Recently I had a young officer inquire about how he can learn the idiosyncrasies of planning operations, training and special events. There are incident command schools which have waiting lists. Experience is a great teacher but he has a limited tenure to build from. So to get him started, I proposed the following acronym as a guide. I was introduced to this many years ago, the attribution is unknown and the contents vary; but it works. If you have seen this with a variation, great then I know it is out there and in usage. The time management acronym is TEASE, now let's do some planning.
The T stands for time (either time-line or time application). If you have the operation for a certain date, what are the pre-operational events that must occur for its success? How many hours must an event is pre-staged. For instance, certain fleet vehicles must be ready to deploy with full tanks of gas. When is briefing, set-up, operational and how long before the plan changes and debriefing? The time line and time requirements are critical. Instructors will tell you for every hour of classroom time the preparation time is nearly five or more.
This first E for me stands for equipment. I am talking about real needs and projected demands, not wants and whims. How many vehicles will you need or what types? If this is training or a presentation, what are the audio-visual and classroom requirements? If this is a long mission you must add in creature comforts and rehab to this list. The officers will need breaks and proper places to do so. Additionally, will they need hydration or feeding, even the feeding breaks need to be planned. It is not just manpower but the material and support to keep them effectively producing.
The A stands for available resources that are readily available and those that can be obtained within restraints. This includes equipment, material and people. On staffing always have a contingency plan for reserves. Do you know all of preapproved mutual aid and letters of understanding that are in effect? Who will cover assignments or posts when you have some that may check-off sick or get reassigned to another responsibility? Always have a reserve pool of players to fill-in the holes and cross-train staff, all of the staff. Even if you are standing a post and get redirected to another post that is a traffic control point, have a brief understanding of what their duties are, keep the traffic going in the right direction.
The S here for me is safety and the most important. As a 'recovering trainer' this was one demand that I placed on my training staff. Every lesson plan, I do not care if it was introduction to criminal law will have a viable safety statement and safety plan. For some instructors it is probably do not fall out of your seat during the lecture. Even for the classroom, you review fire exits, point to the creature comfort areas and any rules of the class. It seems that the firearms and defensive tactics instructors are the best at this segment of safety.
Every operational or special event pre- plans and all briefings will have safety prominently worked into the plans. You can not assume safety is inferred, work on this point and refine it, we are talking about saving lives, injury reduction, and limiting exposure to liability.
The last E for me represents the environment you will be working in. The classroom or the briefing room is one set of working rules. However, special events are an entirely different set of working conditions. Anytime you are in the public eye and out in their environment you must have plans for everything. Parades always have rain dates but what if this event starts and you have severe or inclement weather.
Of course, environment ties in with safety. Whether or not, this can be a haz-mat event or bio-hazard can come into play. One key element of environment is always the weather. The old saying is if you don't like the weather, hang around it will change will come to haunt you. Always have someone watching the radar and tied in with a meteorologist, you can't plan the weather but you can adjust for it.
I am sure I have not given you all the answers but have prompted you to think and apply this to your next operation. This is not the all encompassing list of things to do by any means! What this acronym does do is prompt critical thinking when a mission falls in your lap. It is not important how we remember to do what we do, but it is critical that we perform our mission flawlessly. I hope this prompts you one day when your memory needs a kick start, far too many people depend on us.
