The Writing of Churchill Agile PM

This project started in 2006 as a follow up to Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise which was published in 2005. There was much material that was surplus to the final version of the book, and related specifically to Winston Churchill. The idea occurred to create a business book with a very specific focus on Churchill and his management style, and the team he created around him. This wasn’t a biography nor was it a broad swath look at his career. Its focus was a very close examination of a short period, between May and October 1940, and his strategies that were employed to overcome incredible odds and meet an immediate crisis, the most significant threat to the UK in five hundred years.

Where Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise focused on the end solution and the components, from an information and architectural perspective, this work looks at how Churchill initiated, planned and executed this project. He had to overcome internal obstacles just to get the project off the ground with institutionalized resistance to any change. Effectively, he was a leader dealing with Agility and the Management of Change, where he had a vast organizational hierarchy that had to be transformed, with the introduction of organizational agility so that he could leverage the resources on the final outcome.

The modern day parallels are to organization’s today faced with business transformation but on a much smaller scale. Churchill’s transformation was at a macro level affecting the economy and industrial output. But it was also very tactical because it had to meet very important short term objectives, related to offsetting a likely invasion. Today, organization’s struggle with in enacting change, from the old way of doing things to the new way. Management of Change (MoC) includes techniques to effect organizational changes and to facilitate and manage human resource impacts.

The publisher (Kevin) at MMPUBS has a personal interest in Agile Projects. So he was quite keen on the project and focusing on the agile aspects of the project in particular the short time frames, the team approach, the organization of the project, and how the leaders played a role.

In May 1940 Churchill was offered the position of PM, as a last gasp effort when the situation got so desperate it was thought already lost. The power brokers in government had deliberately held him at bay in the fear he was a warmonger and that he would turn the situation for the worse.

As Churchill accepted the position he had to set up a governance framework quickly to realign very disparate organizations to a common purpose. He also had to quickly assemble a team that enact his short term strategy and winning the forthcoming air battle. This composed of three key players Hugh Dowding, Max Aitken (Beaverbrook), and Stewart Menzies that represented RAF Fighter Command, Ministry of Aircraft Production, and intelligence.

Churchill's Team 

During this period I was contacted by David Whiting, the stepson of Sir Hugh Dowding. He was intrigued by the Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise story around Bentley Priory and how his step father was represented. We developed a correspondence sharing ideas and information about this period, his step father, and relationships to Churchill, Beaverbrook and other key people across various organizations and institutions.

From this a picture emerged of how the dynamics of the team worked. David was instrumental in providing some significant insights, most importantly the relationship between Dowding and Beaverbrook (the Minister of Aircraft Production).

In addition, David wanted to bring attention to the scandalous sale of Bentley Priory for redevelopment. The mansion which housed RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain is to be developed for luxury homes. A Grade II* country house in Stanmore, Middlesex, revered as the nerve centre of the Battle of Britain, the spiritual home of "the Few" – the fighter pilots who deterred the German aerial invasion in 1940 against all the odds.