text: Chapter 2
  Commander and Staff Roles and Responsibilities
  This chapter examines the roles, needs, and guidance of the commander in
  information collection activities. This chapter then discusses the role of the staff.
  Lastly, this chapter discusses the working group’s input to information collection.
  THE COMMANDER’S ROLE
  2-1. Commanders understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess operations. Understanding is
  fundamental to the commander’s ability to establish the situation’s context. Understanding involves
  analyzing and understanding the operational or mission variables in a given operational environment. It is
  derived from applying judgment to the common operational picture (COP) through the filter of the
  commander’s knowledge and experience.
  2-2. Numerous factors determine the commander’s depth of understanding. Information collection and the
  resulting intelligence products help the commander understand the area of operations (AO). Formulating
  commander’s critical information requirements (CCIRs) and keeping them current also contributes to this
  understanding. Maintaining understanding is a dynamic ability; a commander’s situational understanding
  changes as an operation progresses.
  2-3. The commander participates in information collection planning. The commander directs information
  collection activities by—
  * Asking the right questions to focus the efforts of the staff.
  * Knowing the enemy. Personal involvement and knowledge have no substitutes.
  * Stating the commander’s intent clearly and decisively designating CCIRs.
  * Understanding the information collection assets and resources to exploit the assets’ full
  effectiveness.
  2-4. Commanders prioritize collection activities by providing their guidance and commander’s intent
  early in the planning process. Commanders must—
  * Identify and update CCIRs.
  * Tie CCIRs directly to the scheme of maneuver and decision points.
  * Limit CCIRs to only the commander’s most critical needs (because of limited collection assets).
  * Aggressively seek higher echelons’ collection of, and answers to, the information requirements.
  * Ensure CCIRs include the latest time information is of value (LTIOV) or the event by which the
  information is required.
  2-5. The commander may also identify essential elements of friendly information (EEFI). The EEFI are
  not CCIRs. EEFI establish friendly information to protect and not enemy information to obtain. However,
  the commander may need to determine if the enemy has learned EEFI. In this case, finding this out can
  become a CCIR. (See ADRP 5-0 for detailed information on EEFI.)
  2-6. Commanders ensure that both intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) and information
  collection planning are integrated staff efforts. Every staff member plays an important role in both tasks.
  The chief of staff or executive officer ensures all staff members participate in and provide their functional
  expertise into the IPB process and information collection planning, preparation, execution, and assessment.
  Full staff engagement in these activities supports planning and helps facilitate the commander’s
  visualization and understanding.
  2-7. Information collection planning and assessment must be continuous. Commanders properly assign
  information collection tasks based on the unit’s abilities to collect. Therefore, commanders match their
  information requirements so they do not exceed the information collection and analytical ability of their
  unit. When not using organic assets, commanders use habitual relationships to optimize effective operations
  as a combined arms team when possible.