Guide to Effective Messaging

Messaging is about managing perception, not facts. Facts are elusive things. Every event has multiple witnesses, each bringing their own points of view – their biases – to the retelling. How you shape the environment with your retelling will go a long way toward anchoring the right version in people’s memories. Messaging per doctrine Almost unnoticed in the new Field Manual 5-0, The Operations Process, is a section called “Develop Initial Information Themes and Messages.” Found in Appendix B, “The Military DecisionMaking Process” (under “Mission Analysis”), its three paragraphs ask commanders to consider how they will convey the “dominant idea or image that expresses the purpose of their military action.”1 The need for communication savvy showed up again last October in U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Pamphlet 525-3-3, The United States Army Functional Concept for Mission Command. It says that Army forces will require the “capability to engage in and communicate via multiple means – everything from social media to face-to-face encounters to influence perceptions, attitudes, sentiments and behavior of key actors and publics critical to mission success.”2 Yet neither publication gives you much to go by, apart from FM 5-0 telling you to get with the G-7/S-7 to review “higher headquarters’ products or their own work created during design.”3 This perfunctory treatment invites confusion and risks mission failure. To illustrate, consider how any town or village would perceive a traffic-control point or a cordon-and-search. They’re inconvenient, disruptive and easily interpreted as harassment. You can bet that’s what area insurgents will be saying, and if the people perceive that you and your mission are the problem, your TCP or cordon-and-search will not achieve its objective. To challenge this perception and prevent misunderstanding, you need to share why you’re there and what you’re hoping to achieve, which in this case is to enforce host-nation laws and protect – not harass – the people. This article offers a practical model for tactical commanders to meet the intent behind the 300 words in FM 5-0 and to avoid falling into avoidable traps. It has six steps:

• Understand the environment;

• Understand the audience;

• Know your goals;

• Write your messages;

• Determine how you’ll deliver your messages; and

• Develop ways to collect feedback so you know what you are doing is working. Using a matrix (Figure 1) is a good way to capture the results of each step and ensure the parts connect and make sense. Step 1: understand the environment Developing a communication plan is not very different from following the operations process – you need to make sure you’re solving the right tactical problem before you start sending rounds downrange. In many cases, communication fails because the communicator jumped into message writing too soon, “assuming away” anything that didn’t conform to a preconceived agenda. As described in FM 5-0, Step 1 should be redundant to the work completed during design (FM 5-0, Chapter 3). At minimum, know who the relevant actors are and how they relate to each A Guide to Effective Messaging by COL Thomas M. Williams Environment Audience(s) Goals Messages Delivery

MOP/MOE

Insights from design Competing messages? Steady state or crisis? Primary Composition Age Sex Education Socio-economic status Disposition Informed Hostile Uninformed Neutral or favorable Vacillating Secondary Composition Disposition Primary Inform Persuade Support Secondary Inform Persuade Support Simple declarative sentences to inform, persuade or influence toward the goal(s) Face-to-face: can include meetings, working groups or conferences Telephone calls or telephone conference calls Emails Print: newspapers, newsletters, letters, posters, flyers, ads Broadcast media Text or instant messages Social networks MOP: Send enough letters, flyers, etc. to cover the populace MOP: Those flyers made it into homes and didn’t litter the streets MOE: People acted as intended Figure 1. A matrix like this one is a good way to capture the results of each step and ensure they connect and make sense. July-August 2011 21

Your first instinct may be to provide the “bottom line up front” – to spell out the facts and let them speak for themselves. It’s what the Army trains you to do. However, if your audience looks at the same set of “facts” with disdain, you are wasting your time or perhaps making the situation worse as they attack your ignorance. Check your first instincts and set your goal(s) only after you complete your understanding. If your goal is to instill calm, know that words may be insufficient. Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presence on Sept. 11, 2001, comes to mind. Step 4: craft messages and themes Message writing is simple and has one basic rule: your messages must align with the goals you established in Step 3; they should plainly state what you want your audience to do. Beyond this rule, there are four best practices to consider:

