Employment of Structures and Work Patterns in Organizations Involved in Modern, Complex, Multi-National Operations

摘要

The exercise of command and control in the context of modern, complex conflicts involving multiple nations and both military and non-military (including other governmental) organizations requires particular attention to be paid to individual and collective involvement in situational appreciation and decision-making. The technical artefacts (e.g. plans, orders, R3, assessments and pictures) by which purely military organizations might seek to maintain coherence in conventional and bounded operations need to be reinforced by constructs and principles which better exploit human and social capacities to cope with uncertainty, to adapt and to maintain agility. These constructs include * dynamic creation of, and affiliation to, communities and collaborations * the use of work patterns in situational appreciation and planning which are designed specifically to control the rate of convergence on central or preferred models, and the breadth of alternatives under consideration * the trajectories of individuals through the above (c.f. conventional ideas about 'the commander going forward'). Using examples developed in the course of work performed for military customers, this paper seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities that novel command management and senior leadership engagement might offer to the successful resolution of modern, complex multi-national crises.