------ # Understanding Command and Control **Written By:** - David S. Alberts **See:** Alberts_UC2.pdf --------- ## Reader Orientation Many readers will find this book challenging. As a subject, Command and Control has a reputation for being arcane, even among individuals who arguably are or have been practitioners. The words Command and Control individually and collectively mean different things to different communities. As explained in the Preface to this book, we chose, for the moment, to stay with these words even though we believe that the way they have been defined and understood limits our ability to accomplish the functions that Command and Control seeks to accomplish. To expect that anyone will come to this book without some preconceived notion of what the terms mean is unrealistic. But we want readers who are interested in Command and Control to think about what we have to say. Our hope is that readers will be able to, at least for a while, put aside what they “know” about Command and Control and approach our treatment of the subject with an open mind. Having understood what we are proposing, readers are of course free to accept, argue about, or help us to improve these concepts. We offer the following conceptual trail markers that we hope will assist readers in orienting themselves for this book’s journey. We will employ a special font to remind readers that we are talking about our concept of Command and Control rather than traditional definitions or uses. - Command and Control are separate but interrelated functions. - Command and Control involves only the specific functions we explicitly associate with these terms. Thus, C2 is not about “who”; it is about “what.” - Command and Control does not encompass all of the decisions made by individuals or organizations nor all of the decisions that emerge from collective behavior; only the ones directly associated with the functions of C2. - Command and Control applies to endeavors undertaken by collections of individuals and organizations of vastly different characteristics and sizes for many different purposes. - The most interesting and challenging endeavors are those that involve a collection of military and civilian sovereign entities with overlapping interests that can best be met by sharing information and collaboration that cuts across the boundaries of the individual entities. - Command and Control determines the bounds within which behavior(s) are to take place, not the specific behaviors themselves. The degrees of freedom associated with these bounds can vary greatly. - Thus, C2 establishes the conditions under which sensemaking and execution take place. C2 is separate from sensemaking and its operational implementations. - It is important to always keep in mind that there are many different approaches to accomplishing these functions. No specific approach or set of approaches defines what Command and Control means. - Command and Control are fractal concepts. They can be applied to all subsets of an enterprise; to the functions performed; to the levels of the organizations; to the focus of the activity, whether strategic or tactical. Membership in these fractals may overlap with individual entities and groups belonging to multiple fractals dynamically. - Different Command and Control Approaches will be appropriate for different sets of purposes or circumstances. - Different Command and Control Approaches may be taken by different sets of entities in an enterprise, and may change over time. - Successfully accomplishing the functions of Command and Control does not necessarily require: - Unity of command (an individual in charge) - Unity of intent (an intersection of goals) - Hierarchical organisations - Explicit control The effect of these conceptual trail markers is to take those who choose to explore Command and Control on a journey of discovery, unconstrained by existing notions and practices. This is meant to ensure that those who sign up for this journey will be operating outside of their comfort zones in the hope that the full range of possibilities will be explored.