June 19th, 2008
Do you have something on the run whenever
you wake up, or do you wait and see what the day brings you?
Anticipation of events seems to be
a common method most people practice in their daily regimen. Yet how
often do those plans actually go according to expectations?
Like the company picnic, for example.
It's been planned out from the very start to the very end. The location,
day and the type of food (if it's a pot-luck then that's something different,
unless people had to declare what they were making) to be brought -
all written down on paper.
Perhaps you were hoping for sun and
planned the entire day around that fact. What happens on the
actual day is another story.
Perhaps you had it written down that
the initial morning warm-up was to start at 9:00 a.m. and involved a
brisk walk on the track. At 9:30 it was time for a baseball match. At
11:30 the barbeque would be fired up and people set-up their food to
be displayed on the wooden picnic benches. After lunch a soccer match
and a quick three-legged race, then an late-afternoon cool-down.
The day arrives. But the sun is fighting
to stay in the sky. Those who said they would be there early to help
set-up wind up taking longer than normal. The site, instead of being
ready at 9:00 is now finally getting set-up at 9:30. That's half an
hour into the schedule.
The walk is cut back to a 15 minute
jaunt, and the baseball match pushed back to only 45 minutes, and 4
people per team.
The barbeque has issues starting up
and those who said they would bring a specific type of food wound up
changing their minds the night before. Instead of one person
bringing tuna caserole you now have five pots of caserole.
It's already 1:00 p.m. and you haven't
even begun to start lunch. The food selection is rather diluted and
the lingering bugs and bees keep everyone at bay until the food is completely
mangled by the insect infestation.
Instead of happy and energized colleagues,
tempers are flaring and patience is wearing thin.
The soccer match ends in a yelling
match that has the senior accountant being told a few tips on debits
and credits by the junior filing clerk who graduated with honours from
university in financial accounting and is upset because she's stuck
in this low-end job where no one notices her contributions and then
tells everyone that the administrative assistant is sleeping with the
president.
Rain decides to dampen spirits further
and ruins the new sports ensemble of the HR specialist, revealing some
rather intimate parts, and soaks the towels and blankets littered on
the ground.
Sounds like a perfectly-planned day,
doesn't it? To make matters worse, the sun brightly shines through after
everyone has gone home to take out their tempers on their families.
What this illustrates is that planning
right down to the extreme second of what is to be done leaves a lot
of room for disappointment and is a bad way of gauging enjoyment.
What is essentially planned early on
may not be the same when the time of the event arrives.
Does this mean planning is moot and
skews results rather than expanding enjoyment and maximizing the outcome?
It is if it's the central focus rather than acting as a guideline and
allowing "mishaps" to occur.
Next time someone suggests planning
an event, it may be best to ignore that person and hope the feeling
passes.
Or you could simply offer a few suggestions
and see how it naturally unfolds. That way the results won't bring skewed
results nor will the event seem like a total waste.
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