Recommended reading for aspiring program managers: No Easy Day-The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden the military memoir of “Mark Owen”, (a pseudonymous former member of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group).

This account of the SEAL team’s training, conditioning and mental toughness is impressive however the risk management and contingency planning applied to their mission provides lessons all program managers can apply to their most formidable projects.

The team selected for this mission were all extremely well-trained warriors with years of special operations and SEAL training. Even with all this experience behind them, they underwent weeks of mission-specific training for this op.

They studied satellite photos, videos and a tabletop model of the compound believed to house Osama bin Laden (OBL). Once the mission plan was developed, they were shipped to a US Military base to train on an exact replica of the compound.

The selected warriors were divided into two teams that would each ride a separate helicopter to assault OBL’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Each team could complete the mission on their own in the event the other team’s chopper crashed. Two assault plans were also developed in the event their intelligence wasn’t accurate or circumstances on the ground dictated a change in approach was required (i.e. ‘Private Murphy’ greeted them in Abbottabad.)

They trained both plans for weeks, rehearsing every tactic until it became second nature to them. They were fully prepared. Period.

As a project leader you can learn a lot from the SEALs. How much effort do you invest in contingency planning when taking on a mission-critical project for your company? Is your team prepared to execute ‘Plan B’ if the economy or market shifts?  Aside from developing contingency plans, do you support your team in training to execute the plan? Your project’s success may depend on it.