Plans versus Planning

"Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." - Dwight Eisenhower

A common mistake in organizations is to focus on personalities instead of the organization itself. Personalities are colorful and dramatic while policies, practices, and procedures are relatively boring. Furthermore, we can often point to problematic people and experience shows that the departure of one jerk can transform the atmosphere overnight.

But a positive working environment does not always lead to success and even with a pleasant team, introspection is important. After all, there is a pesky fact to consider: results.

The central questions are deceptively simple: Where are we now? Where do we need to be? How do we get there?

It is tempting to equate this to map-reading, but organizations and people are far less static and more complicated than maps. As a savvy observer once noted, accounting would resemble management if numbers had personalities and could change.

Situation

If we are considering our situation, we need to make a candid review of our strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis potential and actual competitors and challenges. This can include an assessment of potential liability as well as adverse publicity. It involves a general evaluation of what we will need to do and what we will need to avoid.

A blend of confidence and humility facilitates this process.

“There are known knowns: the things you know you know. There are known unknowns: the things you know you don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the things you don’t know you don’t know.” - Donald Rumsfeld

Mission

What is our overall mission and are we currently fulfilling it? This should receive frequent reviews because of potential mission creep. You start out with one mission and slowly, without formal scrutiny and analysis, drift into a very different mission for which you may not be fully prepared. It may even conflict with your original mission.

Any mission analysis should also include identification of unintended consequences. As Dee Hock, the founder of VISA credit card, noted:

“Intended consequences may happen. Unintended consequences always happen.”

Execution

Once the specific mission is set or reaffirmed, the obvious question is “How do we achieve it?”

Assumptions, resources, key players, weaknesses, boundaries, and time constraints need to be considered along with allies and adversaries.

All plans are subject to change, but they serve as a central draft that everyone can operate from as changes are made. Avoid falling in love with a plan. Identify and continue to identify potential weak spots. If you don’t see a weak spot, you may not be looking closely enough, but if you demand that no possible risks exist, you may be inadvertently ruling out taking any action.

I add this with some hesitation because so many people think the answer is obvious. Also ask: “Is everyone rowing in the same direction?”

Do not assume they are. If they are not, they may not be doing so to sabotage the mission. They may reason that their direction actually contributes to its fulfillment. That, of course, deserves careful examination and perhaps prompt correction.

Over the years, I have been surprised at how many management teams have sizable factions rowing in opposite directions, each side thinking that if they row hard enough, the organization will go with their approach.

One final question: Is it possible for every unit to be fulfilling its responsibilities under the plan and yet the overall organization still fails? Yes, if the separate units have tunnel vision and do not understand how their efforts need to mesh with the efforts of other units as well as the overall mission. Any “silos” that may unduly restrict the flow and sharing of information need to be identified and fixed.

Administration

Administration is a boring topic, but having sufficient time, resources, and personnel to achieve the mission may not work unless they are readily available. Napoleon’s maxim that an army travels on its stomach comes to mind.

Solutions Bring Problems

Solutions have a habit of creating new problems. Consider what problems should be expected when the mission is completed.

I regard this as the “What will be our main challenges once we have taken Baghdad?” question.

A Final Perspective on the Need to Cultivate a Thirst for Knowledge

“Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.” - H. L. Mencken