When Plan B is Better than Plan A

The flight got canceled, or maybe the conference did because there were not enough attendees enrolled. Perhaps you did not get that promotion on which you were counting.

Maybe you missed the train and now have to drive to another station to get to your destination on time. You wanted to get into that ivy league school and was not accepted.

You sell to a specific demographic or into a particular niche and the marketplace just would not have it. The brick wall is closer than it appears to be.

These are all examples of our normal idea of when to engage Plan B. You are disappointed, maybe even heartbroken to have to do that. It doesn't have to be that way. It's not only when things go wrong that you can go to Plan B. You should take a look at what happens when you do - and why it can be the best thing that ever happened to you and your business even when things are not that bad.

Plan B is not only a solid alternative, it can be your salvation when:

• Plan A fails - how many times have you had no Plan B? Betting everything on the success of just one plan is not smart. Especially when you know that Plan A was the safe choice, the one picked by a committee, the one everyone is betting on, the one everyone is doing.

• You find your passion in the process - you start with a job at a company and then you pick up other duties because nobody else is doing what needs to be done. Or maybe because the opportunity presents itself. Lo and behold, you end up discovering what you are really passionate about, your sweet spot. Congratulations!

• It happens to agree better with what customers really want - economies of scale, repeatable process, margins, production levels - these are all reasons why while you may start with the customer in mind, Plan A ends up being a bit inward-looking and not very customer-friendly.

• There is a touch of improvisation in the air - preparation is important, yet today authenticity can be a winner, especially when it comes to experience. A spontaneous gesture can be more connective than the most perfect of automated systems.

• Your Plan B consist of left-overs from Plan A - that is the risky stuff that is too different, has never been done before, what sits at the edges of your comfort zone. That is also the place where creativity and innovation thrive. Give it a second look, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Plan B can be that wondrous and amazing thing we call life. It's good to be back. Thank you all for reading and participating in the conversation. What are your stories of Plan B success? If you share them with us, I might be tempted to share mine.

Comments

[Lance]

This whole brick wall idea reminds me very much of the book and speech by Randy Pausch, who recently passed away from complications related to cancer. In his book and speech (The Last Lecture) he talks about the brick walls being there for a reason. And, that's how I see it too. The brick walls we encounter in our life are there for a reason - if we really want that something on the other side of the brick wall, we'll find a way to get over it. And in the process, we learn much about ourselves. And maybe that leads us to a Plan B. Or Plan C. And maybe one of those auxiliary plans are just what we needed.

I'll share a Plan B. In my career, I came out of college with an engineering degree (many years ago now) and began working in my chosen profession. The company I was with was looking to downsize, and so I decided to look for a different position. What I found was a position that was a mix of engineering and computer-related work. I did this for a few years, and then decided I needed more stability in my life (we moved every six months it seemed). I found a position offering a similar mix, and stability. And this is where plan B comes in. Plan A had always been to work in my chosen engineering field. Shortly after starting at the last position, it was determined that the company was getting to the point where they needed a full-time person managing the computer systems. And I was given the choice of which direction to go. I chose Plan B (managing the computer systems) and it has fit me very well over the years. Some days I wonder if there is a Plan C coming - as I've grown on this journey. But I have found something I was passionate about because I chose Plan B several years ago.

[Rick Simmons]

Plan B - I like the name - I also started out with a different degree - Urban Studies - thought being a township manager was my lifes calling - after 4 years found sales and marketing much more to my taste and have never looked back.
From a CD I listened to from Dan Sullivan we can look at these things that happen as by-products of our activities and what Dan talks about is the ability to hear these "opportunities", when they come around. Very often we are too busy trying to see what we thought should happen and fret over when they go somewhat astray - perhaps the by products are better than the intended outcomes. I think so - I would never be in the position I am in now with my own company.

[Robert Hruzek]

Valeria, it seems to me that most, if not all, of my life's greatest successes came from "Plan B". Or "C". Or whatever.

I've come to realize those brick walls Lance mentioned are my friends. They help me (well OK, they force me) to search out alternatives I wouldn't have bothered with before. And 99 out of 100 times, they turn out to actually be a better plan than the original.

