5P is the difference between getting it right and getting it wrong

5P stands for, "Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance." And it is absolutely correct.  The biggest issue with it is that can never be "perfect" planning.  It also helps to consider that "proper planning" includes a few other "P" words.

Words like, practice, preparation, performance, even prioritizing.  What all that adds up to is yet another "P" word,  which is "Professional."  Because if we're being honest, doing things any other way is not Professional. 

I know of licensed tradies who trash non licensed workers, non-union workers, or anyone not using a particular brand of tools who are as unprofessional as the people they trash talk.  Their work is bad but they wear the uniform and carry the badge so they look the part.

But the truth is, they, and the people they trash talk who actually are as bad as they think, all do not practice the 5P rule. 

Preparation.  Being prepared is more of a mindset.  It's about knowing what's needed, how it all works, when and where it all comes together.  Then, once knowing that information,  putting it all in place ahead of time.

Practice.  Mostly, this comes from actually going through the motions of the task a few times before doing the actual job.  This ensures we know the "feel" of what we're doing.  How the tools handle.  Build the muscle memory to be able to do without concentrating only on one thing.  Those aspects are very important.

Performance.  This is much how we conduct ourself while doing our work as well as being concerned over the quality of our work.  It's about trying to be confident and in control.

Prioritizing.  This gets missed more often than it should.   It's the lack of prioritizing that catches us with surprises as we're doing things.  That's because prioritizing is all about knowing what has to happen and when it needs to happen.   There is an order to many things and it might be mostly standard but it can be subject to change depending on circumstances.   Not taking thise circumstances into consideration can change the order of things.  Can change what type of materials or supports we need and then we are back to making things up as we go.

5P can make the difference in how successful a product that gets installed will work.  5P can make the difference in getting referred by a customer to someone else.  5P can be the difference in whether liability insurance will cover an incident.


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