Big replans feel decisive. Small fixes actually land.
WRITTEN BY
Lena Vermeer
PUBLISHED
READING TIME
3 min read
IN SHORT
01
Full replans usually cost more than the slip.
02
Most plans recover with one early change.
03
Pick the fix with the least disruption, not the most effect.
When a date is at risk, the instinct is to replan everything. It feels responsible. It also usually costs more than the slip did.
The price of a replan
A full replan stops work while people estimate again. It moves dates that were fine, unsettles teams who were on track, and asks everyone to trust a new plan just after the last one failed.
Worse, it tends to arrive late, because nobody wants to call for one until they are certain. By then the cheap options are gone.
What a small fix looks like
Most plans come back with one small change, made early: a freeze moved, a handover swapped, a review shared. None of these make a good slide. All of them work.
To find yours, start at the place the delay is heading, not where it began. Then ask what could change there this week with the fewest people involved.
How to choose between fixes
List two or three options and score each on days saved and people disturbed. Pick the one that recovers enough, not the one that recovers most. A plan has to absorb the fix as well as the delay.
The earlier you steer, the less you have to turn. A one-day change in week three can replace a two-week scramble in week nine.
The earlier you steer, the less you have to turn.
