Many people believe that having a plan B can distract you from plan A. But, when anything unexpected becomes, plan B which is professionally known as ‘Contingency plan’, can save your business. You must have experienced that when you make a plan, not all the things hit the exact accepted results, and if our goal is connected, then there will be a chance that we drop the project. In such a case, plan B becomes useful.
WHAT’S IN IT
Should we develop a Contingency plan?
Plan B is professionally known as the Contingency plan. Contingency means uncertainty; as we all know that, we will take plan B in use only when something uncertain will happen with plan A. That’s why we call the plan a contingency plan.
If you are the person who believes that “having a plan B can distract you from plan A”, Then you have a little bit of misunderstanding. You think that plan B is altogether another plan.
If you think that plan 1 is what we want to do, and plan B is an entire second plan, we will execute if plan A doesn’t work. Then the quote written above is maybe actual.
We are not developing a contingency plan so that we can execute it when A completely fails. We have to develop plan B to lower the chances of plan A failing. If anyone or two or three tasks of project A fail, how can we continue program A using its alternatives?
That means we are not changing the destination; we are just changing the path. And however, changing the direction is the bright choice instead of returning home back.
Develop plan A without thinking about a contingency plan
As mentioned above, our result is one. So, we should design a project. Alike, you don’t have plan B. Don’t even think of plan B; just focus on plan A. When you start planning for plan A just treat it as if you have to make only one PLAN.
After making the plan(plan A), most people think developing a contingency (plan 2) is just a waste of time; they see it as an extra luxury. The desire of the plan A everyone is excited to execute the plan they have made; therefore, no one thinks that our list can go wrong somewhere. But, if you develop plan B in certain conditions, it can save your project A.
If you are not developing plan B, it means you are opening yourself to unnecessary problems.
Developing a good Contingency plan
Previously we have discussed that plan A should be made like there is no plan B. But, now we are going to make a plan B. As we have discussed, we have to specify the alternative paths if the plan A’a a small part of the project did not work.
In most cases, plan B is for doing something if anything negative happens to the plan, but it also has conditions on the positive side in the case of business. For example, what should we do if extra funding is offered to us?
Simply, plan B is the answer to questions like “What if…”. Plan B should be made by tacking a broad spectrum in mind. Plan B is part of risk management somewhere. It should contain disaster recovery as well as economic disaster and other things.
Key points to develop a contingency plan
Identify and prioritise your resources.
This should always be the first step when you want to develop plan B. we must analyse what resources we have and how they will be used. Most of the time, if the primary goal fails, the reason is financial crises or any other resource crisis. Plan your contingency plan as it covers the flow that may occur in program A.
Make a list of critical risks.
You would have an idea about which type of risk is there in your plan A. According to that, make alternative paths. Make sure of the number of bets you should cover in this list. Identifying the crisis happening in the future is a tricky thing. So, do good research on your particular project. And find the most number of risks.
Find more than one solution.
Try to find more than one solution because you don’t know whenever you have to apply this plan what of the resources will be available to you.
Try to make it full proof.
Yes, there will always be a certain void. But try to make that void as small as you can. If your plan A will go a little wrong, then if you have made plan B precisely, you will not panic in that condition and overcome whatever flow there is.
It should contain the solutions to fix the flows of all types like lack of human resources, technical risks, political issues, etc.
You may think that why political issues? It comes into the picture when you are working with government guidelines, and the policies and rules suddenly change.
Discuss plan B with your team
After the plan becomes ready, you must provide a copy of that plan to your team members and discuss it with them. Tell them the whole program and tell them also to be ready if plan A gets failed we have to follow this plan. Again do a meeting and try to fix out the issues and improve the project.
Review and improve the plan
When you initially made the complete plan, it doesn’t mean now you have an age that will help you no matter whatever the condition is. As your business grows, you will find out the voids in your plan. You will get a new experience, so try to improve the project eventually after a particular period.
CONCLUSION:
Whether it is plan A, B, C or whatever, one thing that will always be the same is we can not predict the future. So, no plan would be perfect. But, if you have worked hard in developing contingency plans, your mind will start functioning like that. But, eventually, you will improve your skill of making contingency plans. Because of this, your decision-making skills will also be improved.
Some people see plan B as a waste of time, or it is just an extra luxury. Intelligent leaders know that there can be a flow in plan A. so if we develop plan B, it can save our business. Most of the time, leaders don’t focus on plan B; they are inviting unnecessary problems to you by doing this.
Also, you can read our blog on How to get more done in less time: 10 simple productivity hacks