No matter how carefully we plan, mistakes can still happen.
It’s crucial to be ready for any eventuality and to have a backup strategy in place.
Recently, when I lost ties to the world with a long power failure and no charged electronic device, I understood the importance of anticipating and preparing for the worst-case scenarios.
- Identifying the risks:
Identifying the risks is the first step in planning for the worst-case scenario. We should take into account all potential hazards to our initiatives or plans.
This also forms the basis of evaluating startups.
This is not an exhaustive list, however one should always begin with ‘What can go wrong?’.
2. Creating a contingency plan:
Once you have identified the risks, create a contingency plan to address each potential problem. The process may include:
- Weighing risks based on severity
- Conduct a business impact analysis
- Create contingency plan for biggest risks
- Monitoring contingency plans
The plan must include the steps taken to overcome the risks.
3. Test Your Plan:
It’s essential to test your backup plan to make sure it will function when you need it to. You may fix any problems with your strategy and make it more effective by performing a test run.
Planting a drama fight, to see if the contingency plan for avoiding employee conflicts works as required can help in understanding the viability of the contingency plan.
4. Keep your options open:
In the event that something goes wrong, it’s critical to maintain flexibility and a wide range of options. One can take advantage of new research and discoveries to find more high impact opportunities
It becomes more important to address the risks, than understanding the failure of contingencies. You can quickly change directions and adapt to unforeseen circumstances by having backup plans or alternate alternatives.
5. Learn from mistakes:
It’s simple to get disheartened or frustrated when things don’t go as planned.
Yet it’s crucial to grow from your errors and take advantage of the chances they present for development.
Moreover, we should also learn from others’ mistakes, to keep ahead of the risks that haven’t but may appear, because one may not live enough longer to find all the learnings that come along while making mistakes.
6. Stay Positive:
Finally, it’s important to keep a good approach and attitude even when things go wrong.
You can stay motivated to concentrate on solving challenges by adopting a positive mindset.
A good approach is the ‘Surfers Approach’
Surfers always do not ride the tide, tides turn into still waters (down phase). Yet, it won’t be long until the following coming tide aids in the rise.
The approach
Being prepared for things to go wrong entails recognizing potential risks, developing backup plans, testing those plans, remaining adaptable, learning from errors, and keeping an optimistic outlook.
We at Auxano, while evaluating businesses for investment follow a similar approach, an exhaustive checklist of all potential checkpoints clubbed with learnings of closely working with 25 companies and associating with many more.
And as mentioned in the beginning, the inspiration for this piece: I typically keep a laptop, iPad, and phone nearby so that I can stay online. Last night was unusual as all of them were discharged, and I didn’t have a power source to recharge them. As a result, I now always carry a power bank ( and ensure to keep it charged at all times 🙂 ) .
While no strategy can be guaranteed to succeed, by being proactive and well-prepared, you may mitigate the effects of any failures and come out stronger as a result.
Author:
Kanuj Jadwani
