Baking and Planning – Is there a connection?

This is my 3rd article on my blog and I thought I will change it up a bit and talk about my passion and see if there are any connections to the workplace – Baking and Planning

Given a choice, I would personally choose to bake over cooking. Cooking has never excited me and it feels more like a chore and struggle. While I can cook its not something I would do if I had a choice. Baking on the other hand is my happy place and feels more therapeutic for me. I know a lot of people feel baking is difficult however for me its more a matter of planning and getting ready with all the ingredients before starting the journey.

Does this sound a little familiar. Even at work we work on projects which usually are sprung on us and these projects do not come with a playbook of sorts. Usually it’s a blank canvas and a project idea and from there it is up to you to get the ball rolling. In my mind there is a connection in baking and planning a project or a task at work

You may be wondering why baking and planning a project. Just like you need to think through and prep all the ingredients (right to the last gram) when we plan projects it pretty much means bringing all the key people together, creating a list of tasks and putting a plan in place. Think of it like this – your appliances are your key people, your ingredients for baking are your key tasks and the project plan is the final dough or batter that goes into the oven.

For me just like you have to carefully measure all the ingredients and select all the right appliances and utensils, while working on a project and planning everything you need to carefully select your stakeholders, identify specific tasks/activities and draft a plan to ensure the project is successfully delivered. The cake or bread that bakes is the end product similar to when you get your final product after your project is complete

PS... the images you see are actually baked by me ;-)

I will leave you with some questions to get you thinking....

Food for thought

• Do you see similarities between your passion and work

• Do you critically identify all your key stakeholders when planning your project

• Do you have all the key tasks written down – measuring till the last gram

• Do you plan for exigencies – what if the tasks get derailed due to unforeseen situations

• Does your product in the end look the way you thought it would when you started the project

Best Regards,

The Reflective Lens