Tactics, command, leadership

Stochastic elements. Shortage of information on how various

parts of the system integrate demands statistical description of

the links between the quantities.

Common conditions for complex systems are

• inherent insensitivity to change, i.e. they are relatively slug-
  gish,


• sensitive points in the system, i.e. points where a small
  variation can have a significant effect on the system, and


• conflicting short and long term effects.

The pattern that the measures combine in is the connection bet-

ween the separate measures and the responses (connections

between parts and the whole). A consequence of this is that the

tactical complexity is low if only a single measure is initiated

and executed. The dynamics of the process is then easier to

handle. There is always a degree of dynamics, since even a single

measure must be inserted in the right place and at the right time

in order to be effective, for example, in the case of a fire in a rub-

bish bin, which can be handled with a hand fire extinguisher. The

tactical complexity is also low if several measures are initiated

and executed consecutively. An example of such would be a traf-

fic accident (single vehicle accident) in which certain measures

Several measures
(resources or units) are
combined in a tactical
pattern with varying
configurations in time
and space, depending
on the prevalent
conditions (Svensson,
1999).