Sure, we all know the 5 Ws. Good communicators start with why, then spill out the who, what, when and where in precedence of the amount each W lends to understanding.
Example: When I get or give a report about something in the news, I have to check each W box in my head. Way too often we assume and leave out a W or two. Never assume, take the two seconds to ensure understanding.
Day one shit, right? Here’s the Day Two shit, as described by our command’s ops officer:
Think of communicating to leaders and subordinates in terms of 7 Ws. The last two:
6. What are you doing about it? Each morning our command converges on a Daily Summary. Everyone reads it and the commander nearly always comments on it. Our subordinate commanders, working with their intel folks, will state an issue, a problem or an observation using some version of 5 Ws. Great. What the organization really needs to know is, what are you going to do about it?
Public Affairs Guy: “Sir, we have a really bad story coming out in the New York Times on Friday, it’s about this thing that happened in our command, regarding so-and-so.”
Commander: “…”
After several minutes he might say, “Well, what the heck are you doing about it?” Always include the 6th W.
7. What resources do you need? In the military, we seem to always want to help ourselves and never ask for help. I learned this lesson early. In Ranger School I was in charge of an extremely long patrol; it would be impossible to walk to our objective by daybreak. I planned the mission doomed for failure, ready to walk through the mountains all night just to fail. Why didn’t I ask for air, or trucks?
Nowadays, as I move around the battlefield with my commander he tells subordinates, “Make sure you ask for stuff. Ask for anything that you need. Don’t be afraid to ask for things because I want you to go into the mission at an advantage.”
We often convince ourselves that asking shows weakness or dependence. We convince ourselves that asking is fruitless. There’s one way to ensure you won’t get something you need: don’t ask. Tell your subordinates and superiors the 7th W – what you need to get the mission done.
Seven Ws, guys. Now go and do likewise.
Photo by Staff Sgt. Sarah Nadeau
