In both sports and the military you put together a game plan, you rehearse the plan until it becomes ingrained in you, and then you execute the plan.  However, during the execution of that plan, you need to have the flexibility and ability to pivot and change once you meet resistance.  In short, you need to do contingency planning so that you and your team can be proactive when dealing with adversity rather than reactive.  In Naval Aviation we would always say that “the enemy has a vote.”  This phrase meant that no matter how sound your plan was, you still needed to be prepared to alter your plan once you met resistance from your adversary.  Likewise, as a catcher in baseball I, along with the starting pitcher,  would put together a plan of how to get the opposing hitters out.  However, I needed to be willing to alter that plan depending on what the opposing hitters were doing real time in the game and what pitches may or may not be working. 

Many people will argue that to have a contingency plan is to plan for a failure that may never come.  People will rightfully ask “if we smartly execute our plan and succeed than a contingency plan is unnecessary and a waste of time.”  My response is that I have never played a perfect game in baseball or had a perfect flight in the Navy.  When you are competing at a high level, whether it be sports, the military, or business, you are going to face some form of resistance that is going to force you to alter your plan in some manner.  Often a plan only requires a slight alteration, for example slightly modifying a route of flight to avoid enemy troops.  Whatever the case may be if you have done contingency plan beforehand when you meet resistance you can quickly and smartly adapt and continue moving toward your goal.  Without a contingency plan, you will be reacting to adversity which causes confusion and chaos and results in financial setbacks.  By contingency planning and possessing the willingness to adapt you can respond faster and save money.

Just like the military and sports where the “enemy has a vote,” in business your customers have a vote via their purchasing power.  A company may believe that it has created the perfect product for its targeted market; however, if the customers don’t like it, then it is time to adapt your strategy.  The initial idea behind Instagram, originally called Burbn, was to create a product that allowed people to use their smartphone to check-in with their current location.  What the founders soon discovered was that people were predominately using the app to share photos.  The founders had the wherewithal to use this feedback to rebrand their company as a photo sharing app and Instagram was born.  Eighteen months later, Instagram was sold to Facebook for 1 billion dollars.  Have a business plan in place, but if the customers don’t react according have the ability and discipline to flex and adapt your strategy.

Authored By: Fletcher Vynne, former F/A-18 Super Hornet Weapon Systems Officer

Click Here to View Fletcher’s Bio

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