Are you breaking the chain? Published July 29, 2006 By Lt. Col. Scott Hoover 60th Civil Engineer Squadron commander TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- For those of you whom I have not had the pleasure to meet, Hello! I'm Scott Hoover, the new 60th Civil Engineer Squadron commander and I don’t read email. Sounds like someone joining a new support group doesn't it? My animosity toward this cancer is not based in commonly heard complaints. It is frequently used to violate a mission-critical military principle. We hear complaints about the "task passed, task completed" nature of some e-mail senders. The sender fires a note, assumes the intent is clearly understood and in fact the task has already begun! I have heard laments that e-mail can stretch a one minute conversation over four days and still lack the appropriate sense of urgency. Still others complain that e-mail's ubiquitous nature forces re-write after re-write...lest we offend. Finally, the "let's cc the entire world" risk-adverse approach fills our inboxes. "I sent an email concerning the pending nuclear disaster. Didn't you read it?" Sorry, I lost it between Bob's flyer and my missed appointment.” While annoying, these are not the basis for my passionate dislike for e-mail. Frequently, this innocuous tool is used to circumvent the chain of command. It starts innocently with a "Just e-mail me that file, will you please?" Before you know it, routine practices involve higher echelon leadership bypassing lower or good-intending executive officers tasking personnel directly. Data flows everywhere all the time. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not good. Data is not information - merely the source. Data overload breaks the chain of command. I just completed a year in Iraq with over 12,000 US Army soldiers. Despite the service cultural differences, I re-learned a valuable lesson from our brethren in green. The chain of command is an elegant yet simple tool used to communicate the commander's intent to lower echelon personnel and to provide a feedback loop for decision makers. It is the fundamental communication infrastructure of the military. This infrastructure is built of people. It is true that electronic tools possess the potential to ease our workload, disseminate information and increase communication, but just like any other weapon, they require discipline. When you remove the electronic communication weapons, the basic military unit - Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Civilian - remains. Preserving the chain of command is not the preservation of a military nicety. It is the discipline required for a unit to carry out its assigned mission. We must steel ourselves against facilitating its erosion through overuse of electronic tools. We must recognize information must flow up and down the chain of command. If we fail in this mission, the resulting "flat" organization overwhelms leaders with data. The hamstrung mid-level leaders are not able to translate data into information. They are cut from the chain and are not empowered to execute their missions - devastating potential. Of course I exaggerate to make my point. I do read some emails-notes from my immediate chain, training reminders and appointment notifications. Therefore, as I close my offering, I hope you were entertained by my humor. Hopefully, it will cause you to hesitate before composing that next e-mail and help you preserve the chain of command. The next time you need information, pick up the phone, or better yet, go see the person--the appropriate person in the chain of command--not the direct data source. Odds are they are sitting in their office answering emails!