Command & Control

Guided Discovery.

Photo by Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash

Requested Reading

• Requested reading: MCDP 6, Command and Control, pages 1-3 through 1-14 based on printed document (PDF pages 46-57), Link to MCDP 6 on US Marine Corps Electronic Library Display

• This week’s Study

Analysis

Command and control is the type of military subject matter that gets business executives excited. Command and control sound important, the type of things any good MBA aspires to possess. The US Marine Corps is in agreement on the level of importance:

1-3. No single activity in war is more important than command and control.

And its applicability:

1-4. Any system comprising multiple, interacting elements, from societies to sports teams to any living organism, needs some form of command and control. Simply put, command and control in some form or another is essential to survival and success in any competitive or cooperative enterprise.

And its value:

Command and control helps commanders make the most of what they have—people, information, material, and, often most important of all, time.

Command and control conjures imagines of control towers, large walls of television screens, and people doing command arms. What’s a command arm?

Command arm. Source: US Army.

These visual and physical manifestations of command and control are tools to assist in the execution of command and control, but they are not command and control themselves.

1-4. Command and control is the means by which a commander recognizes what needs to be done and sees to it that appropriate actions are taken.

Recognize, respond. The Marines indicate five ways recognition of needs to be done can occur:

1. Conscious command decisions

2. Preconditioned reactions

3. Rules-based procedures

4. Automated

5. Judgment and intuition

They also offer a definitional caveat:

1-6. Some forms of command and control are primarily procedural or technical in nature—such as the control of air traffic and air space, the coordination of supporting arms, or the fire control of a weapons system. Others deal with the overall conduct of military actions, whether on a large or small scale, and involve formulating concepts, deploying forces, allocating resources, supervising, and so on. This last form of command and control, the overall conduct of military actions, is our primary concern in this manual.

This delineation is significant. Remember the physical manifestations of command and control? The rooms with the screens and computers? Business leaders love these, because they project a sense of “control”. Do they provide control?

Real time reflection:
1-6 discusses the official authority versus personal authority, the latter of which is defined as a functional of personal influence derived from experience, reputation, skill character, and personal example. In your professional world, is command and control related to personal authority or only official authority? Does this make sense?

Command and control, as a term, is common. Also common is our collective understanding of command and control, described by the Marines as the “traditional view,” which is top-down and in a single direction. In a footnote (you didn’t read the footnotes?!?!), control is further defined as:

Chapter 1, Footnote 3: Control…is defined in our context as physical or psychological pressures exerted with the intent to assure that an agent or group will respond as directed.

That is a definition of control that any MBA can love. But an alternative perspective is offered:

Source: MCDP 6, Command and Control, p. 1-8

1-7. We suggest a different and more dynamic view of command and control which sees command as the exercise of authority and control as feedback about the effects of the action taken. (See figure 1.) The commander commands by deciding what needs to be done and by directing or influencing the conduct of others. Control takes the form of feedback—the continuous flow of information about the unfolding situation returning to the commander—which allows the commander to adjust and modify command action as needed. Feedback indicates the difference between the goals and the situation as it exists.

Do you agree with the alternative perspective on control? How does this perspective change your personal definition of what it means to be in control?

1-9. The typical understanding of effective command and control is that someone “in command” should also be “in control.” Typically, we think of a strong, coercive type of command and control—a sort of pushbutton control—by which those “in control” dictate the actions of others and those “under control” respond promptly and precisely…

1-10. The worst thing that can happen to a commander is to “lose” control of the situation. But are the terrain and weather under the commander’s control? Are commanders even remotely in control of what the enemy does? Good commanders may sometimes anticipate the enemy’s actions and may even influence the enemy’s actions by seizing the initiative and forcing the enemy to react to them. But it is a delusion to believe that we can truly be in control of the enemy or the situation.

We’re only ten pages into an entire doctrine on “Command and Control” before the concept of control in war is under attack. If this is not what you were expecting, join the club. But the authors do not stop there. Any complex organization or system exhibits the same characteristics as war, undermining our preexisting notions of control in any environment!

