Plan From the Finish

Watch a Monday planning meeting. It starts with what is on fire, then what is on the calendar, then whatever somebody brings up. By Wednesday the plan is whatever is left after the interruptions, and Friday is a scramble to hit a date nobody worked back from.

That is planning from the start. You begin with what is in front of you and hope it adds up to done. It rarely does, because nothing in that plan checks whether today’s work is on the path to Friday.

Planning from the finish flips it. Start with what done looks like on Friday, in terms you could walk up to and check. Not “make progress on the order.” Something you can see. Then ask what has to be true on Thursday for Friday to happen. Then Wednesday. Then Monday.

Say Friday’s done is the full order packed, labeled, and staged at the dock. For that, the last run has to finish by end of shift Thursday. For that run to start on time, the material has to be on the floor Wednesday. For that, the order has to be confirmed with the supplier Monday. Now Monday has a real job on it, and it is not the meeting.

The mechanism is simple. Working back exposes the step everything depends on, and it exposes it early, while there is still time to act. Working forward hides it until it is late. Most missed Fridays were lost on Monday or Tuesday, on a step nobody knew everything else was waiting on.

It also makes the plan checkable. If Wednesday’s step is not true by Wednesday, Friday is already at risk, and you know it with two days left instead of none. A plan is not a promise about Friday. It is a set of checkpoints that tell you early when Friday is slipping.

A plan that starts with the meeting does not start with the job.

This week, write Friday’s done in one line. Then write the Wednesday step that has to be true to get there, and check it on Wednesday.