In armies throughout history the generals strategized, gave commands and then exercised a minimal amount of control.  They monitor the results and make adjustments at a very senior level, operating through their colonels and other officers.  They in turn exercised their power of command through subordinates.  Gradually the details of what must be done are translated into controlling orders at the level of the troops in action.  The general exercises total command.  Below the general are varying degrees of command mixed with control until you reach the bottom of the hierarchy where it is all about control.  Creativity is seldom exercised.  In fact in most military organizations a failure to follow orders is a punishable offence under military law.  Creativity is actively stifled.

Businesses have taken on the military model of command and control.  In fact most businesses are structured in a hierarchy from top to bottom with direction being provided by the CEO and increasingly greater control exercised all the way down the ladder to the shop floor.  There should be little wonder why creativity is so difficult to encourage in today's companies. 

Command and control is a way to stifle creativity.  The greater the control element is exercised the less room remains for creative interpretation and expression.  We all hate to be micro-managed.  It gets in our way and prevents us from doing our jobs to the best of our ability.  That is excessive control. 

Look at what has happened in response to overly controlling business.  By "controlling" costs (something that I believe is an oxymoron) we have stifled creativity.  If it costs more it must be bad so any idea that might increase costs, even if it will lead to cost reduction elsewhere, is a hard sell.  The farther out the savings will be realized the harder the sell.  The shakier the data on which the idea is based the harder the sell.  There are times when we "just know" that something is the right thing to do but we can't justify it using cost analysis and other conventional means of gaining approvals.  Those ideas tend to be still-born.  We are controlling too much. 

Control robs people of the empowerment to make choices for themselves.  Too much control and people stop trying.  Effectively this shuts down the brainpower in most of your organization.  Yet that isn't what we really want is it?   We want those ideas.

Why not use command, without the control?  As executives and managers why not use less control?  Even today's generals are realizing that action on a fast paced battlefield requires rapid on-the-spot and in-the-moment decision making.  In WW2, General George Patton (US Army) used to say, "Never tell people how to do things.  Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity".  He also said, "If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking".  General Patton was a winner.   Perhaps we can learn a bit about command from him.  He didn't control.

Today's workplace is getting very challenging.  We can't find enough skilled trades to replace those who are retiring.  Our workforce will shrink as a result.  If we continue to work as we always have we will continue to get the same results.  Of course that's only true if we can sustain the size and skill of our workforce.  We can't, so we must work differently.  We need to find ways of unleashing the latent talent of our organizations so that the problems we are encountering can be solved creatively.  We need to shift to command from command and control.  Companies that continue to control excessively will ultimately suffer the fate of armies that rely heavily on a single leader.  Without the head they die.  In business, with only one head you die.

Teams, in particular autonomous self-managing teams, unleash the power of many heads.  Company leadership still sets the direction - gives the commands, telling people what to do.  It's then up to the teams, the people in those teams, to determine how to do it.  Switching to command means setting direction, leading and then stepping aside to let the people who work for you surprise you with their ingenuity.