Your understanding of a mission command shows mastery. You view it as a way the army uses to execute commands and control where the subordinates are allowed to make and execute decisions to handle a situation they face. I agree with you that shared understanding, as a mission command principle, helps prevent a single point of failure.
Using your approach, we can also prevent a single point of failure through trust and adaption. According to the Army Leadership Requirement Model of DO, KNOW, and BE, building trust is a requirement of a leader, and adapting is expected. According to Master Sgt. Tolman (2020), trust is established through competence. Having a competent team guarantees success. Tolman recalls success achieved by rangers led by Lt. Ralph against Chinese forces, and he believed that it was entirely based on the trust they had in their training. Trust in their training made them competent enough to defend their country. Competence is the most important principle here. If the team members are competent enough, they can handle whatever situation may arise. Even when surprising matters come up in the field. When a leader trusts his team, he can delegate duties to them. In this case, he leaves decision making to them. Since the team is in the field and understands the environment better, they can adapt and achieve their leader’s goal. As a leader, it is, therefore, important to foster competition among all team members. For instance, there are daily training meetings in my unit to ensure that every member can get around a situation no matter the difficulty.
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References
Master Sgt. Tolman, N. F. (2020). Mission Command: A Senior Enlisted Leader’s Perspective
