By LTC Terron Wharton
Five years ago, as a battalion S3, I watched a frustrated company commander struggle to brief my battalion commander. Unfortunately, this had become a trend for this particular company commander. Later that day, I brought him into my office and explained that if he wanted the commander to hear him, then he needed to speak the commander’s language. He needed to speak in terms of requirements, resources, and risk.
Commanders at all levels do three basic things. First, they set requirements. Second, they assign resources to meet those requirements. Finally, they accept and underwrite the risk, which, in its simplest form, is the difference between the requirements and the allocated resources.
Today, I am the battalion commander. On my first day, I informed my staff and company grade officers how I wanted to communicate: requirements, resources, and risk. After a couple of turns, the conversations became smoother and mutual understanding came more quickly.
However, when I finished my time as a major I realized I had missed a key portion before. In addition to mastering the basics, field grade officers must learn to speak in terms of options. By speaking in options, field grade staff officers bolster the commander’s role in the operations process by fostering discussions on risk and opportunity.
The Commander’s Role
“Commanders are the most important participants in the operations process. While staffs perform essential functions that amplify the effectiveness of operations, commanders drive the operations process through understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, leading, and assessing operations. Accurate and timely running estimates maintained by the staff, assist commanders in understanding situations and making decisions.” –Army Doctrinal Publication 5-0, The Operations Process, pg 1-8
Why did I choose requirements, resources, and risk? They are the outputs of the the commander’s role in the operations process. ADP 5-0, The Operations Process, states commanders drive the operations process through six actions. First, commanders must understand the operational environment and the problem. Second, they visualize the desired end state and approach to get there. Next, the commander describes this to their staff and subordinate commanders and then directs their unit throughout preparation and execution. While all this occurs, the commander continually leads their force providing purpose, direction, and motivation, and assesses how things progress, making adjustments as necessary.
The direct step links the commander’s actions to the orders process. Using mission orders, a commander takes all the outputs from the operations process and assigns tasks to subordinate units, allocates assets, capabilities, and forces to accomplish those tasks, and implements risk mitigation. However, while this framework is important, it is only the starting point for a field grade officer.
Risk and Options
“Risk, uncertainty, and chance are inherent to all military operations.” Field Manual 3-0, Operations, Pg 8-5
As a captain, I thought my job as a staff officer was to present the boss with courses of action that achieved their desired endstate. They have a problem, I solve for X, and I present a solution. Pretty simple. However, I repeatedly received less than enthusiastic feedback for my “solutions.” I now know the tepid responses were because commanders do not want the staff to give them a solution. Instead, commanders want their staff to give them options that enable conversations on risk and risk management.
ATP 5-19, Risk Management defines risk as the probability and severity of loss from threats or hazards. ADP 5-0 further delineates risk into two broad categories: risk to force, or the likelihood of forces being injured or killed, and risk to mission, or the likelihood of the mission failing to accomplish some or all its objectives. To mitigate risk, Commanders address it using risk management, which is the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating hazards through decisions that balance risk with opportunity.
Presenting options allows commanders to have conversations about risk at various points, factor in associated opportunities, and make decisions on how to address both. These conversations provide a feedback loop back to the start of the commander’s role in the operations process, enabling better understanding, visualization, and description of the desired approach. This ultimately results in a better plan for subordinates to execute.
Furthermore, risk is not static, but shifts as operations continue and must constantly be reassessed. Options allow commanders to tailor where and how they assume risk over the course of the operation, better mitigating risk as the situation changes. I may be willing to accept more risk to force during phase one but little to no risk in phase two. I may be willing to accept more risk to mission for a supporting effort, but less during a transition. I may have almost no risk tolerance for my fires and effects because of how it sets conditions, but more risk for the maneuver plan as conditions have been set. Simply presenting a course of action as a “solution” does not enable the full conversation on risk and risk management, often resulting in planning shortfalls, unidentified risk, and missed opportunities.
How Field Grade Officers Speak Commander
“Leaders and staff officers who are competent in all aspects of their specialties assist the commander in weighing the risk of various decisions and courses of action, balancing short-term versus long term risk to the mission and the force.” FM 3-0, Operations, Pg 8-5
Field grade staff officers must speak to their commanders in terms of risk and options. The best staff provides their commander with multiple options for achieving their desired endstate. What you think of as the “blended courses of action” is the commander choosing various options to form an approach that meets their intent and desired end state. So how do you get there?
First, understand how your commander views risk and prefers to manage it. Do they focus on systems and processes? Do they focus on critical capabilities and resource shortfalls? Do they prefer to manage risk through leader presence or conditions setting? Each commander has tendencies, and learning them is critical to providing good options.
Second, you must understand the commander’s risk tolerance. This is not determining whether your commander has a “low” or “high” risk tolerance. Rather, it connects back to how they view and manage risk in terms of where, and to what level, they are willing to accept it. Once you understand your commander’s risk tolerances, you can begin to understand how those tolerances interact. While the risk tolerance for CBRN maintenance may be higher, that can change when there is a CBRN portion of a maneuver live fire. Now, something a commander was willing to assume risk on before becomes a point of emphasis because it ties to a higher risk event. Understanding how various risk factors impact each other better enables you to create options that paint a holistic picture.
Finally, create options that accomplish the desired endstate. A best practice is to provide the commander with all available options that meet their screening criteria along with “sets of options.” The sets of options should highlight points of risks throughout, the associated opportunities, suggested mitigation, and finally an overall risk assessment. If the commander does not choose one of your suggestions, then be prepared to show the cumulative risk for the options they choose.
The more senior you get in our profession, the more complex and ill-defined problems become. There is often no clear path from beginning to end, and simple, one-dimensional solutions may do more harm than good. By framing conversations in terms of options, commanders can fulfill their role in the operations process, both mitigating risk and leveraging opportunity.
LTC Terron O. Wharton currently commands 2-358 AR, 189 IN BDE (CATB). An Armor Officer, he has served in Armor and Stryker Brigade Combat Teams with operational experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Korea. His other works include “It’s Not Me; It’s You: How to Speak Commander,” which provides advice on how company grade officers can effectively communicate with their commanders, and “How to Fail As a Major,” in which he shares advice to new Majors as they transition into the Field Grade ranks.
