One useful way to think about project management involves anticipation. You can consider different scenarios and make plans for how to handle them. Goals and visions can serve as anchors for these scenarios. So can unplanned opportunities that pop up, and problems that you can foresee.

For example, a friend of mine leading a publicity team needed to get his company’s CEO on stage. Which stage? What format—interview or keynote? If it would be an interview, which journalist should be chatting with the CEO? What kinds of questions did he hope the journalist would ask? What answers could the CEO give to create the conditions for these questions to come up?

As he spent time thinking about this, he could manage the project much more clearly and communicate it with his team.

Block out time to think about the future. While what happens is not in your control, how you respond to it—and how you prepare for what might happen—is.

Thanks James, for the headline.