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Churchill: The Agile PM (Part 9)
Most people are very familiar with Winston Churchill, but may not be familiar with his “agile” approach to project management and his skills as a PM in May 1940. Part 8 looked at how Churchill’s position as PM was put at considerable risk, by the Dunkirk evacuation, and how he swung his communication plan into action. This article looks at how Churchill laid out a strategy with short- and long-term objectives.
On June 5, Churchill had been in power for less than a month. He had been swept up by a series of events (Parts 3 to 8) and had to operate reactively. The perceived notion that Dunkirk was a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat gave Churchill a short window to operate proactively and start to put together an overall strategy. In every project there comes a point were the PM needs to lay down plans and bring clarity to the project.
On the same day, the Axis forces lined up 119 divisions--including 10 armored divisions against the rest of France. By June 7, Allied troops fell back to a front, 60 miles north of Paris. The Battle of France became a foregone conclusion. The U.K. was now the next target and the threat was only 21 miles away. Churchill was determined to fight on and warned Parliament that “invasion was a real risk to be met with total and confident defiance.” This was not going to be easy. Churchill had to …
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"Work is what you do for others . . . art is what you do for yourself." - Stephen Sondheim |