Rescuing Long-Term Planning

Long-term action is in trouble. I came to this conclusion recently as a result of a conversation I had with a new parent. She talked of wanting to begin taking concrete steps to begin putting away money toward a college education for she and her husband's newborn child. But the desire to do this, she said, was being compromised by the realities of their current economic challenges: house payments, rising cost of living, little or no increases in their salaries, etc. The result is they are being forced to postpone and possibly even caste aside their commendable and even wise desire to begin saving for their child's college education.

The plight of this couple is not unique to them. More and more people and even organizational entities are being forced to make choices where they are replacing long-term planning with short-term or even immediate action. Ideally, long-term planning and action should not become a euphemism for fantasy or a pipe dream. Instead, it should be as much apart of our daily to-do lists as are the actions that largely define our present days. Sadly, the current state of our country and world is making it ever-so difficult to balance the immediate with the long-term.

I understand the logic we follow that dictates addressing challenges in front of us before getting to ones not quite so immediate. But future challenges are a lot closer than we might realize. A new born child's college education may seem like a long way off, for instance, but reality says differently. A role communicators can play in this situation is to continue educating their publics on the importance of preparation. One major component of crisis planning is risk communication. By following many of the same elements that comprise effective risk communication, including creating awareness among the public, providing them with helpful information and outlining the consequences of being unprepared for the future, communicators can slowly help all of us, including the organizations and businesses many of work for, create a sensible balance between immediate action and long-term planning.