Precise planning? Try child's play

Russell Bell PHOTO/FILE

MY SON had his 8th birthday party last Saturday. Apart from the bewildering realisation that he is growing up too fast, the day brought lessons for us as event organisers.

From time to time I have spoken of how information and experience translate into knowledge. I will use Junior's party to demonstrate the next step in the evolution of business decisions learning from our mistakes and seeing these as opportunities in the first instance, which is a core concept of any Lean or continuous improvement initiative.

When a situation like a gang of 8-year-olds descending on a venue (in this case Laser Tag) arises, you need to evaluate whether you are skilled or experienced enough to deal with it and make the right decisions. We had just successfully managed our daughter's 10th birthday party, a mid-year Halloween. This included 10 screaming young girls who generated more decibels than a jackhammer. We thought we could handle anything after that.

Lesson 1: Invariably all situations you face in business will be different to varying degrees. There might be some situations where you think you have all the skills and experience you need when consulting with an advisor could avoid a few or many pitfalls. In the case of Saturday's party we needed to reach out to others, "as no two parties are alike".

Handing our event over to an experienced professional was very much the right decision. Not only was I impressed that this is a business doing exactly what our economist friend (Mr Eaqub) prescribed (utilising existing resources and adding value to them), the team was professional, had a plan for our day, as well as different and exciting game options.

Lesson 2: In decision-making you have to test the information that you are relying on. We should have sought out other weather forecasts and realised that "occasional showers" for springtime Wanganui sometimes means horizontal rain.

Lesson 3: Have a contingency plan. The great businessmen of our time all speak of this. They may use different terms to describe it (like "plan B" / "get-out strategy" / "viable alternatives" / "options") but in making business decisions you must analyse all the options and have an action plan if the environment or circumstances change. I have assisted many clients with scenario planning as part of risk management and strategic planning initiatives. Thinking about what could happen and then having a plan for those eventualities can save a lot of heartache but can also enable you to better understand the market in which you operate.

So, we told all parents of attending children that they should bring suitable attire and were ready in case Saturday's weather turned.

Lesson 4: Learn from mistakes. This summarises all of the above, including our experience with previous parties. Based on our learnings we had systems in place for essential activities. These included bringing enough water for all, writing down "who gave what" and transport arrangements for all attendees.

In business you should assess your processes when results don't deliver as expected and make sure that you learn, record and make changes to ensure issues don't repeat.

The day was a success because the activities were refined from our learnings from the past and the outstanding Laser Tag experience. It's the same for business processes - if you observe, learn and refine you get the best results.

Russell Bell's Zenith Strategic Solutions is a specialist Wanganui business advice and consultancy practice - 021 2442421.