Don’t Forget the Warning Order (WARNORD) 

Situation

Military commanders use a Warning Order (WARNORD) to give their troops initial information about an upcoming operation. Damian McKinney explains, “Even when there are still uncertainties and the plan is not yet clear, you might tell them, for example, ‘Be prepared. You may receive orders to launch an attack within the next three hours.’”
This allows people to make effective use of the waiting time while also removing the anxiety of not knowing what is going to happen next.
Organizations where leaders make a habit of sharing information as it becomes available are stronger.

Damian McKinney, MBE: Former Royal Marines Commando, who founded McKinney Rogers in 1999. Born in Republic of Kenya.

Deep Dive

The Warning Order (WARNORD), which is translated into Japanese as junbi meirei (“preparatory order”), is a system that is rarely used in business. Military commanders provide their subordinates with initial information—including their likely role, the expected area of operations and timing—even before the details of an upcoming operation have been finalised. The subordinates understand that the information is not yet confirmed, but use their own judgement to begin preparing. This gives the unit time to arrange supplies, equipment and personnel.
The leader thinks:
“Some things are still uncertain, so I won’t give overly detailed instructions yet. If anything changes, I’ll tell you immediately.”
The subordinates think:
“We’ll prepare as much as we can. If the situation changes, we’ll adapt.”
A WARNORD secures valuable preparation time and enables a faster and more flexible response.

I once heard a real example of a WARNORD issued at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake from Mr Asano, a former Captain in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The situation was:
A major earthquake had struck the Tohoku region.
A formal disaster-relief deployment order could not be issued without the Prime Minister’s approval.
Despite this, just six minutes (!) after the earthquake, Fleet Headquarters issued the following WARNORD:
“All ships, put to sea immediately and head north!”

The initial information provided in this case was essentially:
Likely role: unknown
Area of operations: north
Timing: immediately

As a result, each ship was able to complete in as little as 47 minutes preparations that would normally take two hours after receiving an order, and then put to sea. Mr Asano described it as:
“A real example of each ship’s captain following the WARNORD to ‘head north’ and taking the best possible action based on the information available.”

I first learned about WARNORDs when I took part in one of Damian and his colleagues’ exercises as the president of a client company.

Damian told me:
“You’re the president, so you’re in this room. During the exercise, you can only communicate with your team by email.”
I was shown into a luxurious reception room. Meanwhile, all my subordinates were told:
“You’re in here.”
They were taken to a workroom without even any chairs.O
In the reception room, Damian handed me a thick pack of documents and said:
“This is the exercise you’ve been given. You have one hour to complete it.”
I thought:
“This is a huge amount of information. My team will be thinking too, but I’m the person responsible, so I need to give them clear instructions.”
I threw myself into analysing the material and, after about twenty minutes, began sending what I thought were precise instructions.
But the responses from my team made no sense at all.
I thought:
“What a hopeless team. I’m going to have to work even harder and give them instructions one by one.”
So I doubled down.
The result was a complete failure.
My team continued giving seemingly irrelevant responses right to the end, and while I was busy correcting them, the hour ran out.
During the review afterwards, when we compared what each side had been doing, I discovered that at the beginning my team had been told:
They would be given absolutely no information about the exercise, not even when it would end.
They were not allowed to contact the president until they received instructions from him.
They had then spent the next twenty minutes feeling anxious and frustrated.
Even so, they had done their best to prepare, saying:
“We don’t know what the exercise is about, but at least let’s decide who will do what within the team.”
When my instructions finally arrived, however, they did not understand the assumptions behind them and had had no opportunity to prepare. As a result, they found themselves thinking:
“We don’t understand why we’re being asked to do this.”
“There’s no way we can do this.”
Their distrust of me steadily grew.
I was deeply impressed by the exercise’s ruthless—no, clever—design. At the same time, I felt rather embarrassed when I realised:
“Ah, this is exactly what I do in my day-to-day work. I give instructions assuming that my people have the same information I do about what is happening at global headquarters.”
I asked Damian:
“I’ve realised I have a bad habit. What should I do?”
He replied:
“Don’t worry. A lot of leaders make exactly the same mistake. From now on, issue a Warning Order even before you’ve had time to fully make sense of the situation.”
For example, if I had simply told my team at the beginning:
“I’m working out the plan now.”
“I’ll email you the background information for the exercise, so please read through it at your end.”
“We have one hour.”
they would have been able to start preparing, and they would not have developed that distrust of me.
I came away thinking:
“The benefit of learning about Warning Orders was greater than the embarrassment of failing in front of my team.”