She failed to help them plan
by Phil Bartle, PhD
Short stories to illustrate the principles
Marybeth herself was well organized. She never failed to plan. Her mistake was in assuming that everybody else was as organized as her, and planned in detail what they would do.
Her community members did not have a clue what planning was or how to go about doing it. Marybeth could hardly believe that, although the community members were clear what they wanted, an access road to the main trunk highway, they did not know that they should draw up a plan for what they wanted and how they could go about achieving it. Blind newborn puppies.
Fortunately for all, Marybeth realized what they lacked, and set about to organize a few planning sessions where she gave them guidance along the way. She was able to illustrate her favourite proverb, “If you fail to plan, you might as well plan to fail.”
Note: These stories are based on actual events. The names of people and places have been changed for the sake of anonymity.
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