Planning Immortals

Hi,

Don’t worry, you can be one of them someday Charlie....by the way, what have you done so far?...

Hi,

I consider Genereal Douglas MacArthur as one of the Planning Immortals.

He develop the concept of Tripple Envelopment: Land, Sea and Air approach in outflanking the enemies and winning the war.

At that time, the planning and execution was common sense. The enemies landed their troops in A (away from range of fighters and bombers) and walked in dense jungle towards B. The Americans will evacuate B and OUTFLANKED the enemies and land their forces to C. When the enemies arrived in B, there was nothing: no food, no supplies, etc. The enemies went back to B and then to C to engaged the Americans. Along the dense jungle they lost troops from malaria, sickness, demoralization,etc. At the firefight in C, the enemies lost against the Americans.

In construction, we look at project with goal. The three elements that envelope the project goal are: within budget, within quality and within time (traditional view). How to maximize the efficient utilization of project resources in outflanking the constrains in achieving project goals remains a question? And for the individual project managers to answers.

Cheers,

I hope you like my story about General MacArthur. I think there are a lot of them: PLANNING IMMORTAL.

Does strategy = planning? I think there is some separation there...

Bernard Ertl
eTaskMaker Project Planning Software

Hi Bernard,

In what aspect does it help? other than speed? & what do you mean by some separation?

Can you create some sense of awareness?

Hi Bernard,

I understand your question (confusion)?

This is because your thinking of planning is limited in the construction environment.

Planning is broad in application. Military planning or wedding planner (watch out for the biggest bang in Hollywood: TOMKAT wedding) is still planning.

The fundamental in learning is to look out externally and grab whatever will help us in planning. This is only one of the many ways to improve planning planet website.

The example of Macarthur is only a minimal fraction of his planning ability (refer to American Caesar).

There is strategic planning and tactical planning. This type of planning are present in construction. To attain the overall strategy, there must be a tactical plan of actions. These tactical plans are gear to achieve tactical goals that points to the strategic goal.

You cannot attain your strategic goal by just flicking your finger like magic wand. That is fantasy or dreams, a none real dream.

Cheers

Charlie,

As someone who takes "The Planning Planet" and those that subscribe very seriuosly indeed, unlike some I could care to mention or not.

Then in answer to your initial question.

I have a friend whom is still alive, thus so far is immortal. I wont give out his name in case he sues, lets just call him BM.

He once said something very profound.

"Where there is a Will, there is a Wont", and sometimes many of them. (BM).

Does he qualify??

Best wishes,

Darrell

"Planning Immortals
I just wonder if we can compile a list of planning immortals or people that dedicated their lives in the development of planning theory or thoughts".

Why did MCarther
or when did Mcarther plan to leave the Philipines
It would appear that wading to a ship and running away with a Japanese bayonet inches from you bum was a serious floor in forward planning
however from the PR aspect great planning as he advised that he would come back
Mcarther no I would say Patten for go get them planning

Off the cuff military planning Stirling I would say saw a void

On my list of planning immortals must surely be the person, or people, who planned the moon landing back in 1969. Whilst astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin may have won the glory, to me, producing a schedule of rocket burns, orbits, trajectories, the landing, fuel consumption and the like was a truly monumental piece of planning.

We will probably never know their names, but given the limited tools they had at the time, these people get my vote.

Gary

Dear Planners

May I suggest that we should at least narrow down the planning immortals coz there are numerous persons who have been involve in planning & strategies, e.g. Shun Tzu is one of the known person involve the development of military planning & strategies and as of today his knowledge is not only being used in military but also in business as well (all kinds including construction), as far as I know this website has provided planning knowledge mostly in general engineering & construction and project management...

Just an opinion...

Cheers!

Christian

Dear Gary
Same planner for appollo 13
How many times have we seen what we have done go wrong cos we believe it does not merit inspection as thats the way we have always done it

Gary

You might enjoy reading Gene Kranz’s book "Failure is not an option." He covers the planning and preparation in great detail and of course he was intimately involved. One for the PEO’s recommended book list?

Chris Kraft and others have also written their memoirs of their time in the US space programme.

Regards