Thoughts on Planning

I would like to take the time to talk a little bit about planning. The intent of this article is not to teach a class on MDMP (Military Decision-Making Process) or TLPs (Troop Leading Procedures) or any other type of specific planning models. These models are used by the military and are very effective, however, for the average person, I believe that looking at planning from a broader point of view will be more helpful. Planning models require specific steps to be followed, but in this article, I would just like to talk about the overall concepts and provide a base of knowledge that can be used for everything from military operations down to planning a camping trip or preparing for a storm. I believe that the three main aspects of planning are: the deliberate planning process, contingency planning, and preparation.

The deliberate planning process is exactly what it sounds like, coming up with a detailed plan prior to action that will accomplish the desired result. I know what many people are thinking right now, the old adage 'the second the first bullet flies, the plan goes to shit.'  Believe it or not, I believe this is true and have lived it several times throughout my life. The first sign of trouble usually results in the initial plan being thrown out.  However, I very much do not believe that this is an excuse not to plan whenever humanly possible. Developing a deliberate plan will provide you with the ability to adjust and overcome difficulties much more quickly and easily. It will ensure that all aspects of the mission are accounted for. Without a deliberate plan, you will be unable to effectively develop contingency plans (I would argue the most important preparation a person can make) or to properly prepare. When it comes to a bad situation, being unable to make a decision can often be just as bad as, if not worse than, making the wrong decision. Having a plan will facilitate making faster decisions that are more often right than wrong because you are simply making adjustments to an existing plan and in developing a thorough plan, you have a complete understanding of what needs to be done, what you need (equipment) to accomplish the task, and when the task at hand is fully complete (ensuring you did not forget something very important -- not a good feeling).

On a more personal note, I was a leader throughout my entire military career and believed that I was responsible for the men I served with. It was my job to do absolutely everything I could to ensure that the mission was complete, and more importantly, that everyone who left the wire came back unscathed. I would often hear people state that planning was useless or that the first thing to go in a combat operation was the plan. This is lazy bullshit, which is spoken by those that do not understand what needs to be done and do not deserve to be in leadership positions. Yes, there are times when you will not have the time or opportunity to develop a plan, or the circumstances will not allow it. However, if you have completed other aspects of planning, contingency planning and preparation, it will make handling these surprise events much more livable. If you care for those around you, you will do everything you can possibly do to ensure their safety, and planning is one thing you can do that could be the difference between burying a friend, family member, fellow officer, etc. or bringing them home safe. How would you live with yourself if your lack of planning caused someone to get hurt?

Now, you are probably saying, “I get it. You beat the point in.” (at least I hope I did) “Now, how do we do it? How do we plan?” The military has strict steps to follow, TLPs and MDMP; however, I think it would be more beneficial to simplify it. Here is what I recommend: First, find out what needs to be done, the five Ws, your mission. Who, what, when, were, and why. Only after you figure out what the mission is, can you move on to the rest of the planning process. The rest of the planning process is when you develop the 'HOW'. After you determine what the mission is, break the plan down into phases. You do not have to get crazy with this and make a hundred phases, but breaking the task into a few phases will make the planning process easier and make the plan easier to remember when it comes time to execute. Simple examples of planning phases could be: infil (How are we getting there?), actions on the objective (What we are doing when we get there?), exfil (How are we getting home?) and reconsolidation (Recovering from the mission and ensuring you are prepared for future tasks). These phases are more geared toward a military operation, however, phases can be adjusted and changed based on the mission. Whether you are planning a police operation, camping trip, or preparing for a natural disaster, if you sit down and think about the task at hand, I think you will be able to very quickly develop phases that will work for you.

Once you have developed the phases, start walking through what needs to be done in each phase, step by step. This will enable you to determine what equipment or supplies will be needed, what contingencies will have to be accounted for (we will get to that in the next paragraph), and what tasks must be accomplished in each phase to accomplish the desired end state (complete the mission). During this phase of planning, visual aids and research will often need to be used and will help to facilitate a complete plan. Additionally, once the plan is complete, if time and space allow, conduct rehearsals. Rehearsals allow people to walk through the plan in their head and internalize what needs to be done. It can also help identify any last-minute changes that need to be made. Note: if you do have to make a change to a plan during rehearsals, ensure that you make the correction and then rehearse several times. Final rehearsals should not have changes.

