Today
I have been reminded not only of the this old saying, but also of the similarly
intentioned one by Field Marshall Helmuth Graf von Moltke - The Elder - that goes: ‘no
campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy’.
On
this day the National Health Service had conspired to influence as many members
of my immediate family as it could; my elderly parent (96 years old) was due at
the local Dentist for 9:30am, my wife due at Oxford Eye Hospital slightly later
in the morning and my daughter at Amersham Hospital for 11:30am. Plus I had a
pre-booked facilitation of a meeting with a leadership team for 12:30pm!
A
strategy was needed so it was arranged for my father-in-law to take my wife
while our daughter would use public transport, sadly alone as her boyfriend had
to return to Australia late the night before as his Vise was due to expire, and
I would take said elderly parent to the Dentist – all nicely sorted.
I
arrived in plenty of time at the Care home, made sure my father was suitably
dressed, sourced a wheelchair and we had loaded and finished strapping this
into the minibus when a staff member came running out and informed us that the
Dentists had rung and his appointment was cancelled.
By this time my wife had already left with her father and my daughter was on the train, proof were it needed that, first contact can indeed blow the plan completely apart!
By this time my wife had already left with her father and my daughter was on the train, proof were it needed that, first contact can indeed blow the plan completely apart!
However
it has underlined to me that the important element of a plan, or a strategy, is
to build in flexibility and the ability to react to changes in circumstances,
to rigidly adhere to a plan, just because it was the original one, is not
always the best policy – far better to continuously review, adapt and make
appropriate changes.
Consider then what you are doing in your business that is sticking to an original plan that was drawn up before it was deployed in anger and where could this be appropriately altered to bring about an improved outcome for all the stakeholders involved in the activity!
Consider then what you are doing in your business that is sticking to an original plan that was drawn up before it was deployed in anger and where could this be appropriately altered to bring about an improved outcome for all the stakeholders involved in the activity!
Thank
you for reading and please leave any feedback that you wish to share.
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