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Churchill Agile PM Supplemental
 

Background to Supplemental

The following information is provided to further enhance concepts listed in the book.


Churchill’s Leadership Style

The book examines the project from the PM’s leadership style, his background, and the career that prepared him for the role of PM in the summer of 1940. From the disaster of Gallipoli (1915) to his time in the trenches (1916) to serving as the Minister of Munitions (1917), his experience acquainted him with similar problems he was to face in 1940. It also examines his personal work habits that made him so effective on a day-to-day basis and his overall influence on the people and organizations around him.

  
Beyond Churchill, the book examines his lieutenants (project leaders), specifically Beaverbrook, Dowding, and Menzies, their roles in the project, and how their selection played a significant part in the story. As the project pans out, the book examines how the solution was created and implemented, using the emerging technologies of the day. Although these may be different to today’s technologies, their application and outcome are similar, specifically in the use of information to enhance decision making. These parallels are relevant for modern business. The book looks at, in detail, the four components of the solution (intelligence gathering, supply chain, command and control, sense and respond) and the manner in which they were integrated into a cohesive solution that evolved over several iterations.

   
Finally, the book examines the actual events through the summer months and extrapolates the impact of the solution on the outcome. It looks at how the solution was put into operation, how it was measured, and what its overall impact was. The project had to get it right the first time and make the investments count. This meant focusing slender resources on the immediate threat, unifying a disparate economy, and directing its output into immediate military use. With very little time Churchill had to transform his organization to the modern day equivalent of an Adaptive Enterprise so it could adapt to this unexpected situation. He did this using the emerging technologies of the day. Of course he had to get it right the first time and make the investments count.

 churchill's leadership created adaptive enterprise sense and respond

Communication through Posters 

The following posters were produced in 1940 to reinforce with the public Churchill's overall strategy. Churchill actively used communication tools to sell his project and get public buy in. For example, one of the central messages from the outset was his resoluteness to cause, that is no compromises. This was deliberate in cutting off any attempts at brokering a deal with the Nazis. 

   
   Spitfighter Poster  Turn this raw material in to warmaterial

 
From the day Churchill came into office he worked closely with the Ministry of Information in managing information released to the public. Churchill had an uphill battle in trying to bring so many different stakeholders to his vision and line of thinking, and this was core to his communication plan. Controlling the news was done very successfully with Operation Dynamo and the evacuation at Dunkirk, which was spun into a victory. The Ministry of Information used a series of poster to get key messages across to a public that underpinned Churchill's vision.

Churchill develops image may 1940 resoluteness MOI posters
  
Churchill established an objective of total war were the whole economy was geared towards it. This required a major shift in attitude in getting the public to respond to some draconian measures, particularly rationing, and donating towards the cause. Obstructing his path, Churchill had to address institutionalized inertia and an establishment structure that resisted change. This meant he had to manage his audience in terms of aligning them to the change and setting expectations to the enormity of the task ahead. When operating within an uncertain and unpredictable environment, leaders have to be adaptive. An agile organization can allow the leader to turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity. Total war meant focusing all of the countries resources on destroying the enemy.

 

   Nazi crushing churchill  RAF pilots - Churchill celebrated in his speech
   
Everyone was expected to take a role in the new system. Men had an obvious route into the armed forces. For women new opportunities opened up as man power was diverted from all sectors of the economy into the military.

 

   Women Wanted Poster Poster Step Into Your Place   
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submitted by admin on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 19:18