The PDCA Cycle is used by engineers and businesses worldwide to improve upon its processes. PDCA stands for Plan. Do. Check. Act. I was first introduced to this concept by best-selling author, one of the world’s top leadership gurus and former engineer, Orrin Woodward. Woodward introduced the concept of PDCA as Plan. Do. Check. Adjust. I resonate with that more because it directly implies that you will adjust along the way.
Notice that it is a cycle. If you study most leaders, you will likely discover that they consistently perform the first two parts of the cycle in a continuous loop—Plan, do, plan, do, plan, do… That why there is such a saying as “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” The key is checking or inspecting your plan. You cannot fall in love with your plan. President Eisenhower said “…plans are useless, planning is indispensable.” While he was referring to battle, this concept is equally valuable in the business world and for governing your personal life. Iron Mike Tyson famously said “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Have you heard the saying you can only expect what you inspect? It is true. Make your plan, do the plan, check the plan to ensure it is still working properly and make adjustments where necessary. Staying in this virtuous cycle keeps you on constantly on target.
Back in the mid-1990s, I had the pleasure of hearing Astronaut Buzz Aldrin speak at a conference in Tampa, FL. According to Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo 11 Mission was off target 97% of the time and they still made it to the moon! Heck, I would have thought they would have missed it and landed on some random meteor or something at that rate of failure. However, they kept checking and adjusting, doing, checking adjusting, before they got too far off target.
I am using this process with my food intake. I planned my approach to the low carb diet. As I am slowly adding more carbs to my diet, I’m checking daily to see if this is having an adverse effect on my body, my weight, how my clothes fit, etc. When I see any of those things occur, I know that I need to adjust back to where I was and continue the cycle of plan, do, check and adjust.
Where in your life could you use more check-adjust?