What do you need from your command post?
Suggested Reading
ATP 6-0.5 Command Post Organization & Operations
Pages 1-1 through 1-13 based on printed document (PDF pages 9-21)
Overview, definitions and general information on command posts
This week’s Study: Positive Control
All excerpts below are from MCTP 6-10A
Guided Discovery
Our offices (corporate or home), project areas, team rooms, cars (!?!) and virtual shared spaces should not be treated only as work sites.
These are our real command posts in life. They are where we should have structures and systems that facilitate the accomplishments of our missions. Frequently, they do not.
We generally do not give a lot of deep thought to the topic of our workspaces because for most, there isn’t a lot of control (the company manages it), they don’t frequently change, or there isn’t a compelling reason to adjust them (unless something like COVID triggers upgrades to the home office).
The military gives a lot of though to the topic of command posts because it is necessary. There is complete control, locations and requirements change frequently, and there are always reasons to tweak and improve the operations of command posts.
1-3. CP functions directly relate to assisting commanders in understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, leading, and assessing operations. Different types of CPs, such as the main CP or the tactical CP, have specific functions by design. Functions common to all CPs include —
Conducting knowledge management and information management.
Building and maintaining situational understanding.
Controlling operations.
Assessing operations.
Coordinating with internal and external organizations.
Performing CP administration.
A good command post is a boon to awareness and control.
Do the command posts in your life aid in your awareness and control?
Whether you are a CEO and your command post is a headquarters building or you work from home and your command post is the second or third bedroom, getting what you need from your command post is imperative to success.
What do you need from your command post?
What's the difference between building a command post and building a bunker?
What backup systems do you have when your personal command post is disrupted?
The form and function of a command post is a choice. How a command post contributes to or detracts from the US Army’s six common command post functions are dependent on design decisions.
In the corporate world, office and facility teams manage the design of command posts, generally with an eye toward collaboration and employee satisfaction (snacks). The design skews towards form; function is viewed from the lens of improving individual worker output (for example, hoteling and individual workspace are prioritized over more classic design where teams permanently sit together).
In the military, function reigns supreme, and viewed from an organizational lens; form is defined by very different factors (primarily survivability).
The happy medium between these two is what we require, designed with the rigor of the military’s approach and imbued with the thoughtfulness of 2025 sensitivities.
The US Army provides initial instructions for:
Function - what a command post needs to do
Form
The relationship between different command posts and why they should or shouldn’t exist
Critical design factors for command posts
Integration - how command posts should liaise and coordinate with other entities
Use each as a starting point for consideration to determine whether you are getting what you need from your command posts.
FUNCTION
The existence of the Hearth display as a commercial product (a $700 frame for your family to have another shared calendar to ignore) underscores the human desire to have command posts that adequately accomplish the US Army’s first three common command post functions: Knowledge Management, Building and Maintaining Situational Awareness, and Controlling Operations.
Knowledge Management
1-4. Knowledge management is the process of enabling knowledge flow to enhance shared understanding, learning, and decision-making (ADRP 6-0). Information management is the science of using procedures and information systems to collect, process, store, display, disseminate, and protect data, information, and knowledge products (ADRP 6-0). Combined, knowledge management and information management enables the provision of relevant information to the right person at the right time and in a usable format in order to facilitate understanding and decision making.
It is no coincidence that the US Army first stated function for a command post is knowledge management.
Where people sit (and thus who they talk to most frequently), how they interact with each other, who has access to what information and when, even what information is visualized…these are design choices to build knowledge management as the first common function in your command post.
What would look different for your organization or office if knowledge management was a top objective in workspace design?
Building & Maintaining Situational Understanding
1-8. Situational understanding is the product of applying analysis and judgment to relevant information to determine the relationships among the operational and mission variables to facilitate decision-making.
…
CP activities that contribute to this include—
Receiving information including reports from subordinate units.
Analyzing information.
Generating, distributing, and sharing information and knowledge products to include reports required by higher headquarters.
Conducting battle tracking.
Conducting update and information briefings.
