My boss doesn’t tweet a lot … or ever, but Twitter is one place where he likes to get his news.
We listen.
Three days a week my dudes brief to inform the command on the information environment. We focus on conveying news topics that affect our resources, approvals, authorities or operational support. We are the news experts and therefore can efficiently explain the topics in the information environment that affect those things.
My boss gets much of his news from Twitter. So do we.
He reads BBC, Al Jazeera and the major western newspapers. So do we.
He follows regional locals to get an on-the-ground perspective. So do we.
Here’s the thing: we don’t read those things in order to sound like we know what we’re talking about, or to look good or whatever. Reading the same thing my boss does gives us an opportunity to expand the conversation.
Often PAOs feel failure when their boss reads an article they didn’t. It’s true, you did fail. The failure is not in the fact that you missed the article, it’s in the fact that you missed the opportunity.
When the boss and and our team both read the most recent BBC article that we care about, we have the opportunity to tease out this particular author’s perspective. We can read and discuss other articles related to the same topic. We can use our shared knowledge of this article to open up discussion on topics important to our command.
Go on the offensive. Understand what your boss is reading and read it. Ask him about it first. “Hey boss, did you see that article on BBC about the online activists who are raging against the Syria’s chemical weapons strikes? There’s more to the story. Western journalists picked up on it and asked DoD for comment. Easy response, but thought you should know, the issue has made it to the Pentagon.”
Who’s on Twitter reading BBC now bitch?
Photo by Robert Timmons
