Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

arrived, our platoons finished their portions of the plan and we talked
through them. As Jocko had predicted, we noticed things they didn’t see.
With some minor adjustments, we filled in the holes. We ran through the
plan with Jocko one last time, rehearsed the presentations, tightened up a
few things, and made final adjustments. Already, our confidence had
grown because we were briefing what we truly knew and understood and
what we knew our platoon members also completely understood. Finally,
our briefs were ready.
When the CO and master chief arrived, they sat in the back of the
room as we presented our OPORD brief to the platoons. The other
platoon commander and I gave an overview of the mission and then our
key leaders got up and briefed the details. We pulled everyone out of
their seats and gathered them around the map to walk through where we
were going. We talked through each phase of the mission in plain
English so that everyone understood. We stopped at key points and asked
questions of the troops to ensure they were absorbing the information.
We even had individual platoon members brief back portions of the plan
to us to verify they had a clear understanding and could run the mission
themselves if needed. When something wasn’t completely clear, our
SEAL operators asked for clarification, which enabled us to feel
confident they understood and were taking ownership of their role. When
the brief concluded, this time—much to our surprise—the CO and
master chief gave us credit for a solid brief and delivery. The CO said
that of all the mission briefings he had listened to during the workup,
these were the ones he understood most clearly. We still had work to do
to further enhance and refine our mission planning skills, but we had
turned the corner by understanding what mission planning and briefing
was all about.