descriptions of planning

I've come across two good descriptions of the planning/strategy process in the past few days. Not that they were intended as such, but they're still good.

I saw the first in a New Yorker article about Maureen Baginski, who runs the Office Of Intelligence at the FBI. Before that she was at the NSA, in charge of signals intelligence. She explains that they need to change their way of doing research; they need to 'hunt, not gather'. ie they need to investigate ideas and possibilities rather than hoover-up data. I think this is a great description of the best approach to Market Research. 'Hunt. Not Gather.'

The second is from The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. The heroine, Eliza, is giving her protege advice on how to get on in the world (specifically the worlds of intrigue, politics, love and finance) but the advice could be exactly what you'd give to a young planner. Or frankly, a young anyone:

"Pay attention, thats all...Notice things. Connect what you've noticed. Connect it into a picture. Think of how the picture might be changed; and act to change it. Some of your acts may turn out to be foolish, but others will reward you in surprising ways; and in the meantime, simply by being active instead of passive, you have a kind of immunity that's hard to explain."

I love that.

Comments

[funkypancake]

heh. that second one seems to sum up my blog !

although "some of you acts may turn out to be foolish" should be replaced by "most of" in my case :-/

[russell]

if most of your acts turn out to be foolish, maybe you get even more immunity

[gogoo]

Where and when you'll be placeing the presentation held at Bucharest?

Sorry for the telegraph :-)

[russell davies]

Sorry. Not done that yet. Will do it by the end of the week. Where will be obvious.

[Paul Matheson]

Here's a another popcult quote which I think defines how planners need to think when approaching the material they work with..

“I have seen an agent punch through a concrete wall… Yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.”
Morpheus, ‘The Matrix’

[russell]

Excellent. thanks Paul. I like that.

[Faris]

Something a bit more old school:

"The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what no body yet has thought about that which everyone sees."

http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2006/05/think_what_no_o.html

[Martin S]

Hi Russell

I found this useful. Its the text of CIA Intelligence Handbooks Training Course. I particularly like the concept of Gisting

http://cryptome.sabotage.org/cia-ath-pt1.htm