When I was about 12 years old, my dad took us to visit some of the memorials and sites scattered around the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, France. Since then, I have held on to a fascination with D-Day (and military history in general). As the 80th anniversary of the landings approaches next week, I have been reading through some books that detail the events, and the planning that took place to make this momentus event possible.
Two Key Leadership Learning points from D Day
Thinking about these events recently makes me consider the difference between fear and bravery. Fear is knowing what could happen, bravery is knowing what could happen – but doing what needs to be done anyway. Sometimes, school leaders have a fear of what could happen and need to be braver to have a go anyway. There are two learning points or lessons that I think we can take away from D- Day (amongst many, many more).
- Planning is everything
Strategic forward planning is my thing. I spend more time during the day thinking about next month and next year than I do about tomorrow. The scale of the plans for D-Day amazes me. They spent years planning, refining their plans, redrawing the plans and then putting all of the pieces together, all under a cloud of secrecy that meant that they had to deceive their own people as much as the Germans in relation to what was going on. This planning was done on paper without computers. It was an awesome piece of planning. The maps alone take my breath away. Then on the 4th June a hard decision had to be taken to postpone all those landings for one day due to the weather in the English Channel. Imagine having to be on that choppy sea for one more day!
Planning is everything. Dwight D Eisenhower said that “Plans are worthless; but planning is everything.” Here Eisenhower is perhaps tipping his (army) cap to a previous article on warfare in 1871 by Helmuth von Moltke who wrote that, “no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy forces”.
This is just as prescient in schools. Forward and Strategic planning is something which is necessary to keep schools improving. As a Curriculum leader within a school – every year requires me to create a multitude of plans that help keep things going. I am incredibly grateful for MS Excel and the invention of digital spreadsheets – just looking at the curriculum plan and staffing for next year has gone to 15 different versions (it was 19 last year!). I am always looking to what happens next week and making sure that plans are made for events long in the future – I booked some visitors for school in January 2025 last week! The detail these things go into, sometimes is not really realised. It’s currently our exam week. I sent out the draft supervision plan 2 weeks ago and a final version in the middle of last week. I would dread to think how much time in total I spent sorting this out and trying to get a balance and equality to what the staff had to do. Each year the wheel just keeps turning but good, detailed, forward planning is essential for things to go smoothly.
- Bunker mentalities don’t win battles (or help soldiers perform well)
The impact of COVID in schools, Action Short of Strike and Union Strike Action has put some serious pressure on school leaders. The danger is that some leaders might have developed some form of ‘bunker mentality’. This means that they might surround themselves with the people they agree with and that they do not really listen to voices that challenge or disagree. There is a feeling that we have been up against it over the last few years and it has been necessary to create a bunker/ a stronghold where they can be safe through everything that has been thrown at them. And, who can blame them . . . the last 5 years have been the most bizarre and most challenging in my 29 year teaching career.
I love nothing better than exploring the old bunkers that were built by the Nazis in an attempt to build an impregnable ‘Atlantic Wall’. When you walk along the Normandy coast you come across bunker after bunker. Each has a different role, but all helped strengthen the German defensive line that they hoped would keep any invasion on the beach. Though, recent research has noted that even though these bunkers and beach defences (like the Belgian gates, Hedgehogs and Rommel’s asparagus) created barriers that would definitely slow any attacker down – the lack of experienced, ‘top line’ troops manning these defences meant that they were unlikely to hold for long. The defensive line is sometimes described as a crust and when the Allied invasion pierced the crust – they could take a lot of ground easily. In many cases, the infantry bypassed the bunker and kept going – leaving their destruction to specialist tanks and engineering units.
The higher up a school leadership pole that you climb – the lonelier things become as pleasing the people around you is increasingly difficult to do. But, that does not mean that we should surround ourselves with 6 foot concrete walls and sealed doors. A leadership bunker mentality is not healthy. Staying in the one place and trying to ride out the storm, never works. You need to invite more people into the bunker with you or, better yet, get out of the bunker and talk to all the people out in the real world. Safety in a battle can sometimes make leaders want to hide in the deepest hole – but often the best leaders are those who happen to be up in the trenches along side their troops. Schools need leaders who are happy to lead from the front and to take the same risks as everyone else in order to win the battle.