• Write simple, declarative, short sentences;

• Write in plain English – no acronyms or jargon;

• Fewer = better; and

• Make sure you are writing for your audiences’ demographic, not your own. The last bullet means that when aging Generation X leaders write messages intended for a young Millennial audience which “sound about right,” they may be very wrong. Get someone – preferably from the targeted demographic – to “red team” messages for you. In fact, it is a good idea to have people review and red team every proposed message for accuracy, clarity and precision. The arrangement of your messages is as important as the messages themselves. Look at what you listed for disposition in Column 2 of the matrix. If, for example, you have a hostile audience where emotions are running high due to rumors and fear, they will likely stop listening the moment you begin reciting “facts.” To them, “answers” are not simply facts; they want reassurance, or perhaps someone to blame. Better to address the emotions up front and answer their fears before you cover the facts. It’s the reverse for people who are predisposed to like your ideas. If you cover what they already believe, you’ll bore them and they will tune you out. Here it’s safe and right to give them the conclusion up front. After segmenting and assessing the community, you may recognize different needs for each audience. This is not to say we are planning to mix messages, but if you are working to persuade the primary audience toward an action and there is a group able to influence that decision (positively or negatively), you may wish to develop some tailored messages as a shaping operation. Watch teenagers – they are masters at this. They know how each of their parents will react and will appeal to each individually for support of their plans. When a young student wants to go out to a late-night pregame bonfire, she might tell one parent she will be home by 11 p.m. and note that adults will be at the rally. For the other parent, it’s simply about getting involved in the community and supporting the cause. Same goal, two audiences, targeted messaging. Themes are a grouping of like messages that explain the big picture – the “why” of your goals. Unlike messages, they don’t relate to a specific goal or ask for any action. Example theme: “U.S. forces respect all citizens of the country and will behave like guests, but their convoy security has to remain strong because of continued ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’ activity.” other. As with design, you can use the operational variables to frame this discussion, considering the political, social, cultural or economic factors as a prism to filter and recolor your ideas. If what you are doing relates to an opposing military force, know what roles its leadership, culture, training, doctrine and equipment play in this equation. Consider next what information is already out there and how it’s shaping the conversation. Often when working in communication, you are fighting existing perceptions previously anchored into a community’s consciousness. Eventually the discussion will lead to a complete picture, and your staff will have a richer understanding of the size and scope of the communication landscape. Be wary of groupthink. Don’t deceive yourself into thinking the environment is benign because you want it to be. Step 2: dissect the audience As you make sense of the operational environment, you will realize there is no such thing as “the” audience. The composition of the people in your communication landscape will be of mixed age, sex, education level or socio-economic status. It may sound like a flash of the obvious, but this complexity matters. Each segment of the population will hear what you say differently, and interpret what you say according to their own particular point of view, assumptions about your motive, self-interests and biases or their understanding of the facts in question. To illustrate, mentally compare yourself (as a military leader) to an average professor at a small liberal-arts college in New England and realize how different your points of view might be from one another. And if you accepted my sweeping generalization about average professors, perhaps there’s some bias in the reader as well. Disposition is equally important. Think through – and be realistic – about whether your intended audience appears to be friendly, neutral or hostile. Assess whether you believe the people you are trying to reach are well informed or largely ignorant of who and what you are, and what you are doing. Don’t confuse disagreement over facts with ignorance. They are not the same. Imagine Republicans and Democrats responding to the same set of “facts.” Since we are fighting in Afghanistan and operating in roughly 100 other countries around the world, there is also the question of culture. There’s no easy answer (certainly not within the scope of this primer), as even within some countries we must contend with dozens of dialects and norms. Your best bet is to consult the TRADOC Cultural Center in Sierra Vista, AZ, for one of their excellent Smart Books. Also consult your own experience – you probably know the litany of potential obstacles, including concepts of time, traditional roles, a fondness for the indirect and views on power and authority. Finally, pick a primary and secondary audience. The primary audience is the precise group of people you’re trying to persuade or influence. The secondary audience consists of the people who can most influence these decision-makers. You’re not abandoning everyone else, but you should treat them as tertiary. In other words, you don’t have to write messages that account for everyone and every opinion. Step 3: decipher goals The goal is an articulation of the result you seek.4 It’s what you want your audience to do. This sounds simple enough but bears careful scrutiny anyway. Keep an open mind and reflect on your understanding of the environment and audience. You may need to persuade people or allay their fears before you can impart information. 22 July-August 2011

