Today is Monday, September 24, 2018 – a very significant day for the People of Bethany. After more than two years of construction and several more months of building set up, Bethany Riverview is scheduled to receive its first residents which are to be cared for by the site’s first scheduled shift of care staff. Congratulations are due to everyone who has been involved in preparing for this day. There are very many of you who have been involved in big or small ways – you all know who you are!
Many things have had to occur to accomplish the successful opening of a new care centre. There obviously has been a lot of hard physical work by many staff and contractors. However, I’m not sure how many of you are as aware that this wonderful outcome could not have been achieved without years and years of thoughtful planning.
This made me think that now would be a good time for me to share with you some personal views about the benefit of taking the time to plan effectively, rather than just jumping into an activity or an event without appropriate forethought.
Over the years, whether at work or at home, preparing for a big life event for you or your family, travelling to a far-away place, or even just going out with friends, I’ve learned the importance of investing some time to anticipate the occasion and make plans for how circumstances might unfold. For some of those occasions, the appropriate extent of planning is simple and could be:
- For meeting some friends – to ask questions like: “Do I have enough money with me?” or “Will I be warm enough (or too hot) in these clothes?”
- For doing yard work at home – to make sure that you have the correct tools for the job, or making sure you have enough gas for the lawnmower.
- For a big life event – like the purchase of your first car – to make sure the car is registered and insurance has been arranged, and (hopefully) that you already have a driver’s license!
There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained in sitting back before one of these rather simple events and thinking how great the event will be. That’s when we need to ask the next question, which is “OK, what is my ‘Plan B’?”. A ‘Plan B’ is the one that kicks in when our initial plan starts to fail. For example: the weather may be fine now, but what if it will rain later?
For a project as large as Bethany Riverview, the principles of good planning are no different – a large project just has many more elements and some of them are very significant. That’s when the benefit of careful forethought (and having a series of sound ‘Plan B’s) provides the opportunity to be successful. And the best quality measure of any ‘Plan B’ is when everyone who is not “in the know” thinks that it was planned that way in the first place.
As always, I welcome ideas, suggestions and any questions that you may have. Please feel free to send them to me at alasdair.smith@bethanyseniors.com.
Take care,
– Alasdair
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