Keynotes: The value of planning
The Forum began with an engrossing talk from Frank Abagnale, the teenage fraudster made famous by the Steven Spielberg film Catch me if you can. His story showed that one of the secrets of crisis management is to keep your focus on the long term, rather than getting mired in current problems.
Although his young adulthood was defined by an incredibly successful criminal career, Abagnale told how he’d turned his life around after prison terms in three countries by making a positive contribution to the fight against fraud. Even when things look grim, he said, there’s always time for those with integrity to put things right.
The second keynote was delivered by Dr Ian Pearson, former BT futurologist who now runs his own predictions consultancy. One of his many themes was the opportunity for technology to solve some of the crises we’re facing on a global scale. Solar energy production, for example, can fix our addiction to fossil fuels; our consumption of rare earth materials for technology will decline as we shrink computers and phones to the size of lapel pins.
But panicking about our problems – or mistakenly assuming that we should halt investment in technology to reduce current consumption – would be a mistake. Instead, we should plan for the future – and invest in it.
Planning of a different – and more immediate – kind was the subject of a moving presentation from Colonel Bob Stewart, commander of the British forces operating under the UN banner in Bosnia in 1992-93. His handling of a deadly crisis was hampered by unclear mission objectives and a limited mandate for action.
But, he explained, by writing down personal mission plans for each new situation he faced, he was able to give his soldiers clarity of objectives, maintain morale and deliver outcomes consistent with his own sense of integrity and honour. No FD will ever have to cope with the atrocities he witnessed. But delegates recognised that his tactics could be applied to their own moments of crisis to deliver positive results.
