DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER ON WHY PLANS ARE USELESS BUT PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL
Use this to remind you of the benefits of planning.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) was Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War and later served as a two-term President of the United States. As the man responsible for overseeing the invasion of Europe, he was intimately involved in the planning that went into D-Day. Despite all that, he famously said:
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war; if that is the case, General Eisenhower is reminding us that the second casualty is planning. Nothing ever goes to plan in a battle or a war. By their nature they are chaotic. However, by planning for as many possibilities as he could, Eisenhower was able to react to changing conditions because he had the information he required to make decisions.
WHAT TO DO
- Recognise and accept that it is impossible to produce the perfect plan. The more chaotic and changeable the environment you are working in, the less accurate your predictions of future conditions will be. Even in relatively benign circumstances one unforeseen event can render your plan totally unworkable/inaccurate.
- Knowing that totally accuracy is impossible don’t insist on working everything out to ‘three decimal points’. Invest time on drawing up those plans that only extend six to twelve months into the future. After that prepare outline rolling plans that can be updated as you go along. This will save you time and improve the accuracy of your forecasts. That said, there is still no guarantee that they will be 100 per cent accurate.
- To deal with inaccuracies caused by ‘unforeseen events’, engage in scenario planning (see Quotation 67). Pull together a small team of people and work with them to identify those factors that could impact on your organisation over the planning period.
- Analyse and evaluate each scenario on the basis of how likely it is to happen and what the effect will be on the organisation if it does happen. This gives rise to the following table of risk.
- High risk of occurring/low cost
- High risk of occurring/high cost
- Low risk of occurrence/low cost
- Low risk of occurring /high cost
- Concentrate on developing contingency plans for high risk/high cost and low risk/high cost events. Draw up reasonably detailed plans for dealing with the high risk/high cost eventualities but save the really detailed planning until the likelihood of them occurring becomes more than 50/50. Prepare outline plans for the low risk/high cost possibilities.
- Your detailed consideration of possible future events and how you might deal with them, should they occur, will enable you to respond more effectively to unforeseen events in the future and to amend your plans as required. It’s still not perfect but it’s better than facing the future on little more than a wing and a prayer.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- What role am I expected to play in the organisation’s planning process?
- Do I draw up a yearly plan for myself and my staff?