Using Plans for Learning

In my last post, I mentioned that project plans (and the changes to them) can be used for capturing information as plans change and potentially identifying trends if things go off the rails.

We can use these plans for learning!

What do I mean by this?

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Back when I was doing Crossfit – the gym owner, Brian, would leverage my lack of athletic prowess, my early-middle age female demographic membership and my love of checklists and plans to experiment with gym programming.

The “goal” of these programs was about executing the process and seeing what happened.  The longer term direction was “Get Wendy stronger.”

The measurable part consisted of

1. Did Wendy show up to do what was planned on the days that were planned? Yes / No.
   • If Yes – then AWESOME!
   • If No – why not?  We approached this as an objective metric vs a shaming opportunity (this is KEY).  Brian was able to watch for over-training.  I was able to see whether a plan was too aggressive for what was going on in the rest of my environment (ie – life).
2. Was Wendy able to execute on that plan?  Yes / No
   • If Yes – then AWESOME!  Did it feel easy or challenging?  Did she execute with no problems or did she just barely make the lift?
     • If repeatedly Yes and it was easy – Brian would adjust the plan to hit that right level of challenge.
   • If No – why not?  Again, it was objective metrics.  How was my sleep?  What did I eat the day before?  Is work kicking my butt? If I did something off-plan for recreation – did that impact performance?
     • If repeatedly No and we were able to isolate and fix other variables – Brian would adjust the plan to make it less aggressive.

We used the planning process and the resulting plan as a learning tool.

I learned what it took to get stronger and more athletic.

Brian got more information on what worked and didn’t work for an average customer.  He could then leverage what he learned from me and the other members of the gym for future programming.

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I’ve been away from Crossfit for 5 years now. I still work out regularly (if not as intensively).

Whenever things get stale or I find motivation lacking, I go back to picking (or writing) a plan and attempting to execute.  The plans usually run about 12 weeks.

I track how closely I execute that plan.

• Am I skipping days?  Why?
• Am I missing lifts (if I am weightlifting)?
• Am I cutting workouts short or cutting reps?
• How do I feel before, during and after?
• How do I feel the next day? Two days later? (Unfortunately, that bout of mono that forced me away from Crossfit left me having to be significantly more mindful about exertion levels.  If I overdo it – I’m pretty useless two days later.)

If something works really well (and I enjoyed it), I can repeat that plan with the adjustments I learned during the last round of execution.

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I use this same process in projects.

Particularly in what I would call “operational projects” – distinct deliverables, but the process for building them is the same.  Dashboard development, report construction, eLearning course development, that sort of thing….

I ask many of the same questions with each execution of the plan:

• Am I hitting my deadlines? If not, why not?
  • Have I estimated enough time?
  • If I AM hitting my deadlines with a lot of time to spare, how much play do I have if I am in a project with a tighter time frame.
• Do I have the right tasks in the right order?
  • Are there tasks on the plan we don’t need and can remove?
  • Is there something new that we need to incorporate into future plans?
• How does resource skill play into time estimates?
  • If I did the first iteration and a friend did the second iteration – what was the task execution difference?
• Were we able to accomplish the “goal”? Why or why not?
• What surfaced on the execution of the plan this time?  Risks we didn’t consider? Incorrect assumptions?
  • Can we use this the next time or is it an outlier?

Each iteration – the time estimates become more accurate and there is less guessing about what needs to happen when.

Basically – I am learning how to do these projects with more accuracy and with more effective results.

And, I wind up with something I can teach others without them having to go through the pain of discovery.