There are dozens of ways to communicate in any organization or group. Face-to-face, telephone, text, email, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Zoom, LinkedIn Messaging, and Teams to just name a few. As a leader or a follower, at times it is challenging to figure out what platform will provide your communications the attention that it deserves.

Many organizations have a host of standard operating procedures. One of the military’s that is easily exportable to the corporate sector is the Operations Order (OPORD), a standard format for conveying information for a military plan. It consists of five paragraphs — Situation, Mission, Execution, Service and Support (or Admin and Logistics by the US Marine Corps), and Command and Control. In Afghanistan, the unit I was part of used the OPORD to convey year long campaign plans, as well as short duration missions. Using the same format for a plan enabled everyone to know where to listen for the information they needed (if they were receiving it orally) or look for the information (if they had a written copy). And more importantly, using the OPORD format forced us to think through all the elements of the plan.

I discussed developing a corporate OPORD format at length in post #30. For the corporate OPORD format I combined paragraph 4 (Service Support) and 5 (Command and Control) of the military OPORD into one paragraph called “Admin, Logistics, and Communications.” Some of you use the corporate OPORD format to put out information to your organization or have implemented it since the blog post. If you haven't, here is the corporate OPORD example again:

One area of the OPORD that I didn’t discuss enough back in June was a subcomponent of the Admin, Logistics, and Communications paragraph. In that subcomponent, the military OPORD format defines the methods of communication the unit will use, in priority. For instance in Afghanistan, our patrols would typically use FM radios first, followed by TACSAT radios, and finally the Blue Force Tracker text function to communicate.

In the corporate world, it is even more confusing. Even in my small company, I have telephone, text, email, web page, LinkedIn, Zoom, WhatsApp, and MailChimp to deal with. I’m sure you have even more options to use. It is worthwhile, for you as a leader, to prioritize the methods of communication for your organization in the Admin, Logistics, and Communications paragraph of your group’s OPORD.

For TFCG, our methods of communication in priority are:

• Telephone

• Text

• Email

• LinkedIn Message

• Zoom

• Web Page

Prioritizing the methods of communication will make it easier for your organization to communicate efficiently and effectively. Efficient and effective communication is one to mundane aspects of leadership that excellent leaders master. Go on the offensive and prioritize the methods of communication for your team and watch your communications become more effective.