‘”Well, Sir, the Public Affairs Office is short-staffed right now so I don’t think we’ll be able to support that request.”
Gross. Nobody wants to work with the Public Affairs Officer who makes themselves the victim. When we say things like “we’re short-staffed,” we make it clear that someone else is in control of our priorities and circumstances.
My Public Affairs team is never Short-Staffed.
But, we are often Committed To Top Priorities.
We are geographically split up to focus on different projects. Sometimes we are busy looking for and hiring the right people to fill vacant positions. Sometimes our people travel, in order to help our organization by building new opportunities and relationships. Sometimes people take leave to recharge with the family.
In those circumstances, it doesn’t matter if we’ve only got five or two or one person left in the office … the only thing that matters is if, and when, we take on proposals to create new PAG, narratives, slides or campaigns.
When we can’t, we’re direct about it, rather than play the “we’re short-staffed” card and subject our guests to our troubles.
For example, here are three possible ways to respond to the staff officer who comes into your office, asking you to make a video when you lack the time or manning to support:
- “This is a good idea. We’re committed to other priorities we need to wrap up first, but let’s schedule a white board meeting for the end of the month to sketch out a plan of action.”
- “I see the potential in this video, but I can’t say when we’ll get to it. This won’t supersede the other important projects we have coming up. This will go on our list, and when we have time, or we start to see an urgent need for a video like this, we’ll give you a call and start talking about it.”
- “This idea is never going to make it onto our team’s list of priorities. We won’t take this on, but since you are a badge-wearing member of this organization, let’s find time to sit down for 20 minutes and talk about other ways you can control this communication challenge you’re facing?”
I choose not to use the phrase “short-staffed,” just like everything my team does and doesn’t do is a choice.
We own those choices, nobody makes them for us. And when we choose to take on a new responsibility or initiative, we’ll own that as well.
(Photo by Sgt. Michael Snody, DVIDS)
