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Over the years I have heard time and again the argument made that “the only problem with the operations planning process is that we don’t use it!” Often this argument is made at a staff college by some “greybeard” or other, although I have also heard it made by other less venerable staff and on occasion even by students of such institutions.[1] It is usually offered as a reason why no reform, change, or update is required to whichever operations planning process is under discussion. The label “operations planning process” may therefore be replaced with “Joint Planning Process”, “Military Decision Making Process”, “Joint Military Appreciation Process”, etc. The list goes on, and the exact process under discussion is irrelevant to this particular line of argument.[2] Yet this argument, while often made, is invalid. The simple intent of this article is to explain why this is the case.

This article was published by Small Wars Journal and is available at the following link: https://smallwarsjournal.com/index.php/jrnl/art/only-problem-operations-planning-process-we-dont-use-it-why-argument-invalid