Three Lessons Learned from the Army's National Training Center and How They Apply to Industry

Introduction:

In the Southern California desert, one terrain feature away from Death Valley, a fierce war wages every month. Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) with their infantry, armor, artillery and aviation go head to head against an opposition force (OPFOR) in a full scale war using lasers to replicate bullets. Nothing else is replicated. This is the closest we can bring our forces into combat without actually engaging in it. This is the National Training Center (NTC). An entire base, 50 kilometers by 60, dedicated to training units from across our Army to fight and win in complex environments.

A band of senior Soldiers, most of them handpicked for this assignment, are called Observer, Coaches, and Trainers (OC/Ts). Their role is to accompany their counterparts through this two week battle and help the units see themselves and become better every day. As a (less than direct) compensation for their hard work, OC/Ts are witness to ten rotations each year. During these rotations, OC/Ts enjoy an opportunity to see a vast array of mistakes made and the impact it has to the organization or the mission. On the other hand, these OC/Ts also witness what works. After a two year assignment to the NTC, these OC/Ts are charged with sharing what they have learned with the organizations they join or lead after their time in the desert.

After serving at the NTC twice and after 27 rotations as an OC/T, I have identified three of the most common actions (or lack of there of) that directly contribute to mission success or failure. It is important to note that these three actions are not tied to a particular specialty or branch. Most importantly, these three actions are not tied to the military alone and can be directly translated to business and industry. These three actions are: Plan to Plan, Pre-Combat Checks/Pre-Combat Inspections, and Rehearsals.

Though many in the military, specifically the Army have heard of these terms, they are often the most important actions that are omitted in a time constrained environment. Some units however stress the importance of these three actions and reap the benefits of a well-developed plan, a unit that is prepared to execute, and a unit that has developed a shared understanding.

Please join me with a few more minutes of your time and allow me to share these actions and how to apply it to industry.

Plan to Plan:

The Concept: All too often, staff enter into a planning session with little to no established planning time line. Often times, only a "no later than time" is established in which we must be complete with an obscure or nebulas end state. The result is a plan that fails to integrate all aspects of our team, complete on time, or transmitted clearly.

A Military Example: Average units will establish a time line that is general in nature. Time lines are understood to be goals rather than constraints. Deliverables are loosely understood. Time lines for consolidating the deliverables, rehearsing the brief, and making changes are not incorporated. Time is not allocated for personal requirements such as nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

Great units on the other hand, dedicate the first portions of their planning time line towards developing the "Plan to Plan". During this portion of the planning effort, the team establishes a planning time line (in great detail) and they hold their staff accountable for the due outs relentlessly. Each time line requirement has specific identified deliverables. Time is allocated to consolidate these deliverables, build a brief, rehearse the brief and make changes appropriately. Time is allocated to present the end product to the supervisor and time is allocated for nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

Holding the team accountable to the planning time line is critical. Any laps by the leader in adhering to this time line results in a culture that places little emphasis on the time line and delays will start to build. As a technique, the team must drive on despite individual failure to meet the decided time line. If an individual is not complete with their portion of the deliverable, the team must not stop. Their input will be omitted at best, incomplete at worst. For organizations that foster a high levels of team work, this type of failure is often seen as a personal failure not to be repeated in fear of letting the team down.

We are not yet complete discussing the Plan to Plan. Besides developing a very detailed planning time line, we must give ourselves a buffer. As a technique, we should only dedicate two thirds to three quarters of the time allocated for planning. Thus the 9 hour planning window may get compressed to as little as 6 hours. I will address what we do with the rest of the time in the following paragraph, but it is important to address the impact this compressed time line has on the plan. Planning in a time constrained environment often yields to less complex plans with less detail. So long as the critical aspects of coordination are addressed, the benefits typically outweigh the lack of detail. The benefit are that plans developed in a time constrained environment are typically more easily understood, easier to execute, and enable our subordinates to exercise disciplined initiative. With the initial planning time line cut by 3 hours, our job is not yet complete. We will remain focused and continue planning two specific actions with the raining time we have allocated to us.

First, we will plan the “branches”. A branch is more simply put, a contingency or “what if”. This is where the staff focuses on the portions of our plan that, if the conditions change, we must execute rapiidly to either achieve the same end-state or get us back on to the original plan. For instance, an overly simplistic example would be, “what if” an accident on the highway slows traffic to a point we will be late for work. A branch plan may direct us to take surface streets until we arrive at our destination or are able to re-enter the highway when the traffic is cleared. The Army developed a branch plan in the event Turkey disallowed the use of the American air base to flow forces into Iraq in 2003. The branch plan called for these forces to flow through Kuwait instead and the details of which were planned and coordinated. Once the triggers were met, the decision to flow forces was easily made, rapidly coordinated, and the impact understood as the plan was already complete.

Secondly, we use this time to plan the “sequel”. A sequel is more simply put, the “what next” or the plan after the initial end-state has been achieved. The sequel is what an organization must do after the mission has been accomplished. For instance, an overly simplistic example would be, after arriving to work (my mission), what must I do (at least initially) to get started with the work that I need to do. Some would argue that after the destruction of the Iraqi Army was complete, a sequel was not developed to direct the follow on actions of the State Department or the military. The lack of a sequel forced our administration to make decisions rapidly without a full understanding of the second or third order of effects.