I dunno; maybe it's just me though.

[Clay Parker Jones]

I've not yet exhausted the possibilities of my own Plan A, but I would like to share a little-known, but widely used and successful Plan B.

Bet you didn't know that Flickr was a Plan B... I sure didn't, and I use it every day. If you did know, you're at least as nerdy as the nerdiest programmer on my staff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

It was originally part of a MMORPG called "Game Neverending" that eventually went bust. Glad it didn't turn out. Here's to Plan B.

[PRJack]

I find that professionally I've often had the skeleton of a Plan B idea... but not more than that. In the world of Agency/Client relationships - especially in PR where we're also at the 'mercy' of the media and current events - there are too many variables to really have a ready to roll Plan B more often than not.

Why? Well because you really need to understand why Plan A didn't work - or at least which aspect(s) didn't. Dealing with that then requires a couple of things... Flexibility (both of thought and action) and Reassessment (particularly of goals).

The difference is really about those goals. If the goals for Plan B are a suitable alternative to those for A, then that can be an easy switch. But if Plan B still needs to get to Goal A (albeit in an adjusted sense) then there's going to have to be more 'fancy footwork' than a hardcore plan may allow for.

On a personal level this kind of thinking does fascinate me... mainly because I come from a Zoology & Animal Behaviour background. Nature rarely operates linearly... however humans like to move things along in a linear fashion. The explosion of new ways of communicating are good example of how non-linear things work. Similarly, I've found that if I focus too much on the path and a specific alternative, that I rapidly fall out of play.

It's like that famous old interview question 'where do you see yourself in 5 years' which I turned around on an interviewer many years back. I said 'if I'm at point A now, and my goal is to get to point B, but I discover along the way that shifting to a new point - call it C - is more desirable or beneficial, than am I considered a failure for not reaching B because I've shifted to C? As we develop we see not only our goals but ourselves in different ways and that has profound impact on our decision making processes.'

So Plan B may look good when you're about to embark on Plan A... but perceptions of need can change dramatically by the time Plan A is struggling and you need to make adjustments.

[Stephen Jackson]

To me Plan B is the subconscious mind reacting to the real wants, needs and desires of ourselves.
We have many conversations with ourselves like I want to run a marathon, I want sell a million units etc., but how often do we really explore what we believe to be true desires, wants and needs.

We start down a path the have convinced ourselves is the right plan but the subconscious is reacting to the true inner desires and if we listen well we'll find the right path.

The universe wants us all to be successful. We prevent that from happening from all of the noise we create in our lives and losing focus on our true wants, needs and desires.

[Tim Jahn]

I think it's important to acknowledge that Plan B doesn't have to be a bad thing. Plan B probably occurs more often than Plan A and often times can be even better than Plan A. B doesn't have to be worse than A.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Lance - If I recall correctly we talked about The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) when I posted about his incredibly positive and uplifting message. Thank you for the story. I was supposed to be a teacher of English, in Italy. I came here so instead of teaching the language and culture, I help companies navigate meaning and facilitate conversations. I traded one kind of education for another. Did you take additional training for what you do now?

@Rick - "Very often we are too busy trying to see what we thought should happen and fret over when they go somewhat astray" this is so true! At least in my experience. Urban studies is a fascinating discipline. Now you study and observe where people go online and why.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Robert - indeed! We are all inherently creatures of habit. I was talking with a peer yesterday. He was describing how he is trying to get people who are used to talk about a product in one way so much that they can multitask during the call to shake things up a little so they can inject passion in their voice again. What you describe is easy to see especially after a layoff. Over and over, people have told me that it was a call to action for them.

@Clay - I LOVE the Flickr example! Thank you for calling it out. Whenever I need inspiration I turn to Flickr.

