Flawless Execution by James D. Murphy

Author:James D. Murphy [Murphy, James D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-203657-5
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2005-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Briefing: Steps Eight and Nine

STEP EIGHT: CONTINGENCIES

The planning done for contingencies is a critical part of a fighter pilot’s briefing. Briefings are always wrapped up with the contingencies. Pilots ask themselves the very, very difficult question, “What if?” What if the weather changes over the target area after they launch and get airborne? What if the air refueling tanker does not show up and they can’t take on fuel? What if the flight leader blows up in midair before they get over the target area?

Now pilots don’t want to be overwhelmed with all the contingencies. They talk about the contingencies based on that mission; current intelligence, current tactics, current weather, and environmental conditions. What if a competitor gets wind of your plans and decides to flood your market with discounts for their products? Will you delay your plans or increase your discounts—or what?

What if you have a grand opening and more people than you ever thought possible show up? Do you have a backup plan to rush inventory to the store? (I can’t tell you how often a store will run a door-buster sale only to run out of stock. You can get away with that once, but if it happens twice, you’ll lose consumer trust.)

Contingencies cover the entire mission. You identify “what-ifs,” beginning at the first hour of your mission and going all the way to the very end.

I’ll give you an example of a Leaning-Forward fighter pilot-type team that briefs contingencies as well as anyone in the nation: Monday Night Football. This is a live event that is as full of potential problems as any “mission” in the world. In the comfort of your home, the broadcast is smooth and even, but how did that come about? The Monday Night Football team briefs and debriefs as well as any fighter squadron in the world. They plan for the weather, they analyze power grids (external factors!), they even have scripts for their broadcasters that smooth over the uneven quality of the teams playing so that no matter what, football fans will be interested in watching (a serious factor toward the end of the season).

Then there are the uncountable variables during a game. Players are moving across a 100-yard-long football field with over a dozen cameras trained on them. There are literally miles of cables and wireless devices linking those cameras to a broadcast truck where the director “mixes” the myriad shots into a finished product that is then fed live to the satellite. That satellite then broadcasts the signal to hundreds of television stations and cable systems, which in turn deliver the broadcast to your home.

Despite all of the variables and potential traps, rare is the day that a key play isn’t captured on at least three cameras. Rarer still is a moment of dead air time. These broadcast crews work with military precision. They have backups for backups and scripted responses for every possible failure in the entire chain between the football field and your home television set.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.