Tactics, command, leadership

The provision of a command staff, increases the command capa-

city of the organisation. The staff can, for example, work with fol-

low­up, personnel issues, coordination, reports, documentation,

assessment or compiling information for the bases of decisions.

But it could also carry out the practical implementation of a de-

cision or a plan. Through this, commanders can delegate the rou-

tine issues or aspects of more executive character and concentrate

on their central tasks such as decision making. When a command

A traffic accident has occurred in which an articulated tank lorry carrying
petrol has collided with a car and rolled over. A variety of measures are
called for and several units are involved. A form of sector division has
occurred. Each sector commander is managing his or her respective decision
domain task command. Dividing a sector with clear and well separated areas
of responsibility in time and space increases the command capacity. The
decision domain operational command delegates the more detailed aspects of
the work and thereby increases its own capacity to deal with the longer time
scales and overall problems.
By appointing a command staff the command capacity can be increased
still further. Aspects of executive character or qualified judgement are
left to other individuals and operational command can focus on balancing
assessments and making carefully considered decisions.

Example 28