Some people faithfully live by the adage, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Even though this is sound thinking, major drawbacks can occur when planning stages are too lengthy. Sometimes it’s a good idea to jump in feet first before all water temperatures are tested.

Too many individuals, organizations, and communities miss out on opportunities because they fear to take that plunge and implement change. Instead, they prefer to sit back and see how a similar plan worked out for elsewhere. Opposite of being pioneers, the ‘let’s wait and see approach’ is taken before any further discussion continues.

The trouble with always having this type of mind set is that you can practically forever delay taking action because you are always waiting to see how the idea panned out for others. After months or years of study you might gain concrete results but while that time passed so may have the prime moment of cashing in on a given opportunity. More often than not, I personally find this type of planning frustrating for small scale ventures.

It’s not that I don’t value a solid plan; it’s that I think good outlines can be constructed more quickly than a lot of people care to do. Within any type of proposal there will always be unforeseen issues to address, so address them when the time comes. Usually a viable solution is available to remove obstacles. That is if you have common sense, a quick thinking mind, and the resolve to seek additional information on a moments notice.

Maybe it’s just me; I don’t mind and even rather enjoy solving problems dealing with change so it is no big deal. It’s one of many personal mottos, “No problems, only solutions.” And I am happy to say that when left to my own devises, this has worked out extremely well for me.

Keep in mind, what I am talking about is far removed from the complexities of building bridges or launching satellites into space. Obviously, things like that must be approached with exact precision planning or else disaster affecting large portions of our society may occur. At this moment my peculiarity is targeting a smaller scale of ideas for making a change. That is, changes that won’t be too detrimental or alter the workings of the world if in the end it should turn out that they fail.

In our neighboring Shelby County, a decision was recently made by county commissioners to amend the workweek, eliminating one day a week for some county employees. The four days they do work will be lengthened to compensate for the shortened week. The reasons cited are to save energy costs and boost employee moral. What I find so fascinating is that the plan will be implemented right away. There is not going to be a wait period to ease into the adjustments. As one commissioner said, “If it doesn’t work out, we can change it.” Wow. You usually don’t see a government entity act so quickly. I am impressed but left wondering.

Could the folks of our county make such decisions come to fruition so quickly or would fear of change cause delay as we slowly proceeded with a caution? Are our school board members or county and city officials capable of taking a sudden plunge or must everything be planned to death?

This article is not really about shortening workweeks as that is merely used as an example. However, the subject matter is appropriate due to the energy disaster we are dealing with right now. Many schools and large corporations across the country are either looking into or actually implementing four day weeks to save on fuel costs. A smart move is you ask me.

With that being neither here nor there, the true focus of this piece is on how new ways of thinking are needed now. In order to progress you have to be willing to take the pioneering plunge.

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