“The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish the kind of war on which they are embarking.” — Carl von Clausewitz
“The art of command lies in making intentions clear.” In the last post, I argued that clarity begins not with tasks or timelines, but with shared understanding. That is why every Operations Order (OPORD) starts not with the mission, but with the Situation.
At my community college, nearly all employees take the CliftonStrengths assessment. It identifies preferred ways of thinking and behaving, with the idea that if we understand one another’s strengths, we can work together more effectively. My top strength is “Context.” Gallup defines it this way: “People who enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.”
I have occasionally wondered whether that tendency is innate or learned. My suspicion is that it is largely learned. The Army trained me to begin every serious discussion with context. Before we ever talked about what we were going to do, we talked about where we were and what conditions shaped the problem in front of us.
In a formal OPORD, the Situation section describes the operational environment: terrain, weather, population, friendly forces, enemy forces, and key assumptions. It explains who is present, what capabilities exist, what constraints apply, and what uncertainties must be accounted for. The purpose is not to overwhelm with detail, but to ground everyone in a shared understanding of reality before assigning tasks or setting expectations.
That same logic applies in higher education. If we want people to understand the mission, they must first understand the conditions under which that mission must be executed. Agreement with a plan is not enough; people need to see how the plan fits the world they actually operate in.
If you have used a deliberate decision-making process—such as MDMP or a close civilian equivalent—your Situation section will largely write itself. In an earlier post on Mission Analysis, I described how we adapted that step at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. That work provides most of what a strong Situation paragraph needs. For a community college, it might include:
- The institutional mission and strategic priorities
- The specific problem being addressed
- Leadership constraints and non-negotiables
- Available internal and external resources
- Critical facts and data shaping the issue
- Key assumptions
- Risks and likely second- and third-order effects
These sections can be written into a document and form the basis for a slide presentation provided to all involved departments. A brief word on dissemination. Whenever possible, an OPORD should be briefed in person, then reinforced in writing. Questions, clarifications, and even disagreements are part of the process. In the Army, we expected plans to evolve and had a formal mechanism—Fragmentary Orders, or FRAGOs—to adjust them. I will return to that concept in a later post. Doing a formal slide presentation and following that up with a document of the entire OPORD, is the most efficient way dissemination can occur in my opinion.
Context is not a luxury. It is the foundation. Whether or not “Context” is one of your natural strengths, your team needs it. When everyone understands the situation, the mission makes sense. And when the mission makes sense, the execution plan is no longer an abstraction—it becomes a coherent response to real conditions.
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