Military Planning

I was extremely honoured to be allowed to attend an account planners' meeting at a well regarded agency last night and listen to the presentation by a left tenant colonel in the British Army.

No idea how to spell it, that's just how it's pronounced. And "gutter" for Qatar is pretty funny too!

I took tons of notes. At the end of the evening, he looked through them and laughed when he came to this, heavily underlined:

"In a military environment, you can say shut up and get on with it."

Here are the seven question areas that develop a military plan:

1. What is the enemy trying to do and more importantly why?
2. What tasks has my commander given me and why has he given those to me?
3. What effect do you want to have on the enemy?
4. Where and how can I best accomplish each action?
5. Identify what resources will achieve each effect, what resources are required?
6. Where and when do the actions take place in comparison to each other?
7. What control measures do you need to impose?

He emphasised:

"Having 'a plan' doesn't guarantee success - it should be used as a vehicle to guide - but planning does guarantee success."

He quoted his commander from the Iraq war: "Slightly imperfect is ok."

And cracked a few jokes:

"I know neutralise is used as a euphemism, but the accepted definition is - rendering him incapable of taking part in battle."

Lots of beer drinking in the bar afterwards and some rather funny asides such as "we were only bombed five times" and "you dig a trench deep enough so if something lands and there's shrapnel, it won't hit you". Those last two will be less helpful for account planners but underline the seriousness attached to the gaining of knowledge in that situation.