”Don’t argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves.” Winston Churchill was faced with a challenge that by all measurable means was considered impossible. Hitler had built strong defenses on all the existing harbors on the Atlantic Ocean, and all other harbors on Nazi-controlled areas – from Norway to the Mediterranean Sea. Getting an invasion force on European mainland therefore required something that never before had been done in human history. D-day was essentially impossible, but nevertheless it succeeded.
An essential part of agile development is validating your product or feature as early as possible and to disregard everything that just “seems” like a good idea, even if strong voices in the team or in the management pushes for it. I try to live by this philosophy myself but as an entrepreneur – or a leader in other situations – there are times when no validation is at hand and the only thing you are left with is a leap of faith.
Churchill knew already in 1942 that some kind of portable harbor was the only way to win the war. However, it was a huge obstacle overcoming the problems with the tide. It took three years before it was realized, and it was a bet made from no other validation than that every other option was gone. In a sense, Churchill was extremely agile in the way he came down on the Nazis. He tried and tried with every bit of wit and fighting power he could bring on and reversed his actions whenever it was needed. Dunkirk is perhaps the most agile of all war stories ever told.
During Operation Overlord, the official name for the D-day invasion, 156 000 UK, US and Canadian troops joined forces to land on Omaha Beach and the other shores of Normandy, on almost 7000 ships and landing vessels along with 3000 aircrafts and gliders to deliver airborne troops. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history.
I visited Normandy with my family a few years back and the photo of Churchill´s memo is taken by me in the Musee du Debarquament in Arromanche-les-Baines. Standing there, reading Churchills own words and sensing his determination had a huge impact on me. It was obvious that if he did not convince Lord Mountbatten, the receiver of the memo, all the others in his administration and not least President Roosevelt with his crazy idea about a portable harbor – he would lose the war and leave Europe, and Britain, to Nazi hegemony.
Even though most people considered it an impossible task, Churchill stood his ground and argued for what he considered as the only realistic solution to end the war. Churchill chose the hard way and eventually got all the doubters on his side, even if many of them kept back their praise until Hitler finally validated Churchill´s D-day hypothesis with a bullet through his head on April 30, 1945.
It all comes down to Churchill being a great leader and in hindsight we of course knew he was that. But I really would like to know how confident he was, on the 30th of May 1942, when he wrote the memo to Lord Mountbatten. The way things looked in the spring of 1942 he could by no means have been certain of any sucess. Despite this, he showed what real courage means, and what you need to do as a leader when the most important decision comes down to you. If you believe in something – and there is no validation to be found – you need to have the stamina to believe in yourself and push your idea all the way to the end. The difficulties will argue for themselves anyway.
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