I’m proud to announce (call that brag) that my wife Lynn and her hiking partner Leah summited Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain (14,505’) in the contiguous US, on September 26th.

At first glance you think of this feat as one of excellent physical ability – and it is; but that was not the key to her success. What made this adventure successful was meticulous, proactive planning over a seven month timeline.

In PEP® we define a project as any activity with a start and end date. Depending on the complexity of the project, including how many people are involved, the timeline, the difficulty, and the critical nature of the exact completion date, proactive action steps need to be identified for implementation. Lynn’s Mt. Whitney project required multiple Project Implementation Plans (PIPs) used for each discreet activity, such as permit & travel, food, equipment, trail & climb research, and the all important physical training & practice climb schedule.

Without complete project planning we are not easily able to correctly respond to unforeseen events, which in this Mt. Whitney project included issues such as dealing with inclement weather, broken equipment, and high altitude mountain sickness. Any of which could have threatened the success of the climb.

Whether you’re building a building, developing a leadership training program, planning your 2013 budget or climbing Mt. Whitney, the unexpected will occur and your investment in proactive planning will heighten the probability of your making the right decisions along the way to allow you to successfully complete your project.

What Lynn used to plan her Mt. Whitney project was the same Project Implementation Plan (PIP) process that we teach in our PEP® Programs.

Send an email to bary.sherman@PEPww.com with just the subject line “PIP” and we’ll send you a copy of our PIP form.