A problem that I have experienced in the UN is that people do not act fast enough. They keep building on hypothesis over hypothesis (or reason over reason) without taking action to get a feel for their hypothesis or reason for doing something.
Long-term plans (too long-term) gets further behind as the world keeps changing. Superimposing fixed-period long-term plans with rolling plans (budgets and forecasts) that continuously update and change for new information is a better alternative. A good analogy is when a police dog sniff for narcotics at airports and other places they are actually using the theory of sense making to sniff out the environment. Similarly, planners in social development projects must constantly sniff out the environment and change program/project plans accordingly.
Sense making is taking stock of what is happening in the world around you (society, organization, region, country, and world) and transforming those bits of information intelligently into plans, forecasts and budgets.
Make sense of what is happening around you and change your course accordingly. Let us not kid ourselves here, especially in UN circles. Look at your two-year biennial budgets and 5-6-year country program plans and see how much you said at the formulation of the plan had changed (40%, 50%, 60% or more). Is it better if you said less for the long-term and more for the short term, consequently acting sooner and changing course from updated information? Rapid Results Initiatives also encourages sense making and update of plans.
Reformers only know too well, it takes some courage to challenge engraved and established practices.
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