“A failure to plan is a plan to fail” (attributed to many including Churchill and Franklin).
My final post, after almost 20 years’ service in the British Army, was as a member of the Directing Staff at the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) (ICSC(L)), delivering training to the next generation of Army and Royal Marine Majors.You won’t find it odd to find that I have benefited from the skills and experiences I gained in uniform since joining Capgemini Consulting almost 5 years ago – in particular the use of a robust analytical and planning process called the 7 Questions, a central part of the training provided at ICSC(L).
There has been much written on LinkedIn and elsewhere as to the process and how it can be leveraged, this article is the first of two in which I aim to show how I have used the process ‘in anger’ and at scale – and how fellow veterans can deliver value for your companies in similar fashion.
The 7 Questions
The 7 Questions can be applied at every scale from section (8 soldiers) to Division (20000!), and from the tactical to operational levels.This is because they work; they drive consistency and rigour whilst providing a framework for analytical thought appropriate to the circ*mstances.They can also be used by leaders with vast staff, or on their own. And they can be tailored – it is more about the thought process they drive, and the insights they bring, than the slavish adherence to the system!
Other articles have defined the questions themselves, not least James Harrison’s “7 questions the Military ask... you can too....” (10 July 2014), and I don’t aim to repeat here.The 7 questions are:
1.What is the situation and how does it affect me?
2.What have I been told to do and why?
3.What effects do I need to achieve and what direction must I give to develop my plan?
4.Where can I best accomplish each action or effect?
5.What resources do I need to accomplish each action or effect?
6.When and where do the actions take place in relation to each other?
7.What control measures do I need to impose?
Applying the 7 Questions to consulting programmes
Consultants regularly move between clients, and between projects.In each case they are required to rapidly absorb the situation, analyse the critical drivers and create value as quickly as possible.I have found having the 7 Questions to hand invaluable in allowing me to transition, land and seize the initiative.Of course, I have tailored them somewhat to increase their value to me, and made them action based, though I have kept them in two stages (questions 1-3 and 4-7, as the Army does) as where time demands it you can start applying the output from your analysis and planning from the end of question 3.This article deals with 1-3 only:
1. Understand the situation:At the heart of any consulting engagement is the client, their strategic and operational environment and the problem they have asked for help in solving.Your part as a consultant is to identify these, analyse them and ask ‘so what’ – what actions do you need to take, what further research do you need to do and what questions do you need to ask (to your client, your team and so on) in order to have a clear picture of ‘what is happening and why’.I break it down as follows:
1.1 Internal environment:Understand the internal drivers for change, the organisation and its capabilities.
1.2 External environment: Understand the external drivers for change, the marketplace and the competition.
1.3 Stakeholder analysis: Understand stakeholder needs and aspirations.
There are multiple tools that you can use here: SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, Porter’s 5 Forces, Cultural Web Analysis, Value Chain Analysis etc (and thanks to Cranfield, and my Masters in Defence Administration, where I learned to apply them).Bottom line – do the groundwork and reap the rewards.
2 Analyse the Endstate:As a consultant you have been engaged to make a difference; to deliver change.In order to do so you must understand the Endstate, the overall outcome of the engagement.Again, I break this down to make it manageable:
2.1 What does success look like?What is the intended outcome, what is the vision:is it achievable, does it resonate?
2.2 What are the objectives (tangible goals; SMART) we need to achieve in order to deliver success? What is the scope, the dependencies, the risks (opportunity and threat evaluation) and what are the Critical Success Factors?
2.3 What actions are required to deliver the objectives? As in the Army, I look for specified (written down, contracted) and implied (drawn from analysis, from ‘between the lines’) activities that my team and I need to complete in order to succeed.And what are the Key Performance Indicators that I can use to demonstrate progress and success?
This step I do ‘right to left, left to right’ – I start with the Endstate and build back through interim objectives to now, analysing as I go; then I build up the actions needed from now through to completion.This builds a clear picture of ‘what good looks like’.
3 Create an outline plan:This stage allows you to confirm your ability to deliver success, early.Clearly, detailed planning will enable further analysis and identify other factors to resolve, alleviate and exploit but this stage will enable a clear Go / No Go decision.
3.1 Breakdown structures:Project management training enables you to create them, do so.As simple tools to enable you to plan from they are excellent.Use Product, Work and Cost; one or all.The more time you have the more you can create and analyse.
3.2 Resourcing:What roles do you need to implement the work you have outlined?What are the key skills?And are the staff available (client and your team)?
3.3 Schedule:What are the relationships and dependencies between activities?How can we best estimate durations, costs, quality? What is the most effective sequence and how should the activities flow?What are the options, and which is the best?What is the critical path and how do we best manage it?
3.4 Control measures:What do we need to ensure success:Governance, Reporting (including information/knowledge management): Quality Plans; Change Control; Earned Value (not for the faint-hearted); Benefits Tracking; Risks and Issues Management and so on.These will inevitably be tailored to the client, their preferred processes and the scale of programme – however they must be planned for.
3.5 Go/No Go Decision:Having completed outline planning, created a clear picture of what it will take to succeed and what that will demand from your team and the client you are in a great position to facilitate a Go / No Go decision.And by doing this now you enable clarity of decision making and the pause / stopping of a programme where the costs outweigh the benefits.
Therefore, by the end of question 3 you have analysed and understood the situation you and your team are entering, fully understood what ‘good looks like’ in order to exit (in not just good order but leave on a high) and you have planned in sufficient detail to be able to seek a Go / No Go decision from the client.This investment in time and effort is invaluable in the long run!
Value from Veterans
Soldiers are taught the 7 Questions from an early stage in their careers; Officers are taught from the outset and in greater depth, and from tactical to operational levels.All have been tested in their application under extreme pressure, learning to tailor their analysis to the situation and time available and reach rapid decisions; and then act on them, taking their team with them and delivering success.Employing a veteran allows you to profit from that training, experience and mindset.
NB: Part 2 will follow shortly and run through my application of question 4-7.
The author: Mark Hewett had the pleasure and privilege to lead men and women in the British Army’s Corps of Royal Engineers for almost 20 years.He is now a Principal Consultant with Capgemini Consulting, where he owns the UK Practice Programme Design and Delivery Service Line.
