The 4P rule

Two of the men in my family have the military following through their veins and when things go wrong they like to point out the 5P rule. Being a lady and a professional I have shortened this to the 4P rule, Poor Planning lead to Poor Performance. I will leave you to work out the meaning of the silent P….that’s a hint by the way.

On Wednesday I fell foul of the 4P rule. It was the last LPC-NMS Local Solutions training event being held at  Horndean College as a South East Hants LPG meeting. I arrived to do my  bit on the background to the NMS…without the all-important PowerPoint presentation in my little hand or my enormous handbag. We were expecting a full house and potentially we had nothing to show them (although we did have the booklets) and it was all my fault.

Being made of tough stuff Karen, the LPG Lead, and I did not panic. We knew a generic  presentation was available on the CPPE website so by tracking down the college caretaker, persuading him to open the office and let us use his internet access,  we were able to grab a copy onto a memory stick…at least I had one of those lurking in my handbag. Phew!

Of course 5 mins before we were due to start Jane, our CPPE tutor, strolled in with all the necessary presentations ready to go including mine. She was not at home to poor planning.

The evening went very well and I was feeling confident I had covered up my error until one of the attendees said “ I don’t remember Mike ever turning up without his presentation”…ouch!