I recently watched a talented friend and communicator give a briefing on content he knew really well. He was engaging, and had interesting stories to tell, too. But he used
I recently watched a talented friend and communicator give a briefing on content he knew really well. He was engaging, and had interesting stories to tell, too. But he used
I am an unapologetic fan of the Marvel movies. Remember the first one with Captain America? He became a jacked super soldier when a scientist injected him with a super
“How did I do?” -I’m not going to talk about how you did. Let’s talk about what you’ll do next time. Feedback sucks. Positive or negative, it serves no purpose.
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,
For my organization, each day begins with our primary staff stand-up in the Joint Operations Center (JOC). We discuss intelligence developments, legal actions, resources, maneuver units’ completed actions and scheduled
Only communicate in order to enable action. If you’re about to communicate for anything other than action, stop and wonder why. Even informing or making someone aware of something enables