Reinvigorating the Army's Approach to Mission Command (Part 1, 2, and 3)
The mission command philosophy is the U.S. Army’s approach to command and control.
It empowers subordinate decision-making and decentralized execution, using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative in accomplishment of the commander’s intent. On this score, there is good news and bad news.
The bad news is many in our Army find the idea of mission command confusing or insincere.
For some, there is a significant difference between what mission command should be versus what actually happens.
Over the past decade, leaders at various levels routinely cited their personal experience in garrison, during field training, and while operationally deployed as at odds with our mission command philosophy.
The good news is leaders at every level, from warfighters to doctrine writers and squad leaders up to general officers, are talking about mission command.