To plan B or to not? That is the question.
It's impossible to prepare for everything but it's inherent for people to plan just the same to deal with uncertainties. Looks like a good plan, right? Not exactly, says researchers. According to them, having a backup plan may actually get in the way of achieving one's original goals.
In a study published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Jihae Shin from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Katherine Milkman from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School showed that merely thinking of a backup plan reduces goal performance, hurting chances of successfully achieving a goal.
It all began when Shin was talking to Milkman about how she sometimes hesitated to come up with backup plans because she thought it hurt her chances of succeeding in her primary goal. Milkman thought the idea was interesting, so the two conducted a number of experiments to test it out.
All participants were tasked with unscrambling a sentence and were told that if they performed well, they would receive either a free snack or the opportunity to leave the experiment early. However, some were also instructed to think of other means they can get free food or save time later on in the event they don't do well in the task and don't get the reward.
Shin and Milkman observed that those told to come up with backup plans performed poorly on their initial task. In a follow-up, they saw that a key component that affected performance results was the reduced desire for goal success.
According to the researchers, there are big benefits associated with making backup plans, but there may be costs as well that are not well-known. Understanding these costs are important, they said, especially when a goal can be met through effort. In instances that goals are met through innate skill or luck, backup plans have not been shown to diminish goal performance.
Shin and Milkman reiterate that making backup plans may come at a cost but this does not mean that people should never have to make them. Rather, people should learn how to assess when a situation would be more beneficial if a backup plan is in place.
"You might want to wait until you have done everything you can to achieve your primary goal first," said Shin.
Do you have tips on how to more effectively achieve goals? Share them with us in the comments below!
Photo: Alice Mercer | Flickr
