Planning Is Good. Those Who Plan Don't Suffer

"The right plan keeps you from carrying by hand the weight you could have sent by truck."

I was 18 when I joined the Army Officer Preparation Corps (NPOR). Three months of grueling basic training. The rule was simple: obey. You don't think. You execute. You learn to follow orders, adapt, and endure in silence.

Then, in the fourth month, everything flips. Overnight, you become the leader. Now you are the one giving orders, assigning tasks, organizing the squad. And right on my very first mission, I learned a lesson I still carry with me today.

The assignment: reconnoiter a waterway. We gathered, mapped out what we thought was a brilliant plan, and requisitioned everything: inflatable boat, measuring tape, plumb line, survey stakes... a full arsenal. We only forgot one small detail: the truck.

The result? We hauled every piece of gear by hand. For miles on foot. Meanwhile, the sergeant... riding in the truck we never asked for... rolled slowly past us, smiling and repeating: "Planning is good... those who plan don't suffer."

I never forgot it.

Hauling dead weight in the corporate world

I see this exact scene play out all the time in tech. People obsess over the tech stack, the timeline, the color-coded Gantt chart... and forget the foundational infrastructure required to make it work. They don't think about the team. They don't think about the logistics. They don't think about operations. And in the end? They carry by hand what could have gone by truck.

Planning isn't about predicting everything. It is about making sure nobody breaks their back trying to deliver the impossible without the right resources.

A Simplified OKR to Start Right

Want a straightforward way to get started? Use what I call a Simplified OKR. Zero bureaucracy, straight to the point:

• Objective: What do we want to achieve?
• Key Result 1: How will we measure whether we are getting there?
• Key Result 2: What concrete improvement will support the objective?
• Key Result 3: What real metric proves our progress?

Practical Example

Objective: Reduce fuel waste in internal transport operations.

1. KR1: Map 100% of refueling events by the end of the quarter.
2. KR2: Reduce average fuel consumption per machine by 15%.
3. KR3: Identify and fix at least 5 operational deviations.

Simple. Direct. Measurable. No need to overcomplicate it.

Before the Next Delivery, Ask Yourself

On your next initiative, before rushing into execution, pause and reflect:

• What did we forget to ask for?
• Who is going to carry this weight?
• What seems obvious, yet nobody is looking at?
• What is our real objective, and how will we measure that we have arrived?

Leadership isn't just about organizing tasks. It is about preventing unnecessary suffering. It is about paving the road with intelligence rather than improvised heroics. True planning ensures your team's energy goes into the delivery... not into hauling weight left behind by a lack of foresight.