Time to wake up and realize what’s going on. Public affairs professionals, we are not in a good place. Department of Defense communication is holistically in bad shape. Our inability to do our jobs will have adverse effects on our country. Blame “them” or fix this.
Who is “them”? Pick your poison: it’s whoever you usually blame for your own problems, lack of access and lackluster reputation. If you’re the kind of professional who’s wrapped up in outsourcing your issues, then you have a “them” and you are not seeking or taking responsibility.
The Air Force is under a (likely misunderstood) gag order. The Army and Marine Corps Public Affairs branches are led by non-public affairs people. Commanders everywhere have little understanding of what we do and don’t feel comfortable supporting us doing it.
Blame “them” or fix this.
I’ve been in enough senior public affairs meetings and talked with enough public affairs people to know our field likes to blame “them.”
We’ve all heard it: “It’s clearly not our fault.” “These decisions aren’t made with our input.” “Our commander’s don’t give us the right support.” “Our branch leaders have pure good intentions but lack the depth of experience and longevity to fix us.” “They don’t allow us a seat at the table.” “We are over-supervised despite our position as delineated in joint and service doctrine.” “They don’t understand.”
If only “they” understood.
Stop blaming “them.”
A public affairs mentor addressed this issue to a group of young professionals. His advice: “Do a good job.” He said you could pull out the doctrine, but that doesn’t help. You could complain (and we do), but that won’t fix things. He told us that if you do great work, you will get the proper level of supervision and influence your organization. If you are clearly the expert, you will be treated like one.
It’s amazing what happens when you focus on the mission.
I’m telling you from my personal experience and from watching others, doing your job well works. I’ve had bosses that don’t like or support public affairs (or me) … but they eventually let me do my job. I’ve taken over for public affairs officers who were over-supervised and eventually relieved … after enough great work I returned public affairs to a position of greatness. I could blame “them” because it was “their” fault but it doesn’t matter, it’s up to me (and you) to fix it.
Look around. In this era of fake news, decreased transparency and public risk aversion your profession is at stake. The public affairs apparatus is important to our nation and democracy. Blame “them” or fix it.
