The Laban Johnson Group

A. Read the Mission Brief

Mission Brief:

Situation: (Friendly) You have chosen to expose yourself to an efficient planning process and begin to use it.

(Unfriendly) MODDs, internal and external, will distract you; some may even attack your judgement and undermine your attempt to fulfill the mission.

Mission: You will use the planning sequence decribed in this chapter to help you in a real work challenge

• What about your situation is friendly or positive?

• What about your situation is unfriendly or negative?

B. Identify your People, Equipment and Time (PET)

i. Identify who is on the team

ii. Establish the chain of responsibility

iii. Verify the situation and gather as much detai las time will allow.

i. Ensure that mission is S.M.A.R.T.

ii. Identify key/specific objectives

this will happen quickly as long as you''ve followed the proceedures to this point. If you get stuck, answer these questions to develop your Warning Order

Warning Order - one of 2 tools in the Planning Sequence, it serves as the heads-up for what is to come. it helps identify your available resources - your PET (people, equipment, time). It establishes what the team will need for mission success, including the tasks to be performed and a start and end time for each task. It is a task organization and delegation tool and is intended to provide enough guidance to prepare a detailed plan - that is, the Operations Order. The Warning Order consists of four sections:

1. Situation - States the current friendly and MODD situations

2. Mission - states specifically what is to be accomplished )who, what when where, why)

3. General Instructions - Identifies all available resources (PET) and delegates specific tasks (along with the available resouces and standards) to team members that must be completed in preparation of the Operations Order and/or mission.

4. Specific Instructions - Specific guidance/delegation provided to key individuals based on position of responsibility or subject expertise/value add

1. What are the positive aspects of the situation? What will help you get the job done?

2. What are the negative aspects of the situation? What do you know about the MODD? What will work against you in getting this job done?

1. Who are the people or sub-teams taht need to be involved in accomplishing the mission?

2. What is the chain of responsibility? Who is the Project Leader / Primary Leader (PL), the person ultimately responsible for the mission? What are the other key roles and who will fill them?

3. What do the key people or subteams need to be ready to contribute to the detailed plan of execution - the Operations Orders?

4. What equipment, material, or other resources do you have or need that are relevant to the mission?

5. What is the time schedule for key events using backward planning? You begain this process before, but now that you have nearly completed the Warning Order, you have a better idea of what needs to happen between your start time and your NLT (no later than) time for mission completion.

iv. Specific Instructions

A. Ensure Team Leaders understand their subteam tasks per the Warning Order

B. team Leaders get their Teams started on assigned tasks and then assist the Project Leader (PL) with Section 3 (Execution of the Operations Order)

C. PL completes Section 3 of the Operations Order

D. Team Leaders supervise and ensure subteam tasks are complete per the Warning Order time schedule and to standard

The Operations Order is the second of two tools in the Planning Sequence. It follows the Warning Order and serves as the detailed plan of execution. it spells out in detail how the team plans to acheive mission success. It is intended to be a step-by-step plan that serves as a communications map for all team members. This allows the team to adjust fluidly to changing circumstances and adapt the plan to fit the new situation. Remember, No plan ever goes as planned.

The Operations Order consists of five sections:
1. Situation - More detailed than the Warning Order, updated friendly and MODD situations
2. Mission - Restate the mission given in the Mission Brief.
3. Execution - From start to finish, the Standard Operations Procedures (SOPs) that the team will follow to ensure mission success.
4. Service and Support - Resources (PET) the Team has to work with; and where, when and how to order and acquire them.
5. Communication - Identifies individual contact information and the SOPs for communicating and disseminating information during and after the mission.

1. How will the culture of your organization affect the positive and negative aspects of the situation?
2. What do you know or suspect will make accomplishing the task difficult? What are the known or suspected MODDs?
3. What is the formal system of identifying MODDs? How will you communicate problems that jeopardize the success of the mission?

* In identifying the MODD, make only one assumption: The situation is always in two parts - enemy and friendly. It''s never just one or the other. Consider the MODD that people are naturally resistant to change-any change.

1. Were there any additional elemenets of the mission identified by the team when the Warning Order was issued? Add any that are S.M.A.R.T.
2. In light of ay changes, how does the mission description read below?

1. What does the PL intend to accomplish/
2. Precisely how will the project be carried out?
a. Break the project into identifiable phases, or manageable chunks.
b. For each phrase, list every task that needs to be accomplished including:

• A list of individuals or teams responsible
  
• The defining performance standards for completion (that is, exactly what is expected in terms of quality, costs, etc.)
• The "no later than" tiem for completion of each subtask
• A list of the materials, equipment, or information needed to do the job
• A definition of the output from the task, who needs the output, and how it will be used (for example, to meet customer standards)

Consider a project management technique such as a flow chart or matrix to lay out the sequence of tasks visually. This will help further clarify the interdependencies critical to the success of the team.

c. What (when) are your rally points along the way where progress can be assessed? What will you check at these really points, and how? Consider interim "reflecting and connecting" and "after-action reviews." Avoid arriving at the end of the allowed time only to find something gone astray in the execution.

* Stick to the timetable, manage your time. One way to keep your team attuned to their rate of progress on the mission and the passing of time is to schedule interim times to reflect and connect. Spend a couple of minutes doing a debriefing every hour or other designated intervals. The team must always be concious of how far they are progressing.

d. When an obstacle, difficult or MODD is identified, who will be notified, how and what actions will be taken? Make sure a plan is developed under item b. for all known MODD.

e. Upon completion of the mission, when and where will the team assemble for reflecting and connecting and after-action reviews?

1. In specific terms, what resources are available and what resources are needed?

2. Who, what, where, when and how will you acquire needed resources or resupply along the way?

1. How will members of the team send, recieve and understand all the pertinent information involved?

2. Ensure that individual contact information is available and that all understand any special communications

* Never underestimate the value of rehearsal in all forms. The real thing should be no different from the practice.

A. Set Priorities for the various tasks involved in the mission

B. If there are tasks involved that Team members haven''t done before, make sure they know how to do them