By Mike Smith
17th of October 2020
Before I start with the debriefing after Senekal II on Friday, 16th of October 2020, maybe I need to explain a little bit about the process of debriefing so that we can fully comprehend what we are talking about here.
I am not going to go into too much detail, because I want to get to the feedback as soon as possible, but it is important that we understand the operational basics. So bear with me.
The Process
People who have some military background and especially the staff officers and instructors, will probably be familiar with what a “Debriefing” is…aka an After-Action Review or AAR that follows an exercise or mission. However, long before we get to the debrief after the mission, a whole lot of other things have to happen.
People in the military do not just pick up their weapons and waai on a mission or campaign. Things are (usually) meticulously planned. Everything is planned from the moment when you arrive to the time when you evacuate, withdraw or advance further.
Prior to the Ops-plan there are a lot of analysis, intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, feasibility studies, risk assessments, threat identification and reviews made.
Based on this, resources are allocated, time frames laid out, priorities identified, responsibility and command structures determined, lines of communications established, primary and secondary targets/goals identified, contingencies put in place, medical emergencies dealt with, etc. Usually you would also bear the “worst-case scenario” in mind and plan for that too.
It all sounds very complicated; therefore, you divide the mission up into smaller, more manageable “legs” with specific goals and waypoints identified.
You plan your advances, your delays, your defences, your usage of operational reserves, everything.
Basically…Who, what where, when and why.
The Briefing
Just prior to the mission, the gear and kit are checked and the soldiers/operators will get a final briefing. This final briefing serves several purposes. It brings past training and experiences stored in the long-term memory to the surface. It greases the rusty drawers of the mind. It ensures that everyone is in on the plan and knows his/her role.
The Mission
First things to know about military planning is that nothing ever goes to plan. A whole lot of unforeseen things usually happen. It can start to rain. You can be attacked by a swarm of mosquitos, somebody forgot an essential part of his kit and has to go back, endangering the entire mission, etc. These niggly little things that slows things down Von Clausewitz calls “friction”.
Nevertheless, during the mission, the team has to keep extremely good situational awareness, watch each other’s backs, communicate effectively, deal with eventualities, change decisions and achieve the goals.
The Debriefing process
The debriefing is done as soon as possible and not later than 24hrs afterwards. It serves several purposes. First, it is a learning tool. You want to identify what went right, what went wrong and what can be improved upon in the future. Secondly you are sharing experiences and it restores normality. It prevents PTSD. Pain shared is pain divided; joy shared is joy multiplied.
Normally the instructor/officer does not have to say much. The lads are usually very self-critical (sometimes too much) and come up with everything that went wrong all by themselves.
However sometimes, things go horribly wrong, people go into denial and praise themselves when they should rather be more critical. This is where the facilitator should step in with some feedback.
Normally the feedback is done in the “Sandwich feedback” technique, where you start off with a positive (some praise on something they did right), you deliver critique (what went wrong, where they can improve, etc) and lastly you finish again with a positive (so that they don’t feel completely useless).
The reason for starting with a positive is because it opens their ears, make them want to listen and it makes them learn from the critique that follows. If you just start with a negative, they clam up, shut off and don’t want to listen to you, which means they are not going to learn anything.
The thickness of the sandwich, in other words, how much critique you deliver depends on two factors; competence and confidence. The higher the competence and confidence of the lads, the more critique you can give. The sandwich can be thicker. If they are a bunch of “Roofies”, the critique must be little. The sandwich must be thinner. Main thing is that you start with a positive...and you can ALWAYS, no matter how bad things went, ALWAYS find something positive to mention.
Now, many years ago I had a colleague who was a technically good officer/instructor, but had little people skills. He bitterly disagreed with the sandwich feedback technique. He said that sometimes the okes stuffed up so badly that there was just NOTHING positive to say. He would then dive in straight away and destroy the youngsters with a double-thick sandwich.
One day during a discussion, I said to him, “You know what? It doesn’t matter if the exercise/mission was a complete stuff-up, even if you just start with the sentence, “At least we all learned something…”…then that is already a positive”...
From that day onwards, it was a standing joke amongst us that whenever one of us started a Debrief with, “At least we all learned something…” then you know…it was a complete stuff-up.
So, with that in mind, I want to finally kick off the Senekal II Debrief.
The Senekal II Debrief
Nou, ja…wat kan ek sê??? Ten minste het ons almal iets geleer, nê?…
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| De fuck were these clowns? |
Were there any Positives?
I saw a lot of positives. Good leadership, good planning, good organization, good motivational speeches…unfortunately none of it came from the side of the Boere.
I saw a lot of positives. Good leadership, good planning, good organization, good motivational speeches…unfortunately none of it came from the side of the Boere.
Conclusion
So now, I am rather going to keep quiet. It is not necessary for me to tell you anything more. Those who were there know in their hearts what happened and how they feel today. So, I will let them speak. I will let them do their own debriefing.
I am just going to listen.
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| Next time don't bother. Just call in an airstrike. |