Leadership Competency #4
Planning Basics - 1/18
NOTE: This module draws from my earlier work under Black Market Leadership. The ideas here predate Chaos Studies in Leadership and form the foundation that made this work possible.
This introduction explains that the planning method taught in the module is an Army-derived template the speaker learned at VMI and reinforced through six years in the U.S. Army, and that he has since applied it beyond the military—into corporate strategy, directives, and business planning.
The core argument is that the template is valuable because it is simple, universal, and portable: it can be used with nothing more than paper (or even from memory), without relying on software or advanced tools. The goal is for the planning process to become second nature, enabling leaders to plan quickly “on the ground,” stay flexible, and avoid unnecessarily long planning sessions—while still aligning the team.
The speaker also emphasizes that before teaching the mechanics of planning, the module will establish goals and context: why planning matters, when it’s necessary, and what challenges prevent people from planning well. This “why” is positioned as essential for gaining buy-in, building trust, and reducing the need for constant persuasion later.
Finally, the intro previews the module flow: introduction → goals → why plan (and challenges) → the planning template, which consists of five parts taught in depth, supported by repetition, quizzes, and examples to drive mastery.
TRANSCRIPT
Ok, so what we do now is make sure you're looking you're following the PDF, and I just won't give you a little background, a background now. As you know, I've spent six years in the Army and the U.S. Army. I left as a captain and even prior to that, six years of active duty. During my time at Virginia Military Institute, I learned how to plan. And the planning template that we're going to use comes from the army. So let me see that just on the outset. This comes from the army. The reason why I use this is that I've seen a lot of different templates out there. Some are very, very advanced and they're great. I mean, again, there's some great advanced tools out there, but we have to use something that is applicable to everyone that really is universal, something that you really could just use out of your head. You can write it down, start taking people through the process and create a plan without having software, without having the real advanced technology with you. If you had that, great. But the goal is you want everyone on the team to understand. You want everyone on your team to be able to plan in this way. And instead of having, you know, special software on an iPad or a laptop that you have to pull up, why not just talk about it, take a piece of paper out, write it out.
That's that methodology, that simplicity is available in this template. I'm going to show you today, I learned this at VMI. It was just. It was just. The ground that the ground, it grinded it, they ground it into my head for years and then the army used it, and the thing is in the army, it's become second nature. So that's. With this course, please watch, of course, over and over, take the quizzes, follow the examples, let it become second nature to you, get to the point where you don't have to pull anything reminders. You could say, boom, boom, boom, this is what we're doing, boom, boom, boom. If you do that, you're going to be able to be flexible. You're going to be able to move quickly on the ground, strategize quickly on the ground. You're not going to have to have these enormous long planning sessions, though. Some are necessary. Some are absolutely not necessary. If you can learn to do it on your feet and be quick about it and put something together that aligns the team. You're going to be a success. You really will be, and I would tell you right now, this template, this model that I've used from the army, I've used it in creating corporate strategies, corporate directives, business directives. So it really, really is universal. It's simple, universal. But the key is knowing the pieces and just realize there is going to be some detail in this.
There's going to be a lot of detail, and I need you to understand it. So, again, watch this video over and over. Take the quizzes. I will make sure to really make this thing heavy with quizzes and I'll have some examples. So please, very, very important. I think you get a lot a lot out of this. So what does this course look like saying that where does this model look like first? You know, you got my introduction here. Next, we're going to talk about the goals. What are the specific goals that we need to identify before we move forward, then before we even jump into the planning? I'm really about people understanding why you're doing something. I just want to tell you got to do it. I want you to understand. So we're going talk about why plan at all. Do you really need to plan? I mean, seriously, can you answer this question? We're up. Why should you plan and and what are the challenges facing people? So in a sense, we are creating the situation, the expectations, the real understanding of why you're here in the first place. And I think this is very important because when you when you're with a team, when they're with their subordinates, they're going to ask you, why are we doing this? You have to be able to explain yourself. And now you don't have to do it all the time. Remember, in our definition about influencing others, it's the point where you don't persuade them all the time.
But I think there are certain times that if you can clearly articulate why you're doing something, why it's important to the person and they really have buy in. And when they have by and then you have increased the level of trust between you two or among your team, you do that. And later on, as you move forward and you ask people to do things, you're not necessarily have to persuade them. They're going to know that you're good for it, that that you have proven yourself in the past. I think planning, understanding why it's important and even the challenges that people are facing now, if you can understand them and articulate them, then you can get real in for people wanting to learn this process, OK? You want them to learn this process so you can teach them and they can do it with with their people. As a as a grow professionally and finally, once we have that background, once we have set the goals and expectations and once you understand why we're doing this, then we're going to jump into the planning template and there five pieces to it. We're going to go through the pieces for the most part, really in depth. And with that, that's it. That's that's how this model is going to start and how it's going to end. OK, let's begin.