Blog
Plans are useless
There was a time when Americans believed in the supreme value of long-term plans. 5-year plans. 10-year plans. Career plans.
But the world has changed. Drastically. No one has a future that is that predictable.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s battle-hardened lesson is for all of us now…
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.“
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Bias for action?
In 1982, In Search of Excellence was a hand-grenade rolled into a country club.
Their audience? Large American businesses, stodgy and bureaucratic…and getting pummeled by Japanese and other international competition. They showed that excellent companies must have a bias for action. A lesson desperately needed.
At the same time a new breed of hyper-growth entrepreneurs surfaced: Gates, Dell, Jobs. Silicon Valley successes highlighted the action-oriented entrepreneur of the new computer age.
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Execution is now a team sport
Overload? Current results should be better? Lack of traction on your future vision?
Is this recognizable? (What does your spouse think?)
You already know well what growing pains feel like. And you’ve solved them every time in the past.
During your previous crises of growth, you made the right changes, and learned key lessons of delegation. Hired several key people who excel at the tasks that drag you down most. Clarified responsibilities and gave them authority. Established personal accountability for the right results.
Solve problems so they never come back?
How can this even be possible? Is this a pipe dream? An over-promise?
Consider: all businesses have two broad types of “problems”…problems and, well, problems. In the heat of growing it can be easy for your people to forget that most problems and frustrations are not isolated or random. They are intertwined and symptoms of deeper problems.
Which means that for those energy-draining problems there are a few root problems.
Solve problems so they never come back?
How can this even be possible? Is this a pipe dream? An over-promise?
Consider: all businesses have two broad types of “problems”…problems and, well, problems. In the heat of growing it can be easy for your people to forget that most problems and frustrations are not isolated or random. They are intertwined and symptoms of deeper problems.
Which means that for those energy-draining problems there are a few root problems.