Planning and Execution

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Planning and Execution are both quite important aspect, one decides what has to be done and other translates it into reality. Which is more important? It is difficult to choose one, because they so totally complement each other. But my personal view is that ‘execution’ is more demanding, more adventurous and thrilling. There is nothing more delightful than to execute a plan to its expected result. There is nothing more satisfying than to think of every minute detail, find out alternatives, do an analysis of the options and then go for it. There is nothing more interesting than to read the details of a well executed plan.

The only reason I am fan of John Grisham is because of this, the meticulous details of execution in each of his books are so interesting that one will be compelled to finish the entire book in one go. His books like “The Firm” or “The Partner” has stories of flawlessly executed plans which spans across continents and different agencies like banks, intelligence agents, politicians etc. The way Grisham describes every little intricate details and the finesse with which the protagonist moves about achieving the plans is awesome.

The movie “Black Hawk Down” is about UN army operation in Mogadishu, involving American forces and fighters loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The operation was not successful and 18 American soldiers lost their lives. I don’t know whether the actual happening was same as shown in the movie, but it showed Major General William Garrison controlling the entire operation from the base camp, with images beamed right to several monitors in his tent. No job in this world could be better than to get an opportunity to execute an operation that way. The operation failed, and my view is that execution failed because risk management was not done. The plan was optimistic rather than being realistic. Whatever, the movie is worth watching again and again.

I have found many people, who are adept in making strategies, developing plans, analyzing scenarios but they fail when it comes to execution and it puts paid to all the earlier efforts. Well, obviously there would be excuses but the real reason is lack of sincerity. The failures are not due to poor planning but failing to execute some of the steps which might seem small but have an important bearing on the result. More often it is also due to lack of evaluation of all the possible worst cases that might happen. The plans draped in ‘folie de grandeur’ are useless unless it has resolutions for those worst cases.

Take a simple example, tomorrow I need to catch an early morning flight to Paris. The plan is to get up in the morning, reach the bus station and take the bus to airport and check in. Now the plan should also include that what if there is no bus tomorrow, what if the bus is late? If there is no bus then what is the next option? If the option is to take taxi, then is there a possibility of getting taxi that early in morning in the bus station? Yes it is possible but what if there is no taxi at the bus station? The next step then would be to call the central taxi number and ask for one taxi to pick you and that would require having that central taxi station number. Just the failure to have the taxi station number can wreck the whole plan in the worst case. Look around for any example where execution has failed; most of the failures would be due to lack of sincerity and for evading simple details. It is always okay to be the devil’s advocate when you have to plan and execute.

It speaks volumes about a person who can flawlessly execute a plan, be it a simple plan. They are the real achievers and not those who can only make grand strategies; I respect, admire and appreciate them immensely.