delanceyplace.com 01/27/10 - the value of improvisation

• 0 COMMENTS

In today's excerpt - thoughts for those who value planning without assigning equal value to the role of improvisation—in any area of life:

"The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last.  That has never been the case and never will be."

Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, 1851-1929

"After a battle is over, people talk a lot about how decisions were methodically reached, but actually there's always a hell of a lot of groping around."

Rear Admiral Jack Fletcher, in a 1967 discussion regarding the 1942 Battle of Coral Sea

"No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy."

Helmuth von Moltke, German Army Chief of Staff,  1848-1916