[Katybeth]

When I was in high school we had a rather unconventional teacher--who often said his C students learned the most in the long run -The A students were busy memorizing & taking notes--B students were worried about not getting an A but the C students cared enough not to fail, but not enough not to forgo some risk. I remembered this teacher when I read your comments on plan B and thought well--maybe a plan B could offer the best outcome.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@PRJack - I am thinking that with a progressive customer you might have a conversation plan that is more flexible. I do see where you're coming from on the media/PR angle, I wrestle with that same predicament in one part of the work I do. In ag, when I was working there, we had a plan B depending on seasonality. Dry weather, more bugs, wet weather, more fungi and plant diseases. Maybe we became linear with the industrial age. Just thinking that when we were more connected to nature, we were more nonlinear in our response to it. Then we strove to drive uncertainty out with more control. Know your destination, adjust as necessary your journey. I'm with you on that philosophy.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Stephen - I wonder if that is also true of customers. Do *they* really know what they want and need? You inspired me think about that. Are we in conversations with them to help them uncover that? Should we be? I recall a discussion I had with the them marketing guy at TBWA\Chiat\Day in NYC. He said that as customers we do not really know what we want until we see it sometimes (or often). At work I call that the "white paper" syndrome. People need something to shoot at. With regards to life as a journey and our being afraid of success, yes more times than we're willing to confirm.

@Tim - the thought that the ideas at the edge go into forming plan B intrigues me. That was my initial inspiration for this post. Missed a train, met a person who became really important to me. Or the chance event that changes your life. Indeed, plan B is a way to say - I'm looking at this from another angle.

@Katybeth - what a great story! Also, in school often repeating the lesson is rewarded more than thinking different or lateral thinking.

[Clay]

When we launched our company, New Media Campaigns, we were determined on only servicing the political niche. That's where we saw the growth of most future online activity and it's what got our team really excited to innovate.

Minor detail...we launched in May 2006 - the very end of the buying cycle of the 2006 election cycle! We were able to sign up about a dozen clients rather quickly, but it became quickly apparent that we could not build a longterm sustainable company just on our political sales.

Luckily, we had flexible technology, so our Plan B was not hard to implement or sell. We started marketing our software to non-profits and corporations as well, and now those two niches represent around 60% of our client base and political only 40%.

By quickly recognizing that we needed to shift to plan B and by having built flexible technology with talented programmers on staff, we were able to turn our Plan B into a company that's now existed for over 2.5 years and launched 150 websites.

[Peter]

Welcome back,

You put it well when you say plan B is life.

It amazes me how much energy we put into answering the little questions - what is the right plan for my life, what should I do, is this plan working, should I swap to another plan.

But we put very little energy in asking the big question - How does a life get direction.

As far as I can see there is broad agreement that direction (particularly in business)is about goals, planing and focusing on our "true wants and desires".

But, If I look at my own life, the companies with whom I work and even this post, it is clear to me that plan A and goals always explain momentum but only occasionally direction. It's only a partial explanation of direction.

A good example this are some of the start ups with whom I've been close too, they had the Plan A (pages and pages of it)and money but their direction was embedded in the founders inability to let go of Plan A when it was clear the assets they had created needed to be traded in a different way.

Is their a better explanation for the direction of life and business than a succession of plans and mediating goals? What else is at play?

I wonder if we misunderstand the role of plans and goals in understanding the forces that contribute to direction in business and in life.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Clay - being flexible on the tactics can pay off, as you demonstrated. Do you market to these different industries differently? How did you know to choose nonprofit, for example? My hunch is that there were not too many decision makers involved. What I find with large organizations is that there are layers of people whose vested interest is in keeping things as they are because that is what made them successful in the first place.

@Peter - the distinction between momentum and direction is crucial to understand, or maybe to just know. We discussed before about intention. Does intention create direction? Isn't it present in building momentum as well? Perhaps the ability to let go is underestimated. I think this is what Seth called "quitting" as opposed to pushing through. I'll need to think about your questions and observations a bit more.

[Lance]

Valeria, you have an amazing memory! Thanks for reminding me of this...

I did have some formal training in my new vocation. And ongoing, I continue to keep my skills updated. However, I'm also at a point of wondering if it's time to think about a Plan C...it's all a journey that we're on, and I want this journey to be all it can for me and those I hold dear to me.