April 5, 2006

Have Failure of the Imagination

published this at 8:39 am

Plan B No–Fail Fast and Move On

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

The meeting had just started. We were talking to the company’s major owner-partner. We had laid out the framework of how we would turn the company around. The partner turned to the company president and said, “And do you have a Plan B, in case this doesn’t work?”

I said, “If you don’t mind . . . ” and asked if I might edit his question. We knew each other well, and so he said, “Sure.”

My new version was, “Is the plan flexible enough that if you find one or more parts not working, you can adjust your plan and keep moving forward?”

. . .

After the meeting, the owner-partner queried what my thinking was in editing his question. I said that it was two-fold: that how he thought affected our thinking and that to talk of Plan Bs at that juncture was to give permission to fail at Plan A before we’d even tried to make it work.

I really don’t like assumptions that Plan A has a chance of failing. I really don’t like Plan Bs for that reason. I don’t mind failures. I like to see them coming, fail fast, and move on.

Failure of Imagination

I actually seek out failures of imagination. I have them on purpose often. This is not a literal “my imagination does not work” kind of thing. It is my imagination conjuring all kinds of failure situations.

I use imagined failures to get ideas for writing and for all kinds of problem solving. Here are a variety of situatons and ways you might use failures of imagination to bring you to a stronger outcome.

Getting Ideas for Writing

Ask questions such as these.

Designing a Process

Ask questions such as these.

On an Interview or With a Client

Ask questions such as these.

On Your Brand Identity

Ask questions such as these.

On Promoting Your Blog

Ask questions such as these.

Positive Negatives

No need to jump to the negatives. Instead, use them to keep your life positive. The trick is not to focus on the unproductive, but to seek out unwanted outcomes to find fun, positive ways to avoid them. Think of imagining failures as building a safety net for the tight rope walk that is your brand and your business.

Having a failure of imagination can be a fantastic resource for protecting your business. It’s so much more fun than working out a Plan B that, if you think about it, could easily have the same failure opportunities as Plan A does.

Can you have a failure of imagination? Are you positive or negative?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Filed under Branding, Outside the Box, Productivity, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Writing | 4 Comments »


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4 Comments to “Have Failure of the Imagination”

  1. April 5th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
    Mike said

    I thought I was the only one who never had a Plan B.

    I simply refuse to admit there’s a chance that my plan won’t achieve all I hope. If there was a chance for failure, I’d fix the dang plan before implementing it.

    I firmly believe in adjusting your plan as new info becomes available, as you progress. That isn’t Plan B, that’s realism.

    Good for the soul, good for the ego and good for the rep.

    Great posts going on here, BTW.

  2. April 5th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you, sir.
    Well, I guess the post pretty much says what I think about Plan Bs. I’m with you all of the way. Plan B? I ain’t got to A yet!! If I did my job right on A, there won’t ever be a need for B. Who ARE you talking to?

    :)
    Liz

  3. April 11th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
    Bonnie Trotter said

    I just want to let you know how happy I am to find your site. My blog site is relatively new. I’m looking for ideas about how to improve it, and you offer a wealth of them.

    Sincerely,

    Bonnie

  4. April 11th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you, Bonnie,
    I appreciate you saying that. You look like you’re doing a fine job getting going. Keep on looking forward and just imagine where you’ll be. :)
    Liz

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