The most important knowledge to be managed and shared is related to situational understanding. Is everyone seeing things the same way? A core function of command posts is ensuring that commanders and staffs are reacting to the same situation with the same common understanding of facts and assumptions.
1-10. The staff uses its running estimates to advise the commander and make recommendations. Information in running estimates also helps build the common operational picture which is a single display of relevant information within a commander’s area of interest tailored to the user’s requirements and based on common data and information shared by more than one command.
Getting to a common operational picture is the dream of every military and business leader who has ever existed anywhere, at any time. Impossible to perfect but always worth the effort to try, building a common operational picture, at any level of detail, is the best way to display and track equal situational understanding.
The challenge is that doing so is generally an activity that a command post is asked to perform AFTER it is created, rather than designed with this outcome in mind.
Controlling Operations
This week’s Study focused on the differences between procedural control and positive control. A well designed command post requires and reinforces both types of control.
1-12. Personnel within CPs assist commanders in controlling operations to include coordinating, synchronizing, and integrating actions within their delegated authority. They also integrate and synchronize resources in accordance with the commander’s priority of support.
Implicit in this is the idea that those in a command post, in order to effectively control operations (whether employees or family members), need to understand the commander’s intent, their own individual authority, and the prioritization of requirements or expectations.
How does this occur? Most often (and most often neglected)…by writing it down.
And, because the military loves to constantly remind us:
1-13. Language used in controlling operations should be simple, clear, and easily understood.
How do you balance standardization with flexibility?
How do you maintain "situational understanding" in family relationships?
What early warning systems belong in your command post that do not currently exist?
Assessing Operations
1-14. Assessment involves deliberately comparing forecasted outcomes with actual events to determine the overall effectiveness of force employment. More specifically, assessment helps commanders and staffs in determining progress toward attaining the desired end state, achieving objectives, and performing tasks. It also involves continuously monitoring and evaluating the operational environment to determine which changes might affect the conduct of operations.
Fairly obvious, but one subtle takeaway to consider: deliberating comparing forecasted outcomes with actual events requires actually forecasting outcomes, then sharing the forecasted outcomes, and finally remembering what the forecasted outcomes were when it is time to evaluate the outcomes.
A second takeaway you ask? Consider how your command posts are, or are not, connected to the operational environment they ostensibly control. Is continuous monitoring possible?
Coordinating with Internal and External Organization
1-16. Units do not operate in isolation.
…
Coordination helps—
Develop shared understanding.
Ensure a thorough understanding of the commander’s intent and concept of operations.
Inform an organization on issues so that they may adjust plans and actions as required.
Avoid conflict and duplication of effort among units.
Only you can help prevent redundancy of effort in your command post’s operations. You and the active sharing of information to improve coordination.
Performing Command Post Administration
1-18. This requires an effective SOP and personnel trained on CP administration to include the following:
Establishing the CP.
Displacing the CP.
Providing security.
Maintaining continuity of operations.
Executing sleep plans.
Managing stress.
Quality of life in a command post, while not the primary priority for the military, is not entirely disregarded. Establishing and maintaining an effective command post is only possible when those in the command post are functioning within normal physical limits.
Evaluate your ability to actually assess operations in real time. What needs to change?
How do you consider quality of life in command post design? How do you define it?
FORM - Command Post Structures
Our command posts need to have what we need, where we need it. What does that look like? The US Army provides a multitude of options for command post structures and their relative hierarchy in managing operations; for us three concepts are the most critical.
Main Command Post - Strategic Headquarters (at Home and at Work)
1-20. A main command post is a facility containing the majority of the staff designed to control current operations, conduct detailed analysis, and plan future operations…
Functions of the main CP include but are not limited to—
Controlling operations.
Receiving reports for subordinate units and preparing reports required by higher headquarters.
Planning operations, including branches and sequels.
Integrating intelligence into current operations and plans.
Synchronizing the targeting process.
Planning and synchronizing sustaining operations.
Assessing the overall progress of operations.
