Scott McPherson's Web Presence

Or, Ike for the YouTube generation.

Patrick Thibodeau works quickly!  The Computerworld senior editor was just on the phone with me last night, asking me about Gartner analyst Ken McGee's exasperation at IT's lack of pandemic planning.  I feel his pain.  Here's the link to the Computerworld article:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026179&pageNumber=2

What was left out of his excellent article was my YouTube version of Ike's planning adage.  Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "The plan is useless; it's the planning that's important."  Or, as the YouTubers would say, "Plans suck.  Planning rocks!"

For a guy who had to plan the whole enchilada called World War II in Europe, or more accurately oversee all the planning, we should heed his advice.  Here was a guy, the project manager for the biggest undertaking in world history, and he certainly had his share of ups and downs (anyone who has read Rick Atkinson's superb history of the American Army in North Africa, An Army at Dawn, can see how Ike grew both as a planner and as a leader of men and women).  Ike's point is that plans will fail, but a mature planning process will help you prevail.  An excellent link is this one: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_11_59/ai_n15863428 .

A major State agency recently decided to hire an expensive consultant to write its disaster recovery and COOP (Continuity of Operations) plans.  What a mistake!  Where will this rich and influential consultant be when the winds blow, or the people fall ill, or the building catches fire?  Somewhere in Cancun, probably.  Hiring consultants to write your DR/COOP plans is like hiring mercenaries to fight your end of a civil war.  Where's the skin in the game?  What lessons are learned by your staff?  None and none.

Your people are your greatest asset. Leverage them to write your plan.  Think business processes.  Think how you can innovate your organization's way around those potential showstoppers.  Remain flexible.  But for God's sake, don't outsource your planning process!  Else you will fail.  Certainly use consultants to facilitate the planning process; the meetings; and perhaps use them to scribe the entire process.  But if you use consultants to come in, interview everyone and then write a plan all wrapped up in a pretty little silk bow, you are doomed.  For when that plan begins to unravel (as all plans do to some extent, in wartime and in times of great stress and confusion), then you are absolutely toast.  And so is your organization.

You have heard of the "Fog of War,"  the cloud of uncertainty and doubt that takes place in every battle, when even the most meticulously laid plans begin to wither in the face of uncertainty and stress.  That is precisely what Ike is speaking of.  A mature, robust planning process with veteran decision-makers thinking on their feet -- now THAT is what the process is all about!

I recall a scene in Clint Eastwood's classic film Heartbreak Ridge, when Everett McGill's character orders Eastwood's Gunny Highway to set up an ambush at a specific location.  Sergeant Choozoo, an observer, remarks sardonically, "It's always good to know where and when you'll be hit."

The consultants aren't THAT smart!  Nobody is.