Professional Development Blog

Has this ever happened to you? You finish the meeting with commitments from various team members to accomplish certain

tasks on schedule. Yet when their due dates roll around, some haven’t started, some are 90% done and some have forgotten about their commitment. Frustrating, isn’t it?

In this article, I will talk about If-Then planning based on a Harvard Business Review article. This planning leads us to perform tasks in accordance with habits. Habits need cues (“When I finish washing my face, then I brush my teeth.”) We automatically use the cue (“If or when this happens”) to guide our next behavior (“then I’ll do this.”). Scientists tell us that actions based on cues are built into our neurological wiring.

Research by Harvard shows that If-Then planners are 300% more likely to reach their goals than those who don’t do this kind of planning. It’s worth a try to avoid the “Oh, I forgot to do that” or “I’m 90% done.”

When researchers studied If-Then planning, those who did If-Then were on average 1.5 hours late in turning in a weekly report compared to eight hours late by those who didn’t use it.

There are some advantages in using If-Then planning with project teams:

• It reduces group think
• It helps teams let go of lost causes
• It helps us plan for risks

If-Then Planning Reduces Group Think

Panels of three people were given resumes of three people and told to pick the best candidate. They had nine criteria for the candidate. They were told to collaborate.

• Candidate A – everyone was given the same resume. Candidate A had six of the nine competencies.
• Candidate B – also had six but everyone only knew three of them, one of which only they knew about.
• Candidate C – had all nine but each panel member knew a unique three. In order to find that Candidate C had all nine, they would have to share information.

Half the panels had an If-Then statement: “Before we take the final vote, we’ll review the competencies of each candidate.”

Panels that didn’t use the If-Then statement chose Candidate C, the best candidate, only 18% of the time. Panels with the If-Then statement chose Candidate C 48% of the time.  

If-Then Planning Helps Us Not to Cling to Lost Causes

If-Then statements help teams take an outsider view of the project. To test this, researchers had three-person panels pretend to be a city council with decisions on how much to invest in a public preschool project

• In Phase 1, they were given only positive information.
• In Phase 2, they were given some positive and some negative. Positive: a local store was donating materials. Negative: environmental safety of the land was in question. Also, unions wanted more money.
• In Phase 3, they were given mostly negative information: oil was found in a sand pit, fixing it would be time consuming and expensive, parents were outraged.

Teams with no If-Then were likely to increase the budget from Phase 1 to Phase 3. Those with If-Then statements (“If we make a decision, we take the perspective of a neutral observer that is not responsible for prior investments.”) Teams with an If-Then approach reduced their investment by 13% from Phase 1 to 3.

If-then Helps us Plan for the Unexpected

Take the risks and do If-Then statements on them. Then if it occurs, the next step of the planning is already in place and ready to be executed.

An Example

Goal: Create a new product line

Sub-Goal: We will test market two new products.

If-Then: “When we have third quarter sales figures in hand, Carol will calculate ROI on each product and build a business case for next phase funding for each of the products.”

An Example of a Team If-Then

Let’s say the team needs to get a report together each week for management. Their team If-Then might read like this:

• When it’s Monday morning, Jane will detail our current expenses for travel, personnel and contractors.
• If it’s Monday through Wednesday, Joe will meet with the managers to get their input on resource needs.
• When it’s Thursday morning, Phil will write a report that synthesizes the numbers and the feedback.
• When it’s Friday at 2:00, the management team will reassess the priorities based on Phil’s report and agree on trade-offs.

Does that sound awkward? Maybe. But the awkwardness means it’s more aware and deliberate.

So instead of just giving your team assignments, write them as if-then statements. It gives them a cue for the new behavior they need to do. Remember, the statistics show that teams that plan this way have a 300% better chance of reaching their goals. And don’t we all want to reach our goals?