It’s a model
It’s tempting to start the meeting in the middle of the thing. Where the details and all the arguments lie. To spend time digging into…
It’s a model.
It’s a thinking tool. It’s a part of the planning. It’s a list of assumptions, the things you’re guessing, the leaps of faith. It’s a game of ifs and buts and maybes.
What it isn’t.
The answer.
Playing with spreadsheets games out the future as an intellectual/creative pursuit – the benefit of which is not (except for bankers) the numbers at the bottom of the page. If you think you’ll work out exactly what will happen by when, and particularly if you’re actions are then driven by blind faith in their accuracy, you’ll make one prat-fall after another.
The benefit is the thinking.
To prod and poke towards insights of how things are linked, where the longest levers lie, the smell and feel of the numbers. And then pay attention as reality proves them each month.
Skippy strategy: Use the numbers to think about the numbers.
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Category:
Focus
When something big needs doing, there’s no substitute for sitting down and getting it done. The bigger it is, the more likely there’ll be multiple…