I’m listening to Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way for the second time. Why twice? Truth is, I’m out of Audible credits. But I like this book and I
I’m listening to Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way for the second time. Why twice? Truth is, I’m out of Audible credits. But I like this book and I
“Public affairs sucks, they are so slow.” “Public affairs sucks, they can only tell the truth.” “ISIS is so good at messaging, why can’t we be that good? Public affairs
Excuses shirk responsibility. Reasons accept responsibility. Excuses are stuck in the past. Reasons give our future new systems and next steps. Excuses are about you. Reasons are about the mission.
If you eat up your leaders’ bandwidth pointing out you don’t have enough people on your team, you may just be demonstrating you don’t have enough work. If you’re demanding
“Oh I’m just chippin’ away at my inbox.” – A dumbass. “Time for me to read all the news!” – Another dumbass. There are words everywhere. They are essentially all
“You think that you’re too cool for school, but I have a newsflash for you Walter Cronkite … you aren’t.” – Derek Zoolander “We get it, dude. You’re the PAO.
You can’t ask a reporter to hold a story if you’re not willing to have a conversation about context. You can’t put your commander on camera if you’re not going
Novels and movies love the build-up and payoff, right? It’s fun, and entertaining, to spend hours gathering all the pieces and then finally, surprisingly, find out how they fit together.
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,
I used to roll my eyes when I heard yet another U.S. Army senior commander or general go on about the importance of taking out the trash. “Oh boy,” I’d