How to be positive and craft good plans in times of uncertainty

In times of uncertainty, there are many difficult choices to make. You have to make quick decisions with limited information. What is the right course of action?

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Have a plan

Hopefully you already have created a process for how to evaluate and make these types of decisions. If not, time to create one! Whether or not your plan is for how to support customers, how to close sales, how to enable employees to work remotely, etc. the point is you need to make a simple plan that can be communicated and executed with your team and customers. In those plans, best to be conservative and assume money will be harder to raise, sales will take longer, productivity will decline, recovery will take longer, etc.

Be flexible and keep watch

Knowing we don’t know everything and new information is being released all the time, be flexible. If new information changes your plan (and it will), don’t be afraid to adjust and tweak. The best path forward will almost always be a variant of your initial plan. Constantly refine your hypothesis and plan to look for a better way. Keep communicating as you adapt to new information!

Stay positive on how to get through

Through it all, there will be lots of negativity and chances to get down. Instead, focus on the positives as well as what specific actions you can take. Do not get bogged down by things you cannot control. This is as much an emotional challenge as anything.

We all want to hope for the best and we should. However, it can be wise to plan for the worst as well. If in several weeks we all look back and realize everyone overreacted, we can live with that. If we were to look back and realize we had not done enough, I think that reality is far worse. Stay safe!