It is good to be humble.
It is good for your audiences to know when your organization is right and good.
When your organization isn’t as perfect as the public expects it to be, or when an individual fails to meet your organization’s expectation, remind your public how great, precise, measured, true, thoughtful, righteous, humane, intelligent, skilled, competent, trustworthy, valorous, heroic and humble your organization is.
The way we (the Department of Defense) communicate the horribly unfortunate circumstance of civilian casualties is an example. Despite being the most precise military in the history of the world, U.S. airstrikes sometimes kill civilians. Anytime U.S. strikes kill civilians, the U.S. acknowledges it publicly. The right way to acknowledge this is in the context of the immense precision and care that goes into each and every strike.
The wrong way is to forget the context and only talk about our mistakes.
Secretary Mattis does humility well (in context). When taking questions about Yemen, Secretary Mattis referred to what he called, “a much larger issue,” which is “people are being held to a standard today that warfare can seldom permit achieving. “We are being held to a standard – ‘we’ being us and anyone associated with us – that has never been achieved before in warfare,” he said. More on all that from the Washington Post, here.
This isn’t spinning. This is telling the truth. The whole truth has context to create understanding.
Sexual assault is another tough issue that the military communicates about. Despite being the most disciplined and intelligent military in the history of the world, some members of our organization choose to commit sexual assault. Our defense leaders emphasize the existing military culture and the fact that sexual assault doesn’t fit into that. Read this as, “Sexual assault and DoD are discordant. They simply don’t fit together.” The right way to acknowledge the problem is in the context of the strong and admirable culture of the military.
The wrong way is to forget the context and only talk about our mistakes.
Elizabeth Van Winkle, acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, does humility well (in context). “It’s problematic behaviors [sexual assault] that are unacceptable in the military community and certainly against our values.”
This isn’t spinning. This is telling the truth. The whole truth has context to create understanding.
Humility is great until your audiences forgets how great you are.
Don’t screw with me on this.
Don’t forget to say you’re sorry.
