Me, I like long-term planning. Part of that is my nature, part of it is the value, and part of it is because I'm a Project Manager and I'm paid to be anal-retentive and think long-term (fortunately both come naturally to me).
As I've ranted in these posts, we need more long-term planning in our government, our companies, our economies, and our lives. We have to think ahead, we have to plan ahead, otherwise we get . . . er, well look just go read the economic news. After you stop weeping, we'll get back to my rant.
So, as a person who does long-term planning, at times I have to design methods to help companies and individuals plan long-term. Sometimes it takes a lot of explanation.
And this leads to my Frustration Friday: would we even know what the hell long-term planning looks like in the realms of economics and politics? Would we recognize it?
I'm actually not so sure – and I count myself in the number.
We're used to balance-sheet BS, we're used to crisis-of-the-moment politics, we're used to short-term thinking. Politicians, business leaders, and pundits that propose actual long-term and thoughtful solutions may just not fit what we're used to. In the heat of the moment, in a distracted reading of a news article, in a short soundbite, we may not realize someone just proposed actual good long-term solutions to problems.
We're so used to the short-term planning and short-term thinking, I'm not sure we'd recognize good long-term planning from our leaders and many supposed experts.