ATTP 5-0.1 Commander and Staff Officer Guide - Army Electronic ...

Chapter 2
The Staff
This chapter describes the staff, their responsibilities, characteristics, and
relationships as well as the importance of building staff teams. The chapter also
outlines the basic staff structure common to all headquarters followed by a discussion
of the common duties and responsibilities of all staff sections. The chapter concludes
by describing the duties and responsibilities of specific coordinating, special, and
personal staff officers by area of expertise.
STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES
2-1. Staffs support commanders, assist subordinate units, and inform units and organizations outside the
headquarters. The staff operates the commander’s mission command system by supporting the commander,
assisting subordinate units, and informing units and organizations outside the headquarters.
� Support the commander.
� Assist subordinate units.
� Inform units and organizations outside the headquarters.
SUPPORT THE COMMANDER
2-2. Staffs support the commander in understanding situations, making and implementing decisions,
controlling operations, and assessing progress. They make recommendations and prepare plans and orders
for the commander. Staff products consist of timely and relevant information and analysis. Staffs use
knowledge management to extract that information from the vast amount of available information (see
FM 6-01.1). They synthesize this information and provide it to commanders in the form of running
estimates (see Chapter 6) to help commanders build and maintain their situational understanding.
2-3. Staffs communicate information to subordinates for execution. Commanders often personally
disseminate their commander’s intent and planning guidance. They rely on their staffs to communicate the
majority of it in the form of plans and orders (see Chapter 12). Staffs communicate the commander’s
decisions—and the intent behind them—throughout the force.
2-4. Finally, each staff section provides control over its area of expertise within the commander’s intent.
While commanders make key decisions, they are not the only decisionmakers. Trained, trusted staff
members, given decisionmaking authority based on the commander’s intent, free commanders from routine
decisions, enabling commanders to focus on key aspects of the operations. These staff members support
and advise the commander by assisting the commander within their area of expertise.
ASSIST SUBORDINATE UNITS
2-5. Effective staffs establish and maintain a high degree of coordination and cooperation with staffs of
higher, lower, supporting, supported, and adjacent units. They do this by actively collaborating and
dialoging with commanders and staffs of other units to solve problems.
INFORM UNITS AND ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE THE HEADQUARTERS
2-6. The staff keeps civilian organizations informed with relevant information according to their security
classification as well as their need to know. As soon as a staff receives information and determines its
relevancy, the staff passes that information to the appropriate headquarters. The key is relevance, not
volume. Masses of data are worse than meaningless data; they inhibit mission command by distracting
14 September 2011 ATTP 5-0.1 2-1