The UK Experience by Malcolm Morley *
A consequence of the modernisation of Local Government in England has been the proliferation of plans – Community Plans, Medium Term Financial Plans, Service Plans and Asset Management Plans, to name but a few. These plans have been required by Central Government to get Councils to think more clearly about their assets and services. Indeed, the number plans required to be produced by Councils has reached the point that a reduction in the requirement to produce them is being used as a reward for good performance!
The proliferation of plans often requires a huge amount of work to produce them and often even more effort to read them. The question is, however, do they make a difference?
The implementation of plans has been illustrated to be patchy at best. Too often there is a significant difference in the interpretation of customer/community needs between those formulating plans and those with responsibility for implementing them.
This disconnection often means that well written plans are not implemented and make little difference in practice.
Australian General Sir John Monash, commander of the Australian Army Corps in the First World War under Lord Haig, recognised the implications of this disconnection. Lord Haig’s strategy, while clear, was disconnected from reality.
Lord Haig’s strategy was simple – get to Berlin by the shortest route. This meant that large numbers of men were instructed to walk through the German lines killing as many of the enemy as possible. Anyone objecting to this strategy or trying to raise the reality of problems, such as barbed wire, deep mud and enemy machine guns were told that they were defeatist.
General Monash stuck to Lord Haig’s strategy but insisted that he implement his own plan as part of the strategy. Rather than order his men to literally take a straight line through any terrain and enemy resistance he decided to set objectives in stages based upon recognition of reality. This saved many Australian lives and proved very successful.
On 8 August 1918 the offensive launched by General Monash reached a pre-determined line and stopped. The Germans, relying on past experience, believed that the troops had gone as far as they could through exhaustion and/or losses and mounted a counter attack. The Australians were ready for them and the counterattack was repulsed with the loss of many enemy lives.
General Monash’s success resulted from his approach to developing and implementing plans. He developed clear rules that are still relevant today:
- Make sure that the immediate objectives are clear and unambiguous.
- Encourage individual initiative within the boundaries of the plan.
- Ensure that the plan is understood by all those implementing it.
- If things change to such a degree as to render the assumptions on which the plan is based to be unreliable then don’t persevere and carry on implementing it/investing in it, change the plan.
- Make sure that the plan is practical.
If plan writers the world over learned from General Monash’s rules more plans would be effective as tools for making a difference in practice.
* Malcolm Morley is Chief Executive of Harlow District Council and can be contacted via the Editor, email info@lgfocus.com.au The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of his employer.