Sample related messages to your primary audience, the community – these relate to a goal and ask for action:

1. Please cooperate by staying clear of vehicles in convoy.

2. Cooperate at all TCPs or with all security-force instructions. Sample messages to your secondary audience, U.S. forces:

1. Do not toss litter out of your vehicles, it is not respectful. Step 5: select the proper medium or multiple media Once you develop themes and messages, you must select the most efficient and effective medium (means) for delivery. Always remember that in messaging, what people understand is far more important than what you say. If you get the delivery vehicle wrong, nothing else matters. As expressed in TRADOC PAM 525-3-3, the most common forms of media are:

• Face-to-face (which can include meetings, working groups or conferences);

• Telephone calls or telephone conference calls;

• Emails;

• Print (newspapers, newsletters, letters, posters, flyers, advertisements);

• Broadcast media;

• Text or instant messages; and

• Social networks. Always keep the operational environment and intended audience in mind as you select your media, but to determine the most effective and efficient means for delivery, you will use three criteria: urgency, formality and complexity.5 Urgency is just as it sounds. If it’s urgent, use a fast medium like texting, phone calls or social networks, not letters or flyers. Formality speaks to the issue of appropriateness and dignity. It may be urgent, but sending a text to a senior government official may not be proper protocol. Neither is it the right media to deliver certain kinds of news – we all recognize that social networks are not proper for announcing casualties, for example. Complexity follows much of the same logic as formality. There are certain concepts for which you need a long letter or report to explain the breadth and depth of the issue. As BG H.R. McMaster famously said in a New York Times interview last April, “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”6 The last form of media is the most common, yet least considered, form of communication. It is you and your unit. One untimely action can undo all the good intentions of a message. As in Step 4’s example, if you’re going to develop themes and messages that talk about respect for the populace, and your soldiers show nothing but contempt, you are mixing messages. The axiom “actions speak louder than words” is true, so when you add messages to your coordinating instructions, make sure you emphasize this point. Step 6: develop ways to collect feedback Lastly, and as with any plan, you will need some measures of performance and measures of effectiveness to gauge whether your plan is working and if your messages are resonating properly where intended. You want to verify that you’ve changed perceptions or behaviors. There are dozens of resources for you to use when considering MOP and MOE, so there’s no need to go into any detail here except to offer a few cautions. A word about working with news media Although journalists are not part of the audience – they are media – it would be irresponsible to treat them as simple messengers. With mission command comes the expectation that Army leaders at all levels will be able to influence perceptions, and that includes working with reporters. Don’t try to avoid journalists or prevent your soldiers from talking to them. Avoidance only adds to mutual suspicion. The golden rule for dealing with reporters is to treat them as professionals and individuals, not stereotypes (the same as you would like them to treat you!), and realize that most reporters are sincere in wanting to tell a story accurately and completely. However, they’re looking to keep readers interested and are always alert for new angles. The messages you are creating for publication in the operations order are there because when you and your soldiers talk to reporters, improv is not a good strategy. Following are some best practices to train on before going outside the wire. If you have time, put yourself in the reporter’s shoes and think about what he or she might want to hear from you. In other words, anticipate their questions. Hint: assume the reporter already knows as much as you – that they already know the answer. They just want the words to come from you. Develop a short sound bite from your messages. Sound bites are useful when the reporter asks a leading question designed to get you to ramble (such as, “tell me what is happening here?”). They also work when you don’t want to answer a pointed question. Watch the Sunday talk shows; guests don’t answer the questions they don’t like. They use a talking point instead. Stick to your script, not the reporter’s – they can only run what you say. Remember, you are talking to an audience through the reporter! Don’t repeat negative phrases, and don’t get defensive. Focus on your talking points and key messages, not on the word the reporter uses to characterize the event (such as “misstep” or “mistake.” If you repeat the reporter’s words, he or she will be more likely to use them in the story, putting the “words in your mouth.” For example, if the reporter asks, “Why are you disrupting these people’s lives?” you don’t want to answer, “I don’t think we are disrupting anything.” You just add weight to the negative characterization and sound defensive. Answer with, “The actions we took help us create a safe environment for the people who live here,” and proceed to make your points in language you choose. Never speculate or talk about things you don’t know. If you don’t know, say so, and offer to look for more information. Never lie. Assume everything you say will be on the record. There are too many ways for information to get out; you don’t want to be caught by the hidden microphone or camera (or cellphone), saying something you’ll regret. July-August 2011 23 First, write MOP and MOE in enough detail to answer the question, such as, “Success means I will see people doing X.” Next, exercise patience. Avoid jumping to conclusions if your com-

