Keep advancing like General Patton
By: Ben Hosking
Tags: General Patton, Projects, History

picture from the Guardian

“If a man does his best, what else is there?” George S. Patton

General Patton focused on aggressive advancement and leaving nothing left for the journey back. On IT projects, it’s important to keep momentum, focus on priority functionality and don’t get distracted.

“Remember that we as attackers have the initiative. We must retain this tremendous advantage by always attacking rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest. However tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching.” General Patton

In this article General Patton’s Strategy for Winning in War and Life: Keep Punching, this quotes from General Patton will inspire you.

Speed and momentum

Patton focused on offence and hated defense. Patton felt the advantage was to the attacker, who attacked quickly and decisively.

“I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position!’ We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and are not interested in holding anything, except onto the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him and kick the hell out of him all the time.” General Patton “No form of defense is worth a damn.” and “An army is defeated when it digs in,”

Patton was an avid reader who studied history and was convinced the advantage was to the attacker. Those who attacked with speed, aggression and surprise. The defensive approach did not win battles, at best delayed defeat.

Attacking with speed does not mean being reckless or not preparing for the attack. Patton would reconnaissance, get the right equipment/support and have a plan with a backup plan.

Once Patton had finalised a plan, he focused on executing with speed. giving the enemy less time to react and counter.

What we can we learn from this.

Prepare for you plan, do you reconnaissance, assess the situation

Make your plan, have a back up plan

Execute the plan fast and use all resources

Planning in projects is useful, plans are dangerous because they are usually out of date and incorrect shortly after being finished. A plan gives leadership a false sense they can bring order to the chaotic environment of a project. Projects are complex, in environments which are unpredictable and changing. Any activity which involves lots of people is unpredictable, particularly when they have to work together, make decisions and create a new system.

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” General Patton

General Patton used time to his advantage, by acting fast he gave the enemy less time to react, plan and counter. In projects time is wasted and momentum is slow because a project is over a long period of time it can make people feel they have lots of time and people can act with a lack of urgency.

Most projects are underestimated in complexity, plans based on dates give less time to deliver (and all the later found requirements) will take. The majority of projects are delivered late because of this underestimation of what is to be done and over estimation by the team doing the work.

Projects should have a sense of urgency, prioritising must have functionality and removing distractions. This focus should be given by leadership, if General Patton was leading a project, he would focusing on delivering fast because it reduces unknown problems from disrupting the project and will find problems early.

Delivering fast gives more time to resolve problems and get feedback on what’s been built. Project and development estimates are usually underestimated because they assume

nothing will go wrong

no distractions

no unforeseen problems

New requirements won’t be found

Developers won’t misunderstand the requirements and build the wrong solution

Questions won’t take long to clarify

bugs won’t be found

It takes longer to build than we estimate, built functionality is more valuable than requirements or solution designs.

The sooner you start, the sooner you find and solve problems and the sooner you finish. It’s better to start earlier than you planned.

Set an example

“Do everything you ask of those you command” General Patton

You can’t lead people from an office, you have to get out and speak to people in your team. You need to create a relationships, they need to believe and be motivated by their leader.

Patton led by example and he get involved with the attacks and got shot in the leg whilst directing his beloved tanks.

Leaders need to be seen, heard and involved if they want to motivate people in their team.

Be Prepared

“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.” George S Patton

Sweat comes from working hard, training, being prepared, when it comes to executing the plan in war you do it without thinking.

In projects have standard processes, best practices, unit testing and devops keeps the quality on the project high and minimizes bugs.

Well trained, knowledgeable team who know the software will deliver faster and to a better quality because they reduce mistakes.

People

“The secret is not weaponry, wars may be fought using weapons… ‘but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory’” George S Patton

On IT projects there is a focus on technology, it sexy, costs a lot of money but the success or failure of the project will be related to the people on it.

People will be the reason for success or failure of the project. I have never seen a project fail because of technology, the reasons for failure are the people working on it.

Honesty

“Say what you mean and mean what you say” George S Patton

To build trust, communicate honestly, to be understood you need to speak simply and to be remembered you need to grab their attention. You need to mean what you say because if you don’t you are wasting people's time and they learn to ignore you.

Turn your words into actions and create a reputation for doing what you say.

Think differently

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking” George Patton

In projects people can get caught going through the motions, doing the next task, filling in the report and losing sight of the overall goal of the project.

You need to make time to think, to solve the root cause of the problems and not treat the systems.

The strength of a team is the different perspectives everyone brings and as a group more and different ideas. This collaboration creates a better solution and catches more problems. If no one disagrees with ideas it means everyone is thinking the same or many people are not thinking at all.

Energy

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t ~ General George Patton

Patton got in trouble for his language and attitude, he was demoted for slapping a soldier he thought was faking injury. Patton brought energy, a positive attitude and loyalty of his troops. He was a flawed character but exactly the type of person you need in war, who is going to get things done no matter what.

In projects you need to push, and sometimes push people who want to move slower. You have to keep making progress and not lose momentum.

Don’t give up

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” — General George Patton

Today is hard, tomorrow will be harder, next week will be twice as hard but after that things will start to get easier. Don’t give up because it will get better.

You only fail when you quit, projects create situations where it feels you can’t progress, no matter what you do.

“Success is how you bounce on the bottom.” George S Patton

Team first thinking

General Patton wasn’t known for being humble but he realised he was one part of a big machine and we shouldn’t believe that any individual is more important than the team.

“Any man who thinks he’s indispensable, ain’t” George S Patton

Everyone is replaceable, the world moves on. Don’t allow anyone to believe they are more important than the team or the project.

“Do not make excuses, whether it’s your fault or not” George S Patton

Take responsibility for a situation and the fault is never one person, it's usually the system and many people will contribute.

You can’t control all situations but you can control how you respond. Forget about why a problem occurred and focus on resolving, stopping it happening again and the solution.

Set goals not give instructions

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity” George S. Patton

Set the team goals and let them come up with the solution. This helps the team be more engaged, get new skills and allows you to delegate more work. The advantage is teams will often come