ABSTRACT
The operating theaters that soldiers face today are characterized by greater complexity than ever before. Changes in the global environment have led to an increase in asymmetric threats, growth in joint and coalition based military activities, and a shift to effects based operations. To succeed in these environments, not only do missions require the coordination between different branches of the military, the missions often require coordination and collaboration with military units and non-governmental organizations of various countries. These missions while combining elevated levels of interoperability and jointness that rely on a shared situational awareness (Warne et al., 2004) are also characterized by dynamism, ambiguity, and time pressure which serve to challenge team decision making as military teams face an enemy who is extremely adaptive in its use of unconventional warfare. Despite the increased complexity which characterizes such environments, leadership and decision-making activities are being pushed down to increasing lower levels than ever before in attempts to adaptively and flexibly respond to an unconventional enemy. The complexity of such environments is illustrated by the following blog from a soldier in Iraq (see Burden, 2006):
While the situation above illustrates the complexity present in many military environments, complexity within operating environments is not limited to the military, but appears in many public and private organizations (e.g., development teams, mission control teams, medical teams, SWAT teams). In today’s operating environment teams often operate in situations where cognitive demands can be overwhelming, leading to stress and corresponding catastrophic errors (see below).
