Planning Leads to Organization

I recently lived out an example of why being organized matters.

Over the winter my wife, Sue and I decided we wanted to take a short trip this summer to one of our favorite places to visit, Kansas City. We have been there numerous times and decided to have Sue’s parents, Chuck and Karen Stern, join us. We thought they would enjoy many of the places we wanted to visit.

So like most things in our lives, Sue and I started by making a plan. The first step to having a good plan is to have a purpose.

So, we made a list of things we wanted to do. The reason I wanted to go on the trip was to see the National World War I museum, and for Sue, it was to revisit the Hallmark Headquarters, which is also a museum but of love and thoughtfulness. We also wanted to eat at Sue’s favorite place, The Plaza III, and stay at the Raphael Hotel on the Plaza. Because we were taking Sue’s parents, we added Union Station, Model Train Display, the Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and a barbeque joint. I also wanted to see the Negro League Hall of Fame potentially, and Sue was curious about the Arabia Steamboat Museum. We also were willing to go to the American Jazz Museum if Chuck and Karen wanted to check it out.

(Secret is Sue’s parents are good musicians who often still get out their saxophone and clarinet. In fact, at 76, Sue’s dad is adding saxophone to his list of talents. Why not, as we found out this weekend at Hallmark Grandma Moses started her 23-year painting career at 78.)

Next, we found out all the hours of operation and locations for each place and came up with a plan of action. Hallmark had to be done on the first day because it was not open on Sundays.

Now we had a plan — time for the trip.

Our first stop would be going to a BBQ joint, knowing this was what Chuck was most looking forward to we needed to get this right. If you been to Kansas City, you know, it is easy to find a great place to get Barbeque. We went with Jack Stack’s Freight House location because it was near Union Stations. (If you prefer Gates, Arthur Bryant’s, or Oklahoma Joes, please forgive us, but Jacks is good, and the location was perfect). Chuck loved it.

Then Union Station, the model trains and Hallmark. They are all very close to each other. However, things were going so smoothly we had extra time. But because we had a plan, we could quickly decide we had time to go to the Truman Library!!! Again, everybody loved it.

We found out where we originally wanted to have dinner had moved so despite having reservations we changed course and found another place to eat on the plaza. Again, a very easy task. We had made it easier because we had a plan.

Before we went to bed, we reviewed our plan for the next day mentally. Breakfast at Gram and Dun then the WWI Museum. If the Museum wasn’t as great as people said it was, we would be done early and could hit some of the other “maybes” on our list.

The WWI Museum was awesome if you are into history and haven’t been to it, you need to schedule a trip. We didn’t get done early. All the things on the maybe list would need to wait for another trip.

It didn’t go as planned, but because we had a plan, the trip was a success. We met our purpose and hit all of our goals. It was completely stress-free.

The example above is personal, but it reinforces why Willmar Electric has Organized as part of our brand promise.

(If the Kansas City tourism board needs a spokesperson, Karen Stern is the gal for you.)