Without a plan

I’m an analytical guy, and I feel most comfortable when a I have a plan that pulls together. I’d like to think that this is an asset for my various leadership roles.

However.

The absolute best vacation our family ever had was when we had three weeks, a campervan, and no agenda except to show up at the Sydney airport on a specific day. The sense of freedom was unbelievable.

A similar feeling happened over the recent holidays, when I made sure to keep my scheduling and planning to a minimum. I had whole days with nothing scheduled, and little accomplished, It was wonderful!

I’ve learned that there are times where a leader needs to be open and unplanned. A good example is when you’re doing a team celebration. Sure, there may be a couple of people or accomplishment you want to recognize, but then leave the rest of the time open.

It can be about people just relaxing, connecting, and having fun. Because that’s enough.

When I was doing executive facilitation, I noticed that meetings never started exactly on time. This was because people were catching up since their last gathering, using the restroom, or tapping away on a last minute email. So I decided to put it first on the agenda:

People thought it was weird, of course, but then appreciated that we were doing exactly what had been planned. It removed the stress of already being behind when the meeting actually started a few minutes “late”.

And that was just 5 minutes, making the entire day more focused and productive.

My final example is the time at the end of the workday. When I was working in an office, there was a particular kind of stress where I would be rushing out the door to get home for personal obligations. I was cramming in a few final last-minute tasks, not really doing them well, before running to my car.

Things changed when I allocated a block of time at the end of my workday just to clean things up. I rarely scheduled meetings then, but instead just focused on having the day feel complete. I’d make a list of things to attend to the next day, then leave it on the desk.

I imagine you can see how different this felt. My energy was entirely different.

When can you use the concept of unstructured time?