What are the milestones that cannot be ignored and mean the plan must adjust?
Milestones can be great indicators of progress and provide a reality check to what we expect as an eventual outcome. As we are well over halfway in the fiscal year for many businesses there is a perspective that can be helpful. If you have a desired outcome and walk this back through milestones needed, including deadlines, what does that tell us? Are the adjustments to the plan making up for missed milestones to date? Have the milestones been surpassed easily and there is an opportunity to better leverage these? I have personally stayed the course of the optimist when the plan has been lagging earlier thinking minor adjustments might prevail in the end and in doing so missed the chance to adjust. This was a hard lesson however it has served me well in the present and shifted my view of sunk costs. I now ask myself: If the plan is not working, are there some hard realities to face? Is now the time to adjust even though there is more runway? If I rebuild the plan using current metrics where do I end up?