Tactical Command Post - Execution Points (Project Team Rooms, Virtual Space)
1-23. A tactical command post is a facility containing a tailored portion of a unit headquarters designed to control portions of an operation for a limited time (FM 6-0). Commanders employ the tactical CP as an extension of the main CP.
1-24. The tactical CP maintains continuous communication with subordinates, higher headquarters, other CPs, and supporting units. The tactical CP is fully mobile and includes only essential Soldiers and equipment.
Command Group - Where Our Leadership Is (and who they travel with)
1-27. A command group consists of the commander and selected staff members who assist the commander in controlling operations away from a command post. Command group personnel include staff representation that can immediately affect current operations, such as maneuver, fires (including the air liaison officer), and intelligence. The mission dictates the command group’s makeup.
How we define a command post should influence how we design it and what we invest into it. Not every command post should have the same functions - everything need not be equivalent. This should directly influence how much space and budget is allocated to each command post, whether it is an organizational decision or a personal one.
Let the form follow the function.
Should your command post be a physical space, a digital environment, or a state of mind? What’s the correct mix?
What command post capabilities do you delegate versus keep under direct control? Why?
What's the corporate equivalent of a tactical command post and when do you deploy it?
FORM - Additional Command Post Design Considerations
What defines success for a command post? The military concerns itself with balancing effectiveness versus survivability.
1-34. Planning considerations for CP organization and employment can be categorized as—
Those contributing to effectiveness.
Those contributing to survivability.
In many cases, these factors work against each other and therefore neither can be optimized. Tradeoffs are made to acceptably balance effectiveness and survivability.
Effectiveness
The correct bias, if you are not worried about a missile striking your command post, is to design primarily for effectiveness.
1-36. Within a CP, the location of CP cells and staff elements are arranged to facilitate internal communication and coordination.
Other layout considerations include—
The ease of information flow.
User interface with communications systems.
The positioning of information displays for ease of use.
The integrating of complementary information on maps and displays.
Adequate workspace for the staff and commander.
The ease of displacement (setup, tear-down, and movement).
Effectiveness, while sometimes difficult to measure, can be felt in a physical space. Ineffectiveness expresses as frustration and rework, both of which are reduced by command posts that prioritize standardized operations.
1-37. Standardization increases efficiency of CP operations. Commanders develop detailed SOPs for all aspects of CP operations to include CP layout, battle drills, meeting requirements, and reporting procedures. CP SOPs are enforced and revised throughout training. Doing this makes many CP activities routine. Trained staffs are prepared to effectively execute drills and procedures in demanding stressful times during operations.
Military hierarchy informs what constitutes effectiveness and efficiency from standardization: the target is to do what is useful for the commander. But they should also provide process structure in the absence of the commander.
1-38. To support continuous operations, unit SOPs address shift plans, rest plans, and procedures for loss of communications with the commander, subordinates, or another CP.
Finally, an effective command post is a combination of human performance and technological support. Any command post plan should anticipate requirements for both, and plan for them as reinforcing capabilities.
1-39. The capacity to conduct (plan, prepare, execute, and continuously assess) operations concerns both staffing and information systems. So too, does the ability to manage relevant information.
Survivability
Our command posts are not under military attack, but the issue of survivability is not dramatically different from a challenge which attacks professional and personal command posts: complexity. Like artillery fire, complexity reduces our flexibility and fixes us in vulnerable positions.
Location(s), size, and redundancy (of capability, not work!) influence survivability, regardless of context.
1-42. Dispersing CPs enhances the survivability of the commander’s mission command system. Commanders place minimum resources forward and keep more elaborate facilities back. This makes it harder for enemies to find and attack them. It also decreases support and security requirements forward. Depending on the situation, commanders may leave personnel and equipment at home station to perform detailed analysis and long-range planning for operations.
1-43. Large CPs can increase capacity and ease with face-to-face coordination. Their size, however, makes them vulnerable to multiple acquisitions and attack. Smaller CPs are easier to protect but may lack capacity to control operations effectively. The key to success is achieving the right balance.
