TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01with both cultivating their subordinates and with relying on them to accelerate the planningprocess.Decision superiority treats the cognitive aspect of battle command and the fight forinformation. It addresses the understanding portion of the role of the commander as well as theassessment effort. In terms of leadership, it calls for mental agility and decisiveness incommanders. Decision superiority does not suggest perfect situational understanding. Rather itstands as a goal that all commanders must fight to achieve and capitalize on. Even moreimportant from the leadership perspective is commanders who do not hesitate to make decisionseven in the face of limited information. Waiting too long for that last bit of information canmake the difference between success and failure, between Soldiers living and dying. No matterhow successful the military becomes in obtaining decision superiority, it remains but one tooluntil applied. In the end, the objective of this key idea is to move faster than the adversary canreact. Consequently, in addition to agility and decisiveness as essential qualities in a commander,self-confidence becomes nearly paramount to achieving decision superiority.Lastly, a single integrated Army battle command system is necessary to provide the networkand the materiel side of battle command. Relative to leadership in the human dimension, the ideaof uninterrupted communications, a common operational picture, and a collaborative informationenvironment—seamless from space to ground—is the dream of all commanders. Over relianceon this or any other system, on the other hand, marks a failure of leadership. Commanders mustbe skilled users of the battle command system, of schooling their subordinates in its use, and ofinsuring that they cultivate a command leadership climate that encourages decisive action evenwhen the network fails.Thus, the Battle Command key ideas do not operate in isolation. Mission command and selfsynchronizationfacilitate accelerated planning and decisionmaking. They also provide countersto the fog of war and the inevitable failure of parts of whatever system supports C2. Thediscussions on S&T in the last chapter present many of the potential developments that will eitherenable or improve the application of battle command key ideas.9-4. ConclusionLeadership is the thread that ties this Human Dimension study together. It permeates everychapter as the essential integrator that will ensure the Army’s continued success in accomplishingits mission. Leadership is the penultimate human endeavor. In the future, limiting the amount offorce Soldiers apply and controlling the Soldier’s urge to lash out may be as difficult as gettingSoldiers to act in the extremes of ground combat—killing other humans, often face-to-face.Preparing Soldiers for leadership in canned classroom cookie-cutter fashion simply will notdo, nor has it ever sufficed. Preparing future leaders to deal with uncertainty, prolongedpersistent conflict, and increasing complexity while building cohesive competent units asdescribed in this concept will require innovative and imaginative approaches in all the domains ofDOTMLPF. The required capability chapters of the six other U.S. Army functional concepts listsome of these approaches (see app A).195