Public Relations Lessons From Helmuth Von Moltke For Nonprofit PR

Moltke’s main thesis was that military strategy had to be understood as a system of options, because only the beginning of a military operation could be planned with any degree of clarity. He considered the main task of military leaders to consist in the extensive preparation of all possible outcomes. In his view it was wrong to envision one scenario for achieving victory, since this negates the fact that the opponent will have plans of his own that you cannot know in advance. His thesis is summed up by one famous statement: “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Another brilliant thinker, boxer Mike Tyson, puts it this way: “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”

What’s that mean for nonprofit communicators? It means campaign planning is crucial. The ability to envision different outcomes is crucial. And that, despite all that planning, once the campaign starts, you need to be adaptable, to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities and to overcome unplanned obstacles.

PR planning mistakes tend to come in two forms: not enough planning (or no planning at all), or an extreme rigidness to a prepared plan. You’ve probably worked with both types of campaigns – the seat-of-the-pants variety, and the type run by a thoughtless taskmaster who becomes slave to his or her Project Planning Grids with certain preplanned outcomes in mind. General von Moltke would have us plan differently — a series of different possible outcomes that might occur; and a flexible array of tactics and strategies we might employ based on circumstances we encounter along the way.

Steve Cebalt of Bottom Line Public Relations is Founder of the Social Marketing Leadership Roundtable in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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Copyright Steve Cebalt 2007 May be used with author acknowledgment

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