FM – field manual MOP – measure of performance MOE – measure of effectiveness OPORD – operations order TCP – traffic-control point TRADOC – (U.S. Army) Training and Doctrine Command Acronym Quick-Scan 24 July-August 2011 sion (Institutional Training), 84th U.S. Army Reserve Readiness Training Command, Schenectady; Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 86th Brigade, Northfield, VT; and 1st Battalion, 172nd Armor, Saint Albans, VT. The Bronze Star medalist is a graduate of the Armor basic and advanced officer courses; Combined Arms and Services Staff School; U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; U.S. Army War College and Advanced Joint Professional Military Education at the Joint Forces Staff College, Norfolk, VA. He holds a bachelor’s of arts degree in international relations from Boston University and a master’s in strategic studies from the Army War College. He is a partner in the consulting firm Alderete and Williams, Inc., in Greenfield, MA. Notes 1FM 5-0, The Operations Process, March 2010. Page B56. 2TRADOC PAM 525-3-3, The United States Army Functional Concept for Mission Command, October 2010. Page 38. 3FM 5-0. Pages B56 to B58. 4Hattersley, Michael and McJannet, Linda. Management Communications. New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin, 2005. Page 5. 5Ibid. Page 87. 6Bumiller, Elisabeth. “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint,” The New York Times, April 26, 2010. munication plan appears adrift. If you react too quickly and assume you need to change messages (when your media is at fault), you will confuse, or potentially lose, your audience. Everything covered in this article is common knowledge, but just as we develop battle drills and checklists, going over familiar material helps coalesce our own ideas around established thinking. Don’t mistake common knowledge for simple. The folks who make it look simple usually spend a lot of time preparing – their polish isn’t accidental. Communication discipline is a matter of choice, and it takes effort. Some otherwise brilliant people – including general officers – have paid a high price for ill-timed, indiscrete or poorly crafted messages. Before publishing your next operations order, look at your coordinating instructions for the messages and themes listed there and decide for yourself what risk you’re willing to take. COL Tom Williams commands 2nd Mission Command Training Group, 2nd Brigade, 75th Mission Command Training Division, and Task Force Lightning, 2nd Brigade, 75th Battle Command Training Division (OCO mission), both at Joint Base McGuire-Dix, Lakehurst, NJ. He also commanded 3rd Battle Command Training Group, 2nd Brigade, 75th Battle Command Training Division, and served as the unit’s Exercise Branch chief. His other commands have included 172nd Military Police Battalion, Camp Buehring, Kuwait; 2nd Battalion, 172nd Armor, Rutland, VT; and Company B, 2nd Battalion, 172nd Armor, Westminster, VT. He has also been a small-group leader, instructor, S-2, S-3, executive officer, support-platoon leader and platoon leader for units including 80th Regiment (Officer Education System), 10th Battalion, Detachment 1, 84th Training Command (Leader Readiness), Schenectady, NY; 12th Battalion, 6th Brigade (Professional Development), 98th Divi-

