“Poor Ike… Now… he’ll give an order to not a damn thing is going to happen.”
Feedback has to be built into the decision to provide a continuous testing, against actual events, of the expectations that underlie the decision. Decisions are made by people. People are fallible; at their best, their works do not last long. Even the best decision has a high probability of being wrong. Even the most effective one eventually becomes obsolete.
When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, his predecessor, Harry S. Truman, said: “Poor Ike; when he was a general, he gave an order and it was carried out. Now he is going to sit in that big office and he’ll give an order and not a damn thing is going to happen.” The reason why “not a damn thing is going to happen” is, however, not that generals have more authority than presidents. It is that military organizations learned long ago that futility is the lot of most orders and organized the feedback to check on the execution of the order. They learned long ago that to go oneself and look is the only reliable feedback. Reports—all a president is normally able to mobilize—are not much help.
ACTION POINT: Make sure you go out and “kick the tires” and get on-site feedback. Find out if decisions have accomplished their intended results.
The Effective Executive
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker