Orders, Fragmentary Orders, and Orders to Soldiers – Patton’s Standing Orders Series

Today we continue Patton’s standing tactical orders with a section I absolutely love: orders. Formal orders, fragmentary orders, warning orders, and keeping troops informed. If you’ve ever wondered whether worker huddles are worth it, Patton answered that a long time ago.

Short answer: Patton’s orders map straight onto a construction project. Formal orders are your clear, written and verbal direction with a sketch, telling the what and not the how. Fragmentary orders are the short updates you send and repeat back. Warning orders reach support functions in time. And keeping troops informed is Patton’s case for worker huddles.

1. Formal Orders: What, Not How

Patton wrote: “Formal orders will be preceded by letters of instruction and by personal conferences. In this way, the whole purpose of the operation will be made clear together with the mission to be accomplished by each major unit. In this way, if communication breaks down during combat, each commander can and must so act as to attain the general objective. The order itself will be short and accompanied by a sketch. It tells what to do, not how. It is really a memorandum and an assumption of responsibility by the issuing commander.”

I can’t reinforce this enough. We have written and verbal instruction, a personal conference where you do Q&A, and sketches. And it tells what, not how. That goes back to a previous podcast where leaders identify the what, and we work with our trade partners on the how or leave it to them. They are the experts. We say where we’re going. They figure out the how. When we get those crossed, we’re in for trouble.

So it is the commander’s job, in this case the superintendent’s and project manager’s, to make sure there are no assumptions about what has to happen. Communication will break down on the project site, and when it does, each foreman, assistant superintendent, field engineer, and PE can and must act to attain the general objective. That puts back into perspective the importance of huddles, meetings, and using our last planners.

2. Fragmentary Orders: Repeat Them Back

“After the initial order, you will seldom get another formal order, but you will get many fragmentary orders in writing or orally by phone or personally. Take down all oral orders and repeat them back. Have your juniors do the same. Keep a diary with all orders and messages and the resulting action recorded in it in sequence. Keep your own orders short. Get them out in time. Issue them personally by voice when you can. In battle, it is always easier for the senior officer to go up than it is for the junior officer to come back for the issuance of orders. A division should have 12 hours and better, 18 hours between the physical receipt of the order at division headquarters and the time it is to be executed.”

In our Field Engineer Project Engineer Boot Camp, we give general orders at the beginning, then send short orders that align throughout on WhatsApp. To keep up, people have to keep them in their field book, understand where they’re going, and confirm. I love repeating it back. So we need huddles and also a communication pathway, by radio, WhatsApp chat, or phone, to issue smaller orders as we go. On a project it’s not exactly orders, but it is communication and direction.

3. Warning Orders: Who Needs to Know Early?

“Warning orders are vital and must be issued in time. This requirement applies not only to combat units, but also to the surgeon, the signal officer, the quartermaster, the ordnance officer, and the engineer officer who must get warning orders promptly. They too have plans to make and units to move. If they do not function, you do not fight. Orders, formal or otherwise, concerning units further down in the next echelon of command are highly prejudicial.”

We should help each other stay apprised of situations coming up, and this reinforces the importance of pre-construction meetings, pre-installation meetings, and pre-activity meetings.

4. Keep Troops Informed

“Keep troops informed. Use every means before and after combat to tell troops what they are going to do and what they have done.”

This information must get all the way to the troops. This right here is Patton’s support of Elevate Construction’s recommendation to have worker huddles. It goes for supers, foremen, and everyone on the project. See The Morning Worker Huddle: Creating One Team on Your Project Site.

I think of what I call the 11th commandment, from Donella Meadows. Whether you believe in the Ten Commandments or have your own ten, if I could add an 11th, it would be: thou shalt not distort, delay, or withhold information. You can drive a system crazy by muddying its information streams. You can make a system work better with surprising ease if you can give it more timely, more accurate, more complete information. We have to get the information all the way to the workers.