Vignette: a look at what the process looks like at platoon level So you drew traffic-control point duty tomorrow, and here you are in the middle of preparing for that mission when Top not so gently reminds you to pass down the Six’s command messages. “They’re important,” he barks. Without even thinking about it, you answer with a “roger” and get back to work. But later the lieutenant comes by with a pained look and describes a similar run-in, and you realize this isn’t going away. You both dig out the operations order and your notes, and take a second look. The bottom line is that from battalion on down, everyone wants to make sure the people who live near your crossroads know what’s going on and why you’re disrupting their otherwise peaceful routine. The OPORD has some talking points about being there to protect families and enforce the law. Their law. Nowhere does it say you have to announce your plans in advance, so you’re not worried about security, so what’s the big deal? The lieutenant checks his notes; the commander didn’t want the soldiers – some of them with less than a working knowledge of common sense – to get creative as they got bored. With more note-checking and discussion, you piece together that, yes, this is a peaceful area, and this TCP is tied to some increased presence patrolling a few kilometers to the north. The OPORD brief had all the details ... and the idea behind the command message is to avoid saying or doing something stupid that’ll play into insurgent hands, as opposed to doing some good. “Got it,” says the lieutenant. “Stable environment and people who aren’t hostile to what we’re doing.” “Roger, and our goal is to keep it that way.” But what nags at you are the fact that those messages from higher are kind of generic, sort of one-size-fits-all. The lieutenant suggests that you and he craft messages aimed at the village elders – to let them know what’s going on so they can spread the word in their own way, and that you share one basic talking point with the soldiers to keep it simple. That makes sense – the goal is the same, and so is the point, they’re just delivered differently. “So we’ll tell the leaders we are there to support their efforts to maintain stability and security, and we’ll tell the people on the road that it’s about protecting them and their families,” you suggest, adding that anyone who gets annoyed should get an apology, taking extra pains to treat them with dignity. “But we have to show them as much as tell them,” reminds the lieutenant. You make a note to yourself to make sure you tell your soldiers to watch their comments, and no attitudes. “This means we tell them no shouting or snarling at people – and no trashing the place with their cigarette butts,” the lieutenant continues. “That’s right,” you say, checking your notes, “because the commander noted that another unit recently caused problems by acting too belligerent, and all it did was cause the village leaders grief when they tried to counter insurgent messages. The insurgents said the leaders were supporting people who claimed to support the people, but instead treated them with contempt.” You agree to watch the situation as the day drags on – to gauge each party’s reaction to your talking points and behaviors, and to make any changes if what you try appears off the mark. Environment Audience(s) Goals Messages Delivery

MOP/MOE

Momentarily quiet Recent improvised explosive device activity in area not tied to local village Insurgents might describe TCP as indicator of U.S. occupation Primary: elders Secondary: people at TCP Secure buy-in that TCP aids their stability effort Maintain local peace - don’t let area problems creep in “This TCP helps you protect the people in your village” “We don’t suspect anyone here; we’re here to help deter insurgents and protect your families” MOP: activity in area - people are annoyed but resigned to TCP MOE: insurgent activity does not gain popularity as alternative to government law One-on-one with lieutenant and platoon sergeant Every Soldier Words as well as actions; treat people like your own neighbors back home and strictly follow escalation procedures July-August 2011 25