Procedure as to Entries. When a report, a plan, a dispatch, or other pertinent item is received, its applicable content may first be entered on the chart (or charts) maintained by the commander (or by his staff). Thereafter the usual procedure would be an entry in the journal, followed by a corresponding entry in the work sheet. The document so received and recorded would then be placed in the journal file. This procedure is subject to proper variation, as desired. Immediate entry of data on the chart enables the commander and staff to study the implications of the item, without waiting for completion of routine clerical work.
Outgoing messages, instructions, etc., after approval or signature by the commander, are handled by a similar routine. Where applicable, such routine involves appropriate entry on the chart, in the journal, and in the work sheet. The routine of entry is preferably based on a copy (or copies), in order to avoid delay in dispatch.
Staff Organization and Functioning. The commander may desire important documents to be handed to him at once, on receipt. He may, of course, call for them at any time. He naturally will not, however, permit any unnecessary delay to occur in the usual routine disposition of such items. The routine exists to assist him, and its arbitrary disruption, if he has properly defined the essential routine in the first instance, cannot but work to his disadvantage.
Few things are more disturbing to the functioning of a staff than undue eccentricity on the part of the commander or of senior members of the staff. For instance, a personal habit to be rigorously suppressed—a habit not infrequently in evidence, especially under strain of active operations—is that of absent-mindedly pocketing documents needed in the work under way. This subject might, but for limitations of space, be illustrated by numerous other examples whose homely character may not safely be permitted to detract from their considered importance to unity of effort.
Where circumstances permit, it is desirable that incoming and outgoing items be reproduced in quantity sufficient to supply separate copies for the commander and for the several interested members of his staff.
A competent staff brings to the commander's attention all the items necessary—but only those necessary—for his proper performance of his duties. Inordinate attention by the commander to unnecessary detail cannot but tend to distract his attention from his proper duties.
The importance of smooth and effective functioning of a staff emphasizes the need for an established, though flexible, procedure. Such procedure, if reasonably standardized, facilitates unity of action, not only within staffs, but also among the several commanders, and their staffs, throughout the chain of command.
The same fundamentals apply as to staff organization. If proper functioning of staffs is generally understood, and if staffs are correctly organized to perform their functions, the basis for their sound organization will become a matter of general understanding. Such organization, so understood, becomes a powerful influence in behalf of unity of effort.
Staff functions—i.e., characteristic activities of staffs—divide fundamentally into two classifications. These may be referred to, for convenience of terminology, as "general" and "special".
The latter have to do with the characteristic operations of the command, rather than of the commander; they therefore relate to such matters as routine administration and to the technical aspects of movement, of the use of weapons, and of supply, sanitation, and hospitalization. The administrative, technical, and supply staff, thus broadly considered, may be said to be concerned with special functions relating to the operations of the command.