No Plan Survives Contact With …

How would you fill in the blank?

If I didn’t know the answer, I might guess “reality.” But, of course I would be wrong, as a lot of plans survive contact with reality. I’ve had plenty of them and so have you.

The full phrase is No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy, a military phrase acknowledging that you cannot fully plan for a fluid situation. To address this, the military has sets of Commander Intentions, which are what the troops turn to when the plans go astray. Of course, as is evident in Iraq, CI’s are not always successful either. But, they stand a better chance of success than detailed plans because they focus implementers on desired outcomes. While I personally disagree with some of the Getting Things Done philosophy (particularly its priority-setting methods), I really like the GTD focus on always clearly defining a successful outcome for every project (and on doing so upfront, before beginning any planning).

Footnote: For those interested in further reading on this phrase, I came across it in reading Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. It covers some interesting examples of how a clearly-stated core idea/principle/intended outcome can help us ad-lib our way to success when the detailed plans fall apart (or where no detailed plans are available). For example, it addresses an example or two of how Southwest Airlines’ core principle was used in making decisions in the field, that principle being: “We are THE low-fare airline.”