There’s been plenty said about starting with why, some say Simon Sinek changed their lives. Let’s not go that far.
In any useful organization that considers information important, you’ll want to take action with speed and accuracy. Possibly one of my faults (and attributes) is the incessant need to take action.
Technically PAOs do things well. We are well (enough) trained to hold a press, engage the media, write a press release, on and on. We develop messages to support our commands and get good guidance from higher headquarters and DoD.
When it comes time to take action, to do one of the things above, we are ready to go- Ready to execute and be pretty successful.
The key, though, is before we start prepping of drafting, before we decide which messages we will use, we gotta determine why we’re doing it. What are we trying to achieve?
As the spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan, I tweeted. I sparred with Taliban spokesman, Taliban propagandists, political entities and common social media influencers. Often an event occurred or situation developed which drove me to tweet…to take action. I’m a pretty good tweeter so I was always ready to go. Luckily, I worked closely with a guy who always remembered to ask why.
I’d be furiously typing on my phone and thinking of the best, most witty response I could muster and he’d ask the right question. What do we expect to accomplish?
Often my tweets, media engagements and overall actions were much different when I focused my effort on achieving a purpose rather than simply taking action. I was more efficient, focused and comprehensible because I had purpose.
Now go and do likewise.
Photo by Sgt. Katelyn Hunter
