Thursday, January 10, 2013

Proper Planning (and Preparation) Prevents Pissed, Poor Performance #2


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Some of our readers loved their quotes. They live their way of life through their quotes.  Sometimes, their flock follows them. 

To appease this section of our readers, here is an abridged list of quotes that the Compass team has collected:
  • "Preparation Precedes Performance"
  • "Proper Planning  and Preparation Prevents Pissed, Poor Performance"
  • "The Will To Prepare" is more important than "The Will to Win".
  • "Know when and how to prepare for planning is the first stage of preparation. ... Knowing what and how to plan is the next stage. ..."
  • "Preparation Pays Profits when Preparation meets Opportunity...."
  • "Preparation + Opportunity = Success. ..."
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  • "The plan is nothing; . . . the planning is everything." - Dwight Eishenhower, the Grand Thinker of the "1944 D-day invasion of Normandy, France
  • "Failure to Prepare is to Prepare to Failure." - Bill Walsh, the Architect of the West Coast Offense. Former Coach of San Francisco Forty Niners (Super Bowl Champions 1981-82, 1984-85, and 1988-89).
  • " ... Organization leads to preparation. . . . Preparation eliminates the unexpected. Be ready for everything. . . . Overlook nothing. ... " - Brian Billick, Former Head Coach of Baltimore Ravens (Super Bowl Champions 2000-2001) .
  • "If you have a plan, and if you have your direction laid out, you can chart your progress to your dreams at each stop along the way. ... And just as important, all along the way you can see how far you've come." - Michael Shanahan, Current Head Coach of the Washington Redskins, (Former coach of Denver Broncos, Super Bowl Champions 1997-1998, 1998-1999) 
  • Organizing, leading, enduring setbacks and ultimately succeeding lies at the heart of every profession, be it business, the military or football. -Walsh ( Forbes | December 7, 1992 |)

Interestingly, the preachers and teachers from the Cult of the Art of War also employed this approach.  If you asked them how do they integrate the principles into one solid entity. they have no answers.  They just don't know.  Principles and quotes could only go so far. 


If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, 
you don't know what you're doing.  - W. Edward Deming

Philosophy does not win battles. Understanding the psychology, the mathemathics and the physics of the situation are the key factors behind the building of a plan. The next step is the processing of the intelligence into a process model. 

So, do you have a process model that allows you to see the tangible specifics?  ...  Do you?

Side note 
You can find interesting and unique views on planning and preparation in the Seven Strategic Classics and Sun Bin's classic.

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