A3 Planning for Personal Improvement
In last week’s Muse, we discussed how out of balance we are as a society on the “We” versus “Me” scale. In the first recommendation of that article, we outlined the importance of self-awareness and purpose. “To know thyself is a necessary first step to robust societal participation.”
The process of getting to know yourself is difficult, but deeply satisfying. Self-reflection and personal planning exercises are two important tools to understand and employ on the journey toward greater self-awareness and enlightenment. In this Muse, we’re going to take the promised deep dive into the concept of the personal A3.
In a business setting, we create long-range plans, business plans, annual budgets, job descriptions, incentive plans, contingency plans, and disaster recovery plans. Heck, some of us have plans for how to develop plans!
However, the story is typically very different on a personal level. When’s the last time you sat down and created your own personal roadmap? Do you know what your personal purpose is? Have you determined what “success” means and how you’ll measure it to know if you’ve strayed from your intended path? Yes, many of us set “New Year’s Resolutions,” but those are, more often than not, haphazardly constructed goals that die when business-as-usual crushes our dreamy-eyed aspirations of more money or a thinner body during an alcohol-soaked New Year’s Eve party.
A3 Planning: The Personal A3
In the parlance of Lean and continuous improvement, the “A3” is a problem solving and discovery tool. The term “A3” refers to a specific Standard International Paper size that’s slightly fatter and shorter than what we in North America refer to as “legal size” paper. Right now you’re thinking, “Of course we’ve got different paper sizes than the rest of the world!” For purposes of this exercise, you’re essentially working with a piece of paper that’s 11” x 17”.
Another question you might be asking yourself in a Jim Gaffigan-style whisper is, “Why on earth is he talking about paper sizes?” The answer here is straightforward. The A3 planning process is meant to be tactile and not digital. Creating an A3 is an experience that relies on hand-to-brain communication to spark creative juices that don’t flow as easily in more passive educational settings like reading or watching a video.
In addition, building an A3 is an iterative process. The first go-round is likely to be a mess, but the mess is an important part of the activity. Having several blank templates printed out and at your disposal is a prerequisite for a good finished product.
Instructions for Personal A3 Planning
Step 1 - set aside an hour of completely uninterrupted time. Be sure this time slot aligns with the time of day when you do your best thinking. Walking into the exercise exhausted or stressed will not yield positive results. Also, do your best to avoid too much mental preconditioning other than ensuring your mind is free, open, and unencumbered by an unduly fixed mindset. You want unvarnished responses that are your own and free from pressure from external sources.
This is not your spouse’s A3, it’s yours. Yes, you might be the head of household or be in a position where others rely on you for their daily needs, but do your best to set all that aside and focus on you in step 1. Remember, we’re trying to build self-awareness through self-reflection.
Step 2 - get cracking and fill out the boxes in your own hand. These are your words, your responses, your desires, and your blockers/challenges. The personal A3 is not a group exercise and cannot be delegated. Use a maximum of one hour for this first version. Don’t worry, there will be time for refinement later. Getting your gut reaction is important here.
Figure 1 below is an example of a personal A3 template for illustration purposes. My colleague Nick will be building us a much more elegant version that we’ll share in a future post - but for now, my feeble graphics skills will do just fine.
The bullets that follow are purposefully brief descriptions of what each box means. I’m not going to be providing concrete examples of completed A3s because I don’t want to influence your decisions and choices or provide shortcuts that unintentionally color your thinking.
Purpose: It all starts with purpose. Why am I here? What do I stand for? What brings me joy? Your purpose statement is short and punchy. I know I said I didn’t want to influence your thinking, but to get you started, my purpose statement is the tag line for my book, Balancing Act.
Current State: This is the depiction of the present and your day-to-day life as it exists today. Do your best to use pictures and symbols to describe your current state. I’m a terrible artist, but find value in drawing crude images of my current state to aid in the creative process.
Desired Future State: Same thing - draw a picture of where you want to be.
Vision Statement: These are the words that describe your desired future state. In terms of length, it’s longer than your purpose statement, but still punchy and direct.
