Shared Understanding Across Levels of Command

In any mission involving hierarchical levels of command, a key success factor is the clear communication of intent, as well as a common understanding of the ongoing situation, across echelons. In practice, however, command intent may be distorted as subordinates communicate goals downward through the chain of command. To the extent that command intent is misunderstood by subordinates, inconsistencies will exist, possibly leading to misinterpretations, inappropriate actions, and compromised mission effectiveness. Hence, the challenge of this research program is to develop measures to assess shared understanding between echelons, and ultimately, to develop tools to facilitate that understanding in the field. In this proposal, we begin by outlining our Phase I findings, including the development of a deep understanding of the fundamental principles of commander’s intent, the identification of key mitigating factors that can either facilitate or impede shared understanding, and the identification of candidate methods for assessing “sharedness.” We then outline our Phase II strategy, which will involve model validation, measures implementation, and intervention implementation. Our vision is a comprehensive system of empirically-based methods that can be applied to the challenge of measuring and improving the processes through which commander’s intent is formulated, communicated, interpreted, and acted upon.