Now for contingency planning. Contingency planning is determining what can go wrong, and then making a plan to deal with it. I believe that this is often the most important aspect of a plan and a well-trained team will have SOPs (standard operating procedures) to deal with many contingencies. You do have to be careful with contingency planning however, as it can become a 'what if' nightmare. You will inevitably always have the guy that just cannot get past all kinds of crazy things that could go wrong and start 'what if-ing' everything. For example, what if a piece of space junk falls on the house? Or what if everyone who dies becomes a zombie? These examples are a little extreme, but I think you get what I mean. If you get stuck in this rut, it will be hard to get out and you will kill a lot of valuable time. The best way to handle this is to go phase by phase and think about things that are likely to go wrong and how will we handle them. Common contingency plans included:  vehicle breaks down, taking a casualty during infil, taking a casualty on the objective, taking a casualty on exfil, loss of communication, casualty evacuation plan, downed helicopter, follow on objective, loss of contact (people get separated) to name a few. Just to provide a little about what I mean is this: one of my team SOPs was that the CCP (casualty collection point) while on the objective was in the room (if in a house) the first person received a wound. For communications and evacuation, we would use a PACE plan. This stood for a primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency plan. Simply put, these things were so important that we had four different reactions to them planned prior to executing the operation. Keynote, the more things that you can make SOP, the better off you will be. SOPs are known by the whole team, trained, and rehearsed, they become ingrained and facilitate faster and more proficient reaction. Another great example of a contingency plan that is often overlooked is a 'go to hell point'. This is a pre-established point that is used when people get separated. If anyone from the team gets separated, everyone will meet at this point. Often a time is attached to this as well, 6 hours, or 24, depending on the situation. This would be a great aspect to include in a natural disaster plan for a family, as it is very likely that a disaster could occur without all family members being together.

Now for preparation. Just to emphasize, if you do not develop a thorough plan, you will not be able to properly prepare. Many may think preparing is just getting the equipment necessary together and ensuring that it works. However, if you have not planned, you cannot account for all equipment that is necessary. You may think you have it, but in the end, something will be forgotten or go unchecked, and you will inevitably figure that out at the worst possible time. I believe there are two aspects to preparing, physical and mental.

The physical aspect is gathering up the necessary equipment and ensuring that it functions properly. Additionally, this also includes ensuring that you are properly trained on its use. (I do not feel a need to go into training at this time; there are other articles on combat mindset and training that thoroughly cover this topic.)  Additionally, this includes ensuring the equipment remains functioning. For example, if you have a plan to deal with a natural disaster, it may not come for years. If you do not periodically check you gear, it will not be ready when you need it. When I was overseas, I checked my gear, all of it, every day, first thing after waking up, and again prior to every operation.

The mental aspect of planning comes in two aspects, mental preparation to do what is necessary, and what I like to call forethought. I will not discuss mental preparation in this article; I would again refer you to some of the combat mindset and training articles. However, I believe forethought is extremely important and is often not discussed when it comes to planning. In the service, the technical term for this is IPB (Information Preparation of the Battlefield). There is a four-step process for this, however, simply put, it is identifying what the enemy has, how the terrain effects the situation, what the enemy is likely to do, and most importantly, how will you react. It is having the forethought to say to yourself, this is what the enemy could do at any given time, and this is how I will react to it. The key is this; it is a continuous process that occurs over and over again. Every time you take a turn on the road, you should look up and say to yourself, if I were the enemy, I would use the hill ahead for an ambush, then once you pass that hill, you identify the next threat and determine how to react. What you are doing is continually conducting rehearsals in your head on how you will react in a given situation. This is why even an uneventful operation can be exhausting, because you are in a state of hyper vigilance throughout the entire mission. Having the forethought to look ahead and rehearse your actions in your head will enable you to react in a fast and distinct manner. It will enable you to be proactive and not reactive. Again, SOPs can help, but you still have to go through them in your head throughout the operation to ensure that you are properly prepared to take action. Going out on an operation or mission and just 'zoning out' is called getting complacent and can lead to a very bad day.

Well, I hope I helped someone out there with this article. It turned out a little longer than I planned, but I think the information covered will help those that want to plan but are having trouble starting. Planning is often like writing a paper in school, the hardest thing to do is getting started. Once you get past the first few sentences, the rest flows. I did not plan on this being a military planning course, although I did use a lot of military examples, please keep in mind that this is my primary background, and what I am comfortable with. Lastly, if there is anything I did not cover or you want a class on TLPs, or MDMP, just let the guys at LTAC know and we will see what we can do.

Stay safe and good luck.

CPT