Shapiro Ronald M. - Dare to prepare: how to win before you begin

CONTENTS

Introduction
Will You Dare to Prepare?

Part 1
READYSET

Part 2
THE PRINCIPLES

3 Whats Your Destination?
Understand Your Objectives

4 Someone, Somewhere Has Probably Done This Before
Plan with Precedents

5 Whats in the Forecast?
Know the Alternatives

6 Its in Your Best Interest to Know Their Interests
Define the Interests

7 Look Before You Leap
Set Your Strategy

8 When the Rubber Meets the Road
Do a Timeline

9 The Right Parts for the Right People
Pick Your Team

10 What You Say and How You Say It
Write the Script

11 The Constant Preparer
Adjust and Learn from Mistakes

Part 3
THE BENEFITS OF PREPARATION
Self-Confidence, Effectiveness, and Satisfaction

13 Prepare and Conquer
A Mantra for Effective People

Appendix
The Preparation Principles Checklist

To Mark and Lori Jankowski,
for your inspiring example of how to respond to
that for which there can be little preparation.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Antoine de Saint-Exupry

INTRODUCTION

Will You Dare to Prepare?

T he airplane shudders at the top of the runway and then springs forward. Your business trip is over, and you are headed home to the family for a long weekend. Whats more, you have been upgraded to first class.

A flock of ducks sits on the grass and stares at the big metal bird roaring past. Your BlackBerry: off. Your laptop: in the overhead bin. No turbulence as you rise. You push your seat back and wait for the flight attendant with the kind smile to arrive with a drink.

You marvel: how do these people do it so well? The debonair captain with the slightly tilted cap strode into the cockpit a bit late. But his unhurried gait and sly smile gave you the confidence that you will barely notice a few bumps during the flight. He got on the intercom with that Robert Mitchum voice and gave the reassuring clich: Ladies and gentlemen, it is a beautiful evening for flying.

It is a great evening for going home. The earth is fading now as you look down. It is twilight, and the growing distance of the landscape and the flickering lights feed your sense of escape.

Suddenly the plane growls. The hum of the engines stops and the silence itself is loud. You are floating there for a few seconds; everyone looks at one another; the flight attendants freeze and you see fear in their eyes. The silence turns deafening.

The plane turns on its left wingyour wingand you are looking ten thousand feet straight down as you drop sideways toward the earth. You see the faces of your family the whole way down.

The captain, it turns out, was not prepared. He and his copilot rushed through the standardized pilots checklistthe Bible of preparation in the aviation industrymuch too quickly. Before takeoff, he neglected to release the planes elevator lock, the device on the rear wing that controls the airplanes pitch.

Your beloved mother has been battling pneumonia for four days. What a fighter she is! But with those white blood cells so low she is a giant bulls-eye for the microscopic bacteria that come her way. You are spending every night beside her in one of those torturous hospital chairs. You are on the lookout for anything that may bring bacteria too close for comfort.

You wear a mask to protect her from the critters that your own breath may spew. Each time you hear the door open, you look up to make sure the nurse or doctor has put on a mask, too. And you always double-check to make sure that whoever comes in squirts his or her hands with that alcohol solution in the dispenser on the wall. If one bacteria-filled finger touches that IV port, shes as good as gone.

You are exhausted and almost hallucinating. You are so tired that sometimes even you almost forget to wash your hands before you help her move her legs or adjust her pillow.

You rest your head against the back of the chair and watch her breathe. She is improving slowly. Smiling a bit again. The door opens and the night nurse carries in another IV bag. He is a fast mover: he talks fast, walks fast, and checks her temperature fast.

He is right beside her IV stand when you realize: he did not prepare properly by squirting his hands! He is reaching for the port on her arm and you almost dive across your mother on the bed to grab his hands.

You stand there holding him by the wrists; he looks at you like you are mad; your mother looks at you like you are mad.

You didnt wash your hands, you say sternly.

You let him drop his arms. He breathes out and chuckles nervously. Even your mother laughs. Little does she realize you may have just saved her life.

Anyone who flies or has ever been in a hospital for a serious illness could have had similar experiences. The airplane tragedy did indeed happen to some poor souls who perished in a fatal 1935 airplane crash in Dayton, Ohio, in which the pilot forgot to release the elevator lock prior to takeoff. The standardized pilots checklist that now defines aviation safety has its origin in that accident.

The pilots checklist, refined over the years, has become the procedure followed in every cockpit on every commercial airline takeoff in America. It has become such a fundamental and effective part of preparation in the aviation industry that hospitals nationwide now hire pilots as consultants to help develop medical care checklists. Each year more than one million people contract staph infections in American hospitals, and more than one hundred thousand may die from them, according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. The hospital checklist has become a key preparation tool in the national effort to reduce rampant staph and other infections and consequent deaths among patients.

Preparation is the basis for each checklist. Whether the task is flying a plane or administering a hospital, getting a road warrior home safely to that wonderful family or getting a vulnerable patient healthy again, preparation makes a vital difference between life and death.

Preparation, in less grave matters like business deals or contract negotiations or managing a staff or making family decisions, also makes the difference between success and failure. And the guarantor of proper preparation, even in more mundane matters, is the use of a preparation checklist.

For example, you are sitting in your office at nine in the morning and get a call from an important customer. She tells you that she could place a significant order for your newest product or service if you can agree upon the terms and have the deal wrapped up by noon.

You ask some questions and determine that noon is a real deadline. You ask about her alternatives to your product, as well as the customers pricing goals.

She again says: This has got to be done by noon.

You feel the pressure of wanting to do the deal. Your mind is racing a mile a minute about the pricing and delivery terms you want to propose to the customer. You want to get it done, but sense the danger of rushing.