Way too often people see complex situations and confuse them with complicated ones. In reality, though, complexity is best countered by simplicity. At a first glance this may look like a contradiction, but it can work.

Complexity does not automatically translate into complicated. Complicated systems or processes may be nothing else but a series of simple tasks, purely a large number of them. They may be simple and well-functioning, or chaotic and difficult to control. If you want the military to be able to function "like a well-oiled machine" then this can work with a few simple rules. As long as communication flow is unambiguous, swift and consistent, management requirements are reduced and tasks can be accomplished in a decentralized manner.

Complex projects (sometimes even simple ones) get complicated if there are no standards and no rules, therefore requiring that each situation be individually interpreted by the person encountering it. Scheduling for completing "WBS Phase 1" may be done differently than scheduling for "WBS Phase 2", and suppliers may define milestones to mean something different altogether. Coordination is then not done through systems (see Key 2 above) but needs to be achieved through people and a massive increase in communication. Overhead increases and so does the number of meetings and the coordination effort.