An “Op Order” (sometimes shortened further to “Opord”) is an Operations Order, and it is a summary of what a unit is expected to accomplish for a given operation. Op Orders are supposed to convey the most basic, necessary tasks and duties that are assigned to meet the “commander’s intent”, which is the sort of thesis statement for the op order– the benchmark for knowing whether or not success has been met.

Op Orders at the Company level are frequently available for troops to read, or at least they always were in units I was in. Forward-thinking troops will read this and know what is expected of them.

Now, in showbusiness, you have to go to where your audience is, or in some cases where you can leverage your way into an audience’s awareness. Stories are spun of people who want to be noticed going to places like Hollywood, Broadway, or Nashville, to name a few.

If you want to be seen, you gotta go where people will see you.

In the old days, newspapers, telephones, radio, and broadcast TV were all we had, or running something through the office copier and distributing it widely –this was how Op Orders were typically distributed in the past. Social media has obviously changed that landscape.

People search for information in different places, and while the military can pick a website or something and direct people to go there, there’s no guarantee people will follow through. I have seen some military organizations releasing YouTube videos, typically general information that isn’t time sensitive, although I have also seen some training videos on topics such as environmental policies for nearby training ranges.

I wonder if we’ll have online op orders, with colorful Anime characters and voice actors reading out the op order as fast-paced action music pulses in the background.

Time to break out the Good Idea Fairy repellant…