 Impact to Industry: Planning is required in every business in every industry. It is a requirement to foresee problems and apply the right input at the right time to mitigate risk and coordinate actions. However, the planning end-state is rarely decided upon, the time line required for planning are rarely developed, and failure of our team mates to contribute to the plan within the time constraints provided are often forgiven. This results in planning efforts that are either incomplete and or delayed. In addition, taking the time to deliberatly plan the “branches” and “sequels” necessary to manage contingencies or follow on actions are either hand waved, forgotten, or simply ignored.

After planning and before we execute any operations we must do two additional actions to enable success, first is the rehearsal.

Rehearsal:

The Concept: A rehearsal is exactly what it means. It provides all leaders the ability to visualize and synchronize our actions. This is particularly important when actions of subordinate units are dependent on the actions of others to initiate movement or action.

A Military Example: While building and training Afghanistan’s Special Mission Wing (SMW), we were tasked to train our counterparts to execute high risk air assaults with multiple aircraft landing in the most challenging terrain possible under night vision goggles plus or minus 30 seconds anywhere in Afghanistan. Our actions had to be synchronized without fail. To mitigate the complexity of our operations, we rehearsed.

Our rehearsals began with key leaders talking through their actions overlooking a map on a desk. We discussed our fuel requirements, the time we cranked our helicopters, the order in which we taxied onto the runway, the radio transmissions that needed to be made and the route we would take.

We then transferred our routes onto Google Earth and flew the routes in the virtual world, discussed what terrain features we needed to identify, the speeds we would fly, where we would turn, to what heading, when we needed to slow for our landing, and specifically what patch of level earth we would land on.

For even more complex missions, we would clear off portions of our flight line, place cones at our waypoints, using duct tape and a compass we measured the distances and directions and built our routes on the flight line with string. We would then have the crew drive vehicles along the route and use radios to practice the coordination and timing. We did it at least three times during the day and waited for night. We did it again at least three times at night, under goggles, with our helmets on, and with radios to ensure each one of us understood the actions of each member of our team. The end state, each of us could visualize the mission with our eyes closed.

Remember the “branch plans” mentioned above… they came to play again. In addition to executing these rehearsal as planned, we injected the three most likely issues (or contingencies) we would face and the three most dangerous. We executed each one of those to a point of absolute clarity.

The night the SMW executed their first high risk air assault under night vision goggles, the planning and the rehearsals paid off. The mission was executed precisely and contingencies were executed professionally. After the mission was complete, the Air Mission Commander even argued, “This mission was too easy, we want a harder one.”

Impact to Industry: Complex acquisitions, mergers, entry into a new market, building an additional line, or starting a new project should not be treated any differently. Every steak holder needs to understand what their role is, what others around them are going to do, and what the actions are if the plan does not go as briefed. Only when we have rehearsed, visualized, and synchronized our actions, can we truly contribute seamlessly and ultimately with less effort towards accomplishing our coming goals.

The PCC and PCI:

The Concept: The last thing that exceptional organizations do before executing any mission is the Pre-Combat Check (PCC) and the Pre-Combat Inspection (PCI).

The PCC is a user level inspection. The intent is that we inspect our equipment before we leave the base to make sure it is operational and accounted for. It would be a failure if we left on a mission only to learn our weapon did not work when we needed it most.

 The PCI is a leader level inspection. The intent is that leaders place emphasis on inspecting the most critical equipment we will need on our mission. Though there may be 10 pecies of equipment we will need for our mission, the radio, the weapon, and the vehicle may be the most important. To place emphasis on these critical items, the leader asks the subordinate to show him or her the equipment and demonstrate that it is accounted for and operational.

A Military Example: All too often, average units come through the NTC and enter into the battle only to find the cable to their mission planning computer was left in the box or the spare tire was left in the motor pool. Things go wrong and equipment will break… that’s understandable. With this said however, we must know what we don’t have available to us so we can plan around it. A simple PCC or PCI can enable mission success or failure.

One unit in particular failed to conduct the inspection of their mechanic tool kits before arriving to the NTC. A key tool, required to test the tolerance of the aircraft was missing in both special tool kits. As a result, the aircraft that were supposed to support the Soldiers locked in combat against the opposing force were left without air support as the aircraft were grounded until this tool was delivered to maintainers from across the country. An entire aviation task force, hundreds of Soldiers present for training at the NTC were left waiting on a tool. A simple PCC/PCI would have prevented this idle training time.

Impact to Industry: In industry, we often fail to inspect our equipment before heading off to a job site or starting a new project. Leaders often fail to place emphasis on the most important equipment before sending their crews to a job site. Though this will develop delays, they are typically not a critical mistake. What is important to understand is that the PCC and the PCI can be accomplished on any aspect of business. This includes not only our equipment but the budget, the project, the planning, and the implementation of a new business plan. As leaders, we can use the PCI to place emphasis on areas, material or otherwise (based on our experience) that are critical to the success of our next endeavor.

Conclusion

By developing a detailed plan to plan time line, with deliverables identified early, by adhering to the planning time line, by allocating only a portion of our available time to plan to planning, and by planning branches and sequels, our planning is accomplished on time and complete in order to make our organizations successful. By rehearsing, we visualize and synchronize our actions to the point of clarity needed to make rapid and seamless adjustments as our environment changes. Lastly, by conducting PCCs and PCIs, we not only inspect the most critical aspects of our operation, but we place emphasis on those those critical areas that will ultimately enable success.