Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

When preparing for the future, you need two plans—one you write down, and one that’s unwritten, fluid, and evolving.

This blueprint exists in your mind as a living, changing understanding of where you’re going, why you’re going there, and how you’re going to get there—all based on your current understanding of how the future will unfold.

While your written plan includes specific objectives, action steps, and clear assumptions, the unwritten one consists of gut feel, general direction, and broad priorities.

Over time, as you gather information and test ideas, you’ll move many of these elements from hazy and unspoken to focused and written.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Your Crucial—and Unwritten—Plan” by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.