Rule 6 - Respect The 6 P's

The 6 Ps: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. – U.S. Army

Respect the 6 Ps:

1. Prior
2. Planning
3. Prevents
4. Piss
5. Poor
6. Performance

1 - Prior

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. – Abraham Lincoln

Don’t leave your planning to the last moment. Instead, dive into the detail early to make sure a lack of planning doesn’t become somebody else’s priority.

2 - Planning

A goal without a plan is just a wish!

Pictures! There is a reason why we build of drawings. And planning should be no different. Make drawings, sketches and slides to convey your message, the mental picture of how it is going to be built. Your vision if you would.

3 - Prevents

A plan that everyone dislikes for different reasons is a success. A plan everyone dislikes for the same reason is a failure. And a plan that everyone likes for the same reason is an act of God.

Ensure understanding of your vision by asking for feedback. And be humble enough to accept criticsm and adapt your plan as needed.

4 - Piss

There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.

Consult grey haired people. This isn’t the first time, so learn from other peoples mistakes and avoid mistakes of the past. Search out common school boy errors and plan around.

5 - Poor

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

You never really learn something until you have to teach it. So the best way to understand howto build something is to try and explain it to someone else.

6 - Performance

Poor planning or poor execution of plans is simply to let some force other than reason shape reality. – Robert McNamara

You can spend your time putting out fires, or you can spent your time planning and adapting. If you spend all your time putting out fires, then for the most part your destiny is being set by other forces outside your control.

Check out The Engineering Rule Book for the other rules.