Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

— Dwight Eisenhower

Quote Investigator

The details of a plan which was designed years in advance are often incorrect, but the planning process demands the thorough exploration of options and contingences. The knowledge gained during this probing is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold.

Rubber balls bounce. Glass balls shatter. You can drop the rubber balls and usually recover easily enough. Drop a glass ball and you’re likely done with that one. The visual metaphor of juggling rubber balls and glass balls is easy to grasp. It still raises the issue, though, of how do you tell the difference between the two?

Here’s a checklist of questions that can help:

• What’s the long-term impact of this ball?
• Who else cares about this ball?
• What’s the upside of this ball?
• If I dropped this ball, could I recover?
• Should I even be juggling this ball?