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Media Relations

Newsletter 09-11
December 2008

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Chapter 3: Getting Our Message Out

Section III
Becoming an Effects-Based Communicator

LTG William B. Caldwell, IV

Note: Based on an address by LTG William B. Caldwell, IV, Commander, Combined Arms Center to the Worldwide Public Affairs Symposium, March 2008.

You should understand that a couple of years back, when I got the word that I was going to be the primary spokesman in Iraq my initial thought was, "I'm an operator and I'm really not interested in being a game show host." 

But the 13 months I spent as the spokesman in Iraq not only changed me as a communicator, but changed me as a leader more than any other job I have had in the Army.

I have gained a real understanding and respect for the difficulty of the job the Army continuously asks you to do. Telling the story of the United States Army and our Soldiers is not only a noble calling, but in today's information environment, it is essential to the success of our mission and to the overall success of our nation in this era of persistent conflict.

I want to speak about what it takes to be effects-based communicators. In doing this I hope to say a few things today that will challenge you to think outside of your traditional public affairs officer (PAO) skill set. What I mean is this-if your idea of being a successful public affairs officer can be boiled down to writing news releases, visiting the local mayor, dusting off the occasional responses to query, and recycling the plan for last year's Fourth of July celebration, then you are obsolete. And if we, the Army's senior leaders, do not see our public affairs professionals as an essential combat multiplier, then we are stuck in the mentality of the '90s and will also quickly become obsolete.

There is a reason that commanders like me have reached out almost desperately to understand the strategic communication concept. Today's commanders understand that reactive public affairs provides no real added value toward the accomplishment of our missions. In order to be effective in our operations, we need the ability for our communications to be proactive or as we call it, "effects-based communication." 

Today I want to share four tools with you for your public affairs toolbox that I feel will help you become an "effects-based communicator." 

Tool 1: Be an Active Listener

If you think back to your basic communication theory classes, you will remember that in order to communicate you must have a sender, a receiver, and that you split about half of your time sending a message and the other half receiving a message.

This means that to be effective communicators, we need to dedicate 50 percent of our communication effort to active listening.

Do not underestimate the importance of stopping to listen. As a PAO, you need to know what the word is on the street. Listen to what is being said and read what is written about your organization. From listening, comes understanding, because you need to understand your audience if you are going to be able to effectively communicate to them.

This concept of listening should also include reading-consume everything that you lay your hands on to gain a more well-rounded view of the topics that affect your command.

In an attempt to be a better listener, every now and then, you need to un-tether yourself from your e-mail. Step away from the desk, and go out and listen to others, both inside and outside of your organization. That is why I take my director for strategic communications everywhere with me.

Of course, it is not enough to just listen, but you need to capture and use those best practices and lessons learned. For instance, as part of our Combined Arms Center engagement strategy, we recently took a trip to New York City, arguably the center of the news media universe. But we made it a point to spend half of our time listening and learning. Following the New York City trip, my team returned with new ideas and corporate best practices that they used to restructure our StratComm Office. Our new organizational structure more closely replicates a collaborative organization as opposed to the traditional hierarchical structure.

So being an active listener is critical.

Tool 2: Be an Adaptive Learner

This leads us into the second tool I believe you need in your public affairs toolbox, which is to be an adaptive learner.

To be an adaptive learner implies continuously assessing your strengths and weaknesses and recognizing the most effective means to improving your ability to become a better communicator. This is not an easy or painless process. Much of this learning results from painful lessons and new and unfamiliar experiences.

Experiences like those that I had when the 82nd Airborne was called in to conduct relief efforts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. I have to admit it was uncomfortable and unfamiliar terrain. However, I had a great PAO who encouraged me and prepared me to operate in this foreign environment (yes, foreign even in the United States). What made her effective was her ability to help me build on my strengths, recognize my weaknesses, and learn from each engagement. Although it was uncomfortable at first, the more engagements I performed, the more I was able to adapt to new and changing environments.

These experiences and those from Iraq were so important and influential to me that I felt it was necessary to build opportunities for our majors at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC).

Today, every CGSC student must conduct at least one media engagement, one public outreach, and must post at least one blog. Notice I said "at least." What I would hope is that they see the tremendous benefit of doing these engagements and learn from each opportunity to share their story.

