Are we there yet?

"Are we there yet? Is this the right direction? Actually... where are we going?"

Sometimes good ideas get lost along the way. Some never arrive. The two most common examples I’ve observed are:

Flying by the seat of your pants
Exciting, instinctive, hopeful at first. "Let's work it out as we go!" But you never agree on the destination, why you're heading there, or when you should arrive. Months or even years later, nobody knows if you're on course because nobody knows where you're going.

The Bermuda Triangle
Planned from the start. You know where you want to land and when. Then you get lost in the fog of the work—the meetings, decisions, changes. You drift off course, miss the destination entirely or disappear.

In both instances what’s missing is a planned trajectory at the outset, and trajectory control over the journey.

Trajectory is the fourth thing ideas need to succeed—Legitimacy, Investment, Force and Trajectory. LIFT.

It means:

• Everyone agrees on the destination and timeline
• You take into account other forces that may slow you down or send you off course
• You have signals that show how you're tracking
• You actually check them, and adjust when needed

Critically, Trajectory must be calibrated to Investment and Force. Will they actually get you all the way to the destination, or just to the first stop along the way?

Without planned trajectory and control, even legitimate, well-funded, well-resourced ideas drift, circle, or run out of fuel before they arrive.

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Read more about the LIFT FlightPlan

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