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14 ABANDON PERFECTION: A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO MISSION COMMAND ABANDON PERFECTION: A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO MISSION COMMAND The Mission Command doctrine empowers subordinate leaders and facilitates mission success. The Irish Defence Forces employs the Mission Command theory and senior leaders are to encourage its practice. To fully operationalise Mission Command at the tactical-level, commanders need to engage and empower junior leaders, particularly NCOs. The successful implementation of Mission Command requires those with the most to lose to do the unthinkable: abandon perfection. What is Mission Command? Based on the Prussian concept of Auftfragstaktik, Mission Command is a philosophy of leadership and command that promotes decentralised decision making, freedom of action, and initiative, aligned with the superior commander's intent. Mission Command employs mission-specific orders and tactics to give sufficient empowerment and authority to the commander on-the-spot to decide and act in a timely manner. Superior commanders employ control measures and issue a clear intent to ensure all subordinate commanders understand what effects are to be achieved and the desired end state. Subordinate commanders employ freedom of action and disciplined initiative to identify and exploit opportunities as they present. Mission Command requires both a top-down and bottom-up approach. In this sense, its success is contingent on the presence of sufficient trust and professional competence in both superior and subordinate commanders alike. Effective implementation requires "encouraging commanders to tell their subordinates what needs to be achieved and why, and then let subordinate officers and NCOs get on with determining how to best achieve their commanders' intent." Most western armies have embraced Mission Command in recent decades. For the U.S. Army, it began with the adoption of the Air-Land Battle doctrine in the early 1980s. With Air-Land Battle, "subordinate commanders were liberated to act on their own initiative in line with their Commander's Intent but without direct supervision." Other armies followed suit, including the Irish Army whose overarching joint publication, Irish Defence Forces Capstone Doctrine, states that, "Mission Command is a philosophy of command that promotes decentralised command, freedom and speed of action and initiative, but is responsive to superior direction." In simple terms, Mission Command is about commanders telling their subordinates what to do, but not how to do it. Communicating Clarity Mission Command is a two-way street. Every soldier, down to individual riflemen, must understand their role in achieving the mission and facilitating the commander's intent. They need to appreciate the operational (and often strategic) context or bigger picture. The civilian corporate world recognises the importance of this: "Leaders must know the purpose of their organization ... if managers lack true understanding of the strategy, then comprehension among employees is bound to be minimal." If leaders at all levels don't understand the ends, then their actions may not align with higher commanders' intent. The formal orders process facilitates this. With mission orders, superior commanders' intents are transmitted two and three levels below in what is referred to as nesting, or what the civilian corporate world call organisational clarity. Mission Command "is not 'fire and forget'," and requires constant engagement. Commanders must maintain communications and engage with subordinates in order to provide guidance, if and when required. Similarly, junior leaders must engage with their commanders, ask questions, clarify his/her intent and check-in throughout the execution of their mission and tasks. Building Trust Right down to the lowest levels of command, each Section Commander in a rifle platoon must actively seek opportunities to execute disciplined initiative in order to rapidly exploit changes in the situation. Furthermore, each individual rifleman must know his/her job intimately, mastering each tactic, technique, and procedure to the point of professional excellence. With this approach, trust is fostered. Mission Command is a marketplace where leaders and followers openly trade freedom and control. In this market, trust is the most important commodity. The amount of freedom given, and control exercised by commanders, will "vary to a degree commensurate with the trust developed in subordinates and their experience level and competence." Mission Orders Using mission orders avoids devising over-prescriptive schemes of manoeuvre and mitigates against micro- managing. Instead, commanders should empower (and trust) their subordinates to make decisions and take action in line with their commander's intent. This implies a level of comfort with results that might not be the exact course of action the commander would have devised personally but are nonetheless aligned with higher level objectives. For some commanders this means letting go of the reins and abandoning the pursuit of absolute perfection. Discomfort The reaction to Mission Command from some junior officers and NCOs can be one of surprise and discomfort. During initial leadership training (such as cadet and potential NCO In simple terms, Mission Command is about commanders telling their subordinates what to do, but not how to do it. By Comdt Gavin Egerton Photos By Comdt Gavin Egerton Comdt Egerton giving his summary of execution PSC Live Fire O Gp

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