What we are finding are these students are embracing their abilities to be adaptive learners and are better able to articulate our Army's story.

Tool 3: Be a Creative Thinker

Being an adaptive learner and an active listener are only part of the equation. With so many messages floating around so many mediums, how do we as an Army get our message across? One of the keys to reaching your target audience is my next tool for your toolbox. You need to be a creative thinker.

As an effects-based communicator, you need to understand and be able to articulate to your boss, "What is the desired end state?" of every planned engagement. One of the questions my team asks me during preparation for a media visit is, "What is the headline you want to see in tomorrow's newspaper?" Thinking this way helps focus me in on those messages that will hopefully provide the context that will help frame the way the story is told.

Another aspect of creative thinking is understanding whom you are talking to. When you are talking to the New York Times, you should not be talking to the reporter but instead be talking through the reporter to your audience.

There is no better example of this than my recent experience with "The Daily Show." When we were invited to share about Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations, on "The Daily Show," I must admit, I was less than convinced that we should do it. It was not until the Army's chief of public affairs reminded me of Jon Stewart's primary audience, an audience of men and women between the age of 17 and 35, the most attractive advertising demographic and, coincidentally, the same demographic as our Soldiers. He reminded me that our Soldiers more than anyone needed to understand the importance of FM 3-0, and this clearly was a golden opportunity to reach them.

Not only is it important to understand our audience in America, but it is also critically important to understand the audience where we are operating. For example, in Iraq, I believe we had surrendered the information battlefield to the enemy in the Arabic media. When I arrived, we were doing two separate news conferences each week. One on a Wednesday for the Western press and one on Sunday, several days later for the Arabic press using the same news information for both. Because of this realization, we decided to think creatively and seek alternate methods to reach out to this key and essential audience.

Along with developing creative ways to deliver our messages and understanding the audiences we are delivering them to, we need to understand that traditional news outlets are losing valuable air time to new media outlets. Blogs, YouTube, Wikipedia, and podcasts are frequently becoming the news source of choice for many people. As effects-based communicators, you need to be in tune with this new media. Embrace these changes and learn to creatively and actively deliver our messages using these new communication portals.

Tool 4: Be a Global Communicator

Tied closely to this discussion on new media and blogging is my fourth and last tool for your toolbox today-you need to be a global communicator.

As Soldiers, we understand the maximum effective range of our primary weapons systems and exactly what that means.

With the emphasis on information as an element of combat power, we need to understand that, the maximum effective range of a message is unlimited. All communications have the potential to be global, and we need to expect that our messages will be heard and understood in multiple countries, in many different languages, and more important, through many various cultural filters. Always think through the implications of your messages and how they will be interpreted on a global scale. Remember that in many parts of the world, an American Soldier will be the only contact that many people will have with our great nation. Where before we had the "strategic corporal," today we have the "strategic private." 

A tactical action on the battlefield today can have strategic consequences in living rooms tomorrow. Understanding this dynamic is critical to how we operate in this "information battle space." 

We also must understand the power of language and the words we choose to say.

Understanding how to communicate globally also implies we must be culturally astute and understand the importance of training and transitioning not only combat forces, but also spokespersons for the countries we are assisting. These spokespersons, much like you, can become combat multipliers if resourced, trained, and empowered properly.

We saw this first hand in Iraq when training the Government of Iraq (GOI) communication teams. It was actually easier to get a GOI rep for these new conferences than a State Department rep.

This is why it is imperative that we take a whole of government approach not only for contingency operations, but also for strategic communication if we truly want to be effective global communicators.

If we are to take this comprehensive approach, then I can see a time in the future when perhaps in the Defense Information School there is a metamorphosis into something like the National Center for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, allowing our government to train and educate to speak with one voice. Simply put, "many messengers, but one message." 

In closing, never before in the history of our country has your vital mission been more important than it is today. Never before have the people in this room had the ability to impact and protect our national interests more than you do today.

To seize this opportunity, your call to action today is to transform yourselves to become effects-based communicators, who are active listeners, adaptive learners, creative thinkers, and global communicators.