Why Plans Don’t Prepare You | Start Here: Your Readiness Path
Your Readiness Path Begins With a Decision
Every journey begins with a single step.
More must happen to translate knowledge into readiness. That’s where Your Readiness Path comes in. We will map out Your Readiness Path to assist you in charting your course to Preparedness.
That is why Your Readiness Path is so important.
The purpose of the Your Readiness Path section is to help you become more prepared than you are today, not to add to your collection of plans and lists that you can put on a shelf and forget about.
It really does not matter if you are preparing to take care of your family or a business, volunteering in your community, or leading a department or project at work, the first step of readiness is to take action.
A Preparedness Roadmap for Families and Organizations
So I ask you, where do you start?
“Where do I start?”
Your Preparedness Roadmap starts at your current point of readiness on the Family and Organization Preparedness Roadmap. Working from where you are, you can save time, effort and money by developing a plan of action.
Don’t waste time, money and resources by investing in potential solutions before you have assessed your current level of readiness.
Ask yourself:
- What risks concern me most?
- How prepared am I to respond?
- What critical responsibilities must continue during disruption?
- Who depends on my leadership and decision-making?
Your simple analysis of your current situation will show you the next step you need to take on your readiness journey.
Leadership Readiness Requires Clarity
Strong leaders do not prepare because they are afraid.
They prepare because they care.
Leadership readiness is the responsibility that leaders take for the people, for the missions, and for the organizations they are leading.
As a result the most effective preparedness is based on clarity with regard to risks, priorities and responsibilities.
- Clarity about risks.
- Clarity about priorities.
- Clarity about responsibilities.
There is a time period required to establish clearly the risks, priorities and responsibilities and then it becomes easier to do something with that knowledge.
The efforts of a family or organization will be more productive as a result.
Building Your Resilience Pathway
Resilience is not built overnight.
Resilience isn’t a quality or skill that is developed overnight. Rather, it is the result of a series of deliberate choices made over time.
- Each conversation strengthens communication.
- Each assessment identifies opportunities for improvement.
- Each exercise builds confidence.
- Each plan increases capability.
These conversations, assessments, exercises and plans build a Resilience Pathway for Families and Organizations.
It turns out that having practiced preparedness as leadership rather than just talking about it is of greatest value to the organization or family.
Your Next Step in Preparedness
As you close this book on Preparedness what is your Next Step in order to be more Prepared?
What is your next move?
Not next year.
Not someday.
Today.
Is your next step is taking a readiness assessment.
Perhaps it is reviewing your communication plan.
Have a readiness conversation with your family or start readiness planning with your team by having a readiness conversation.
Maybe it is developing a continuity strategy.
Whatever that next step may be, take it.
Progress matters more than perfection.
Action matters more than intention.
And leadership begins before disruption arrives.
The Journey Continues
This book was never intended to be the destination.
It was intended to be a starting point.
My hope is that Why Plans Don’t Prepare You has provided you with a new point of view to assist you, and your team, to prepare for the unexpected events that will occur in your leadership role.
And hopefully it has inspired you to start your own readiness journey as well.
Rather it is about equipping yourself and others with the tools to lead through future uncertainty.
It is about developing the capability to lead through it.
And that journey begins today.
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Previous Chapter: Appendix: Leadership Tools for Immediate Readiness
Return to the Series Hub: Introduction
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Preparedness Is Leadership
Till next time
Stay Informed & Stay Safe
Daniel Kilburn
Founder · Emergency Action Planning
P.S. If you listened to each chapter of the chapter-reading series then I look forward to connecting with you on the readiness journey that this book will have opened up for you.
Yesterday Why Plans Don’t Prepare You officially launched on Amazon in paperback and Kindle! Hopefully, when you read through the chapters of Why Plans Don’t Prepare You, you will have a new perspective on how to view preparedness. Preparedness through the eyes of a leader, preparedness through the eyes of someone with a lot of resilience, and preparedness through the eyes of someone that is going to take a lot of action and start doing the work in order to become prepared.
Over the next few days I will announce a special launch offer for people who purchase a copy of Why Plans Don’t Prepare You as they are starting to head off down a readiness journey of their own.
So for now I’ll leave you to ponder the simplest of questions. What is your next move?
What is my next move?
The answer to that question will kick start your very own readiness journey.
