The under-funded and forgotten parts of your organization know the Public Affairs Office is an internal, free-of-charge way to highlight their potential, and publicly lobby your commander and higher headquarters


The under-funded and forgotten parts of your organization know the Public Affairs Office is an internal, free-of-charge way to highlight their potential, and publicly lobby your commander and higher headquarters

From time to time, I run into PAOs desperate to “add value” to their organization. Sometimes, their unit is changing and the PAO is trying to keep up and change

Sometimes, people passing me during a run will call out a polite, “On your left,” before they go by. Smart word choice, right? Just enough words to help me understand

GoodmorningSir. I’manempoweredbadge-wearingmemberofyourorganization. I’mnowgoingtoreadyousomewordsfromapieceofpaper. ThisisabriefIwastoldtogivethismorning. ThisscriptwasreviewedseveraltimesbyvariousstaffleaderssoIamnotgoingtodeviatefromit. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. IonlywrotelikethirtyperentofthecontentI’mbriefingrightnow. Theyremovedsomeofthemostimportantinformationfrommyscriptbecauseweweren’tsureiftheG2hadseenthatinformationyet, oriftheyagreedwithmyassessment. Wedon’twantyoutoknowtwoprofessionalstaffelementscouldpotentiallyhavedifferentperspectivesonacomplicatedtopic. Blahblahblahblahblahblah. Thisscriptwasapproved24hoursagosomostoftheinformationisoutofdate. Blahblahblahblah. Areyoulistening? It’shardtotellbecauseIdon’twanttotakemyeyesofmyscript. Blahblah. MaybeI’llsneakonepeek. Itlookslikeyou’rejusttalkingtotheCommandSergeantMajoratthefronttablewhileI’mbriefing. Maybethat’sforthebest. NowIcanjustgetthroughthisfasterandhopefullyyouwon’thaveanyquestions. Mysupervisorsdidn’ttellmewhattodoifyouaskanyquestionsorwanttohaveadiscussion. Thatisn’tinmyscript. Thiscould’vebeenane-mail. Blahblahblah. Pendingyourquestions. (Photo by Pfc. Andrew Valenza,

You know we love Seth’s Blog around here. Earlier today, he wrote this. Apply this to our work, for our government, to protect America. When there’s no profit to maximize,

‘”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

This guest post comes from one of our dedicated readers, Chase Spears, with a different take on a topic we’ve covered before. We created MaxDisclosure because we felt a professional

Dear Bureaucrat, It’s me, your Public Affairs Officer. I know you don’t understand my role in this organization yet, but you will. What I’m about to say is going to

Teams and units become elite, and develop absolute trust, when they execute the basics to perfection. Combat soldiers must be able to hit a target with their weapon and communicate

Conductors are silent. They stand in front of the orchestra and give direction, but they don’t actually make any music. The drummer is also directing their band: giving cues and