways, to leap or to turn and run to the pop-up over my shoulder. Even more, should the ball be hit and not come my way, I am in a position to support the play and my teammates according to multiple scenarios that we endlessly rehearsed.
We expect to win, knowing we will lose more often than we want, learning with each loss how to maximize the wins, playing the scenarios back, and rehearsing more effective responses.
Over the years, this boyhood training influenced my approach to living life and serving others. As many Maestro-level leaders have, I lived and led during stagflation, the AIDS crisis, the post-9/11 experience, and the hell of 2008-9. More personally, I continued this living and leading during the 16 years of my first wife Lorie’s 19 cancer occurrences, being prepared to move forward in the mission with both the worse and better-case scenarios. Doing so made all the difference, especially in avoiding bankruptcy from catastrophic medical expenses.
We got there because of our endless conversations about the scenarios we might face, not out of anxiety (although we had abundant reason to give in to it) but with a firm belief that we would win in the end if we were prepared to keep learning in the middle of our losses. We were prepared to suffer and not be destroyed, to win and not gloat, to be single-minded in focus and prepared to follow multiple pathways to get to that end, and to plan for the best- and worst-case scenarios regardless of which scenario we were in.
I continue to emphasize the importance of consistent multi-scenario planning, Practical tools exist. Enterprise leaders will have no difficulty finding them, but those tools serve well only with the strength of a transformed commitment to improve one's leadership and organizational poise and balance. One must maintain their fierce focus and posture in the bottom of the 9th when you are losing 20-0, as well as when winning by that same margin.
I walk alongside leaders, listening to understand their challenges, and helping them lead healthy organizations that flourish.
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