1-44. …some personnel and equipment redundancy is required for continuous operations. In operations, personnel and equipment are lost or fail under stress. Having the right amount of redundancy allows CPs to continue to operate effectively when this happens.
Should an executive team operate from a main command post or distributed locations?
Do you operate with redundancy in your personal support systems?
Does an emphasis on continuous operations create unsustainable expectations?
INTEGRATION
When it comes to integrating with other entities (external organizations, command posts at different echelons, or multi-national teams), the ‘who’ of the integration is potentially more important than the ‘how’.
The US Army, focused on how to develop command posts that integrate and connect to multi-national forces, cares deeply about maximizing the benefit of allies and minimizing the complexity that comes from multiple forces or teams operating in limited space. This is accomplished through structured processes and having the right people in integrator roles.
1-54. Personnel nominated to fill multinational augmentation billets possess the following attributes:
Knowledge, confidence, and forcefulness.
Professionalism, character, and commitment.
The preparedness to represent their nations and units.
The understanding of the fact that they are the de facto country “experts.”
The ability to work as part of a multinational team without country parochialism.
Prioritizing effective liaison relationships and processes is critical to create alignment and build trust.
1-56. Regardless of the command structure, effective liaison is vital in any multinational force. Using a liaison is an invaluable confidence-building tool between the multinational force and subordinate commands.
Liaison relationships, whether via human, system, or process integration, must accomplish two-way information flow. If you have liaison relationships in your command posts that only facilitate the outbound flow of information then you must question if the integration is properly structured.
1-57. A liaison supplies significant information for the multinational force headquarters about subordinate force readiness, training, and other factors. Early establishment reduces the fog and friction caused by incompatible communications systems, doctrine, and operating procedures.
Secrecy is a source of complexity. Endeavor to have command posts that are open and transparent.
1-71. Every multinational operation is different and so are the ways that the force collects and disseminates information and intelligence. Classification presents a problem in releasing information but keeping as much unclassified as possible improves interoperability, trust, and operational effectiveness in the multinational force.
1-72. Early information sharing during planning ensures that multinational force requirements are clearly stated, guidance supports the commander’s intent, and that multinational force uses procedures supportable by other nations.
What do you need from your command post?
How do these needs evolve as your responsibilities grow?
Questions for Individual Reflection
Is situational understanding more valuable than decision speed? When and why?
Should CEOs embed themselves in operational centers during major initiatives or does this undermine other leaders?
Should multinational corporations adopt lead nation models or does this stifle innovation from diverse markets?
Should your personal command post mirror your professional one or do they require different designs?
How do you prevent your command post from becoming an echo chamber?
Professional Discussion Prompts
When does coordination become bureaucracy that stifles agility?
How do you ensure continuity when key executives are unavailable?
How do you structure liaison functions between business units without creating overhead?
What information flows into your command post that you wish didn't? What's missing?
How do you test whether your command post is providing accurate situational awareness?
Personal Discussion Prompts
Where is your personal command post and what sacred elements does it contain?
How do you maintain your personal command post when traveling or under stress?
How do you prevent your personal command post from becoming a place of isolation?
How do you ensure your personal command post serves your values and not just your schedule?
What's the most important piece of your command post that others don't see?
Exercises
Command Post Audit
Exercise:
Each participant sketches their current business command post (physical space, information systems, key personnel)
Partners interview each other about what's working and what's missing
Redesign the command post based on military principles from the text
Debrief:
What assumptions about your command post were challenged?
Which military command post functions are you neglecting?
What would you change about your command post tomorrow?
Command Post Scalability Test
Exercise:
Start with command post designed for current business size
Rapidly scale to 3x current size while maintaining command effectiveness
Must evolve command post architecture without losing core capabilities
Debrief:
What command post elements broke first under scaling pressure?
How did you maintain personal command effectiveness while expanding?
What would you build into your command post architecture to enable scaling?
Feel free to borrow this with pride and use with your teams, professionally or personally. If you do, please let me know how it went and tips for improvement: matt @ borrowingwithpride.com