Doc Jargon:Unplucking the decision-making process

Photo By Collen McGee | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army.  

FORT RILEY, KANSAS, UNITED STATES

08.07.2023

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Dear Doc Jargon,

I got to sit in on my first planning meeting here at Fort Riley. I’m pretty new to both the brigade and the Army so I felt like this was kind of a cool opportunity to see how leadership makes decisions around here. Sometimes I’ve heard they just pick stuff out of a hat — but after sitting through this meeting I can see there is a lot more that goes into the military decision-making processes than I’ve ever given them credit for. The part I have a question about is near the end of the meeting, the big boss has to choose an option. The sergeant leading the presentation kept saying the word COA 1, COA 2 and COA 3. These were each printed at the top of the slides too.
I understand that the slides contains a plan of execution, I just can’t figure out how COA fits in — what does it mean?


Sincerely,

COA-lating the info



Dear information seeker,

Your sergeant must see some potential in you to take you along to a planning meeting that includes the “Big boss!” Way to go!

You are right that the term COA has something to do with a choice of how to proceed. The acronym stands for “Course of Action” and the numbers represent the options clearly so that the leadership can look at them and see how all the pros and cons stack up against or for each one. The presentation of COAs allows leaders to evaluate risk over return and chose a course of action when there are several equally good sounding ideas.
A good COA has all the pros and cons listed and give the leader something to base the training on.

I hope that helps you, and congratulations on taking COA 1 yourself — I am glad to have sharp people serving in today’s Army.


Sincerely,

Doc Jargon

• Date Taken: 08.07.2023
• Date Posted: 08.07.2023 12:51
• Story ID: 450844
• Location: FORT RILEY, KANSAS, US