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2 February 2015

Into the Breach Lessons Learned as a Brigade Planner


Members of the 442nd Troop Carrier Group plan missions into Europe during World War II. 

This post was provided by Captain W. Paul Hill, an Army officer currently serving as a brigade assistant operations officer in the 4th Armor Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armor Division at Fort Bliss, Texas. He previously commanded C Company, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment and B Company, 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry Regiment. He is a graduate of the Maneuver Captain’s Career Course and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace from Middle Tennessee State University.

I remember the first major exercise I was responsible for as a brigade planner. I had been in the brigade a few weeks and was still learning to recognize the brigade’s staff primaries. The brigade S3 called me up to his office and informed me that one of the other staff captains was leaving to take a command, and he asked me if I had any issues taking over planning for the brigade FTX. Being the good staff officer I responded, “No sir. We will start right away.” Following that brief conversation, I went to the other officer’s cubicle so that we could start the handover process and he could go over where he was in the planning process. As soon as we got back to his cubicle, he told me that his computer had problems and he only had two products to give me. He showed me a slide depicting a company defense with the unit on the wrong terrain facing the wrong way and another showing that we were behind on 12 of 17 requirements.

This was going to suck.

This began a very painful education on being a professional staff officer. Just like anything else in life, being a good staff officer is a team sport. The work is mentally draining. The hours are frustrating. Everything you do is interconnected to and dependent upon someone else. Your reputation among your peers will make or break you faster than anything your rater or senior rater can do. What follows are some of the lessons that I learned about how to be successful on staff.

1. All those manuals that you keep in your cubicle are way more useful if you read them. While it may frustrate our enemies that we don’t follow our own doctrine, it is going to make your time as planner far more difficult than it needs to be. I can’t tell you how many times I somehow became the unit subject matter expert simply because I actually read that part of the manual. Think about the last time you looked in an FM afterward and thought “That would have been a lot easier.” Take the time to actually review the manual before you build your recommendation. If nothing else, it will give you a way to defend yourself when someone asks why you did something.

2. Use grown up words. Take the time to actually learn the language of your profession. Doctrinal terms and symbols have very specific meanings and desired effects. Learn them and use them correctly. It will aid you significantly in communicating clearly and quickly, and make your seniors more likely to listen to you because you actually sound professional. Nevertheless, do not be the guy that has a four hour argument over seize or secure. We all hate that guy.

3. Brief so the commander can make a decision, not pat you on the back.You are going to spend an obscene amount of time doing research, working on presentations, and building products. The commander may only have five minutes to hear your recommendation. Brief them what they need to know in order to make a decision and move out. Be prepared to answer any questions they may have, but do not make the mistake of briefing how hard you worked ensuring every shape and color were correct. Nobody cares.

4. Nothing beats face to face. We live and work in an age of email and text messages. These are great time savers, but they have limitations. They can’t convey context and they can’t ensure that the receiver truly understood what you meant. Nothing is ever going to beat sitting down with someone and looking them in the eye. A face to face conversation will allow you both to discuss the task and see that look of understanding or complete confusion and move from there. Don’t confuse this with a reason to have more meetings.

5. Don’t add to the deluge of meetings that already exists. Meetings are a necessary evil and it can be helpful to gather everyone in one place to discuss a subject and get on the same page. A lot can be accomplished in a well run meeting. Unfortunately, you won’t experience many of these. Learn how to organize a meeting agenda, stick to a timeline, and get to the point. Being good at this will add a lot to your professional reputation. However, if you are the guy that schedules meetings as a replacement for a social life, you will quickly find your peers gleefully competing to see who can ask the question that causes you the most work afterward.

6. When your boss says CPT Smith/Jones/Whoever has project X, that doesn’t mean that you don’t. When a new project comes down we all breathe a sigh of relief when it passes us and goes to the other guy. That is natural. However, there will never be any project on the staff that doesn’t require support from other staff members. Don’t ever leave a fellow member of the brigade rowing team hanging when he/she needs assistance or has requested something from you. Remember, they could be the one that provides you with the much-needed assistance when you need it…or doesn’t.

7. Making bad coffee can get you killed, but not as fast as not making any. The 20 hour days in a plans cell during a field problem will wear on nerves and friendships. The only thing that will keep the plans cell, and the whole headquarters, from killing each other faster than the OPFOR is a constant flowing of that magical Columbian bean juice. Staff officers that can’t make a decent pot of coffee will be endlessly ridiculed. The guy that finishes the pot and doesn’t make a new one will probably be burned alive at the start of the combined arms rehearsal as an example to others.

8. Yes, you are going to make countless PowerPoint slides. Just accept this. For better or worse, PowerPoint is one of the primary mediums that we transmit and process information. You are going to spend a great deal of time focusing on minute details in your slides, only to be told to make even more changes by your S3 or XO. This is going to annoy and frustrate you to the point of considering homicide. However, the purpose behind the slides is to convey information to a senior officer quickly and move on. The wrong colors, font sizes, and formats can detract from the issue being discussed, and derail the entire brief. By taking the time to get the small things right you will save a lot of pain and frustration — avoiding hour-long discussions on the merits of making all the up arrows fifty shades of grey.

9. Write. How many times have you had a great idea and thought, “I should write this down,” but never did? How many great ideas or better ways of doing things have died this way? A lot more than any of us would like to admit. It is important to capture your lessons learned, whether you publish them or not. Besides, everybody would rather read a five-minute blog or article instead of digging through a CALL document anyway.

While these points may not be as enlightening as Clausewitz’s On War, they can help significantly with your survival and sanity during your time on staff. Welcome to the Army rowing team. You are about to miss a suspense

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