As humans, we want a degree of certainty day-to-day. We plan for how we want our actions to work. And yet, all the planning in the world fails if we don’t act. We have to act, to rise to the challenge.

I wrote about a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower last year. You can check it out here.

2022 is nearly half complete. What actions have you taken professionally and personally this year?

In the agile product and service development space, teams retrospect after completing timeboxed work.

As humans being, we should do the same. Retrospective looks back help us evaluate our progress and tune our performance.

Actions yield results. It takes courage to look at those results and begin asking questions.

Time to rise to the challenge

Normally, when teams perform a retrospective, three questions are asked.

• First, what went well?
• Next, what did not go well?
• Last, what do we want to change?

If the only action being taken is planning, what results or outcomes can we expect? Plans don’t magically happen to get executed.

James Clear wrote about motion and action together in “Atomic Habits”. Importantly, know there’s a difference between the plan (which is motion) and the work (which is action).

It’s not enough to get thoughts on paper. To clarify, follow-through is essential.

As a result, action is required to increase or sustain momentum. Finally, consider this quote.

It’s easier to act your way into good thinking than it is to think your way to good action.

Bill Gove, the father of professional speaking