1-12. With a complex system it is usually extremely difficult, if not impossible, to isolate individual causes and their effects since the parts are all connected in a complex web… While some systems behave mechanistically, complex systems most definitely do not. Complex systems tend to be open systems, interacting frequently and freely with other systems and the external environment.

The above could just as easily describe a Fortune 500 company, a start up, a church community, or a Homeowners Association.

1-12. Our approach to command and control must find a way to cope with this inherent complexity.

1-13. This view of command and control as a complex system characterized by reciprocal action and feedback has several important features which distinguish it from the typical view of command and control and which are central to our approach.

Five features are listed:

1. “Effective command and control must be sensitive to changes in the situation.”

2. “The action-feedback loop makes command and control a continuous, cyclic process and not a sequence of discrete actions…”

3. “The action-feedback loop also makes command and control a dynamic, interactive process of cooperation.”

4. “This view does not see the commander as being above the system.”

5. “This view recognizes that it is unreasonable to expect command and control to provide precise, predictable, and mechanistic order to a complex undertaking…”

Being in control means thinking about control differently.

Questions for Individual Reflection

1. In your organization, does control primarily serve to enable action or to prevent chaos? What are the unintended consequences of how control is currently structured?

2. The text argues that control should be adaptive rather than absolute. Can a CEO ever truly be "in control" of an enterprise, or is leadership more about managing unpredictability?

3. How does your organization balance formal authority (title, hierarchy) with personal authority (influence, expertise)? When do they come into conflict?

4. The military relies on "immediate-action drills" for high-stakes situations. What corporate equivalents exist, and do they truly prepare leaders for unexpected crises?

5. The traditional view of command suggests top-down control, while the alternative model emphasizes feedback loops. How does your boardroom’s decision-making model reflect (or fail to reflect) this dynamic?

6. Can an organization achieve agility while maintaining strong command and control? Where has your company succeeded or failed in this balance?

7. In a crisis, is it better to have rigid control mechanisms in place or to allow for fluid, decentralized decision-making? What examples from your own experience support your view?

Professional Discussion Prompts (or Additional Individual Reflection)

1. Discuss a time when lack of control in a business setting led to success rather than failure. What conditions allowed this to happen?

2. Examine how feedback loops function (or fail) in your organization. How does your company detect and respond to weak signals of disruption?

3. Command and control often focuses on execution. In your organization, is more time spent on executing strategy or revising it? Is this balance optimal?

4. Commanders are taught to anticipate an enemy’s moves. How much time does your leadership team spend anticipating competitive threats vs. reacting to them?

5. The text warns against the illusion of control. Where in your organization are leaders mistakenly assuming they have control when they do not?

Personal Discussion Prompts (or Additional Individual Reflection)

1. How has your personal leadership style evolved in terms of control? How do you think about the concept of control? Do you try to maintain more or less of it than earlier in your career?

2. How do family dynamics mirror command and control structures? Do you run your household like a CEO, a coach, or something else entirely?

3. Discuss a moment when over-controlling a situation backfired in your personal life. How did you course-correct?

4. The military practices “immediate-action drills” to prepare for crises. What personal habits or rituals do you have (or would you like to have) to help you handle the unexpected?

Exercises

1. The Illusion of Control

   1. Exercise:

      1. Each team identifies a situation where an executive thought they had control but didn’t (e.g., market shifts, employee culture, technological disruption).

      2. Discuss how this illusion of control was created and what mechanisms might have provided a more realistic view.

   2. Debrief:

      1. What signals were missed?

      2. How could the leader have adapted sooner?

      3. Where does your leadership team risk falling into the same trap?

2. Wargaming Competitor Moves

   1. Exercise:

      1. Teams analyze a major competitor’s recent strategic move.

      2. Develop possible counteractions using different command and control approaches (e.g., centralized vs. decentralized).

   2. Debrief:

      1. Which approach provided the best agility?

      2. What assumptions about control shaped your decision?

      3. How does this apply to real corporate strategy?

Feel free to borrow this with pride and use with your teams, professionally or personally. If you do, please let me know how it went and tips for improvement: matt @ borrowingwithpride.com