Coaches and Mentors: Write down who is going to help you. Some folks haven’t given much thought to who their mentors are and what the difference is between a coach and a mentor. If you get nothing more from the A3 exercise than to identify your mentor(s), that’s a win in my book.
Asset Inventory: These are the skills, education, physical assets (monetary and non-monetary), abilities, and attitudes that you bring to the table in the current state.
Environmental Challenges: These are the external challenges that influence your current state that are out of your immediate control. As we learned in economics 101, everything is variable in the long-run, but these are the short-run environmental factors that constrain you.
Personal Blockers: An extension of environmental challenges, these items are specific to you and stand in the way of progression beyond the current state.
Skill/Toolset Gaps: This is a critical step in the process and represents the difference between the skills and tools you’ll need to make progress toward the desired future state and your current asset inventory (see above).
Goals: What are the things that need to be accomplished over the next year (or however you’ve defined your A3 planning period) to make meaningful progress toward the desired future state. Make sure your goals are SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many goals. If this box is crammed with things to do, then your A3 will likely end up in the same cemetery as our New Year’s resolutions.
Roadmap: As the name suggests, this is literally a picture of a roadmap that illustrates the significant milestones on the journey from current state toward the desired future state. Put symbolic curves in your roadmap in recognition of the fact that life is filled with curves, roadblocks, and loopbacks.
Metrics for Success: How will you know you’ve made progress? How will you measure goal attainment? Again, too many metrics and they won’t be tracked.
Figure 1: The Personal A3 Template
Step 3 - let it sit - preferably overnight. Set another one hour uninterrupted and unencumbered time slot for review. After your initial draft has had a chance to age for a bit, pick it back up and review your responses. Print out another blank template and work through each of the boxes again. Maybe you nailed it the first time, or maybe a night or two of reflection has sparked new ideas and opportunities for refinement. It’s important to write out your responses again. Draw the pictures again.
Repeat this step again if you feel it’s necessary, but don’t overthink things at this stage of the process. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself and ask as many “whys” as it takes to get to root cause - especially for challenges and blockers.
Step 4 - talk to a mentor. Before you dive in and start taking action, set a meaningful block of time with your mentor(s), send them a picture of your completed A3, and have a conversation about it. Make sure your mentor will “give it to you straight,” but will do so in a psychologically safe environment. If you don’t think the person you’ve chosen can strike the appropriate balance between constructive feedback and creating a psychologically safe space for you to explore your A3, then I hate to break it to you, but they’re not a mentor. Psychological safety is essential.
Step 5 - collect opinions from your inner circle. Balance is important here too. Choose individuals to confide in who are likely to offer constructive feedback and be able to do so by offering different perspectives so you can look at your A3 from different angles. If most of your friends are essentially mirror images of you, then limit the weight you place on their responses - getting caught in an echo chamber of support will not provide the diversity of thought and opinion that’s essential for this process to work effectively. Also, avoid abusive, controlling, or unconstructively judgy people in your circles. They are unlikely to listen with a “seek to understand” mindset and will instead consciously or subconsciously be seeking to tear down your aspirations and goals.
Step 6 - move to implementation. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. The A3 process likely sparked some areas of change that are not inconsequential. Make sure you’re willing to engage in change and spend some time investing in creating a greater personal understanding of your own change curve. Then, as Yoda said, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Compromises will undoubtedly be made on what can realistically be achieved, but at a bare minimum, stay true to your purpose.
Step 7 - monitor and adjust. Your A3 is a living document. As mentioned previously, change is messy. The roadmap you drew in your A3 is purposefully curvy in recognition of the fact that not much happens in a straight line in real life. As Mike Tyson famously quipped, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Revisit your A3 and progress against goals (relying on the metrics for success you chose) at least once every year, preferably every six months.
Conclusion
I wish you great success in your life and hope that the construction of your personal A3 and making the commitment to more formal personal A3 planning serves you well.
Grace. Dignity. Compassion.
Andy
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End Notes:
Paper Sizes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size
A3 Problem Solving in Business: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3_problem_solving
SMART Goals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria
Change Management Models: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management
