Strategic Communication is More Than Public Relations on Steroids

I was personally thrilled earlier this month when I opened my (digital) Washington Post to find an OpEd by my former boss, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, addressing the need for the United States to finally get serious about the business of strategic communication. Strategic communication was one of the Administration’s priorities when I was nominated by President George W. Bush and hired by Gates to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. To be reminded by the Secretary now more than a decade later that we still haven’t moved the needle on strategic communication, and may in fact have gotten worse at it, is disheartening.

After reiterating the essential need for military power, Gates explained that non-military power is equally important to winning competitions with Russia and China. Gates wrote, “we have, however, seriously neglected other instruments of power that were fundamental to winning the Cold War: telling our story to the world, telling the truth to populations of countries ruled by authoritarian governments and exposing disinformation spread by those same governments.”

Gates continued, “Strategic communications and engagement with foreign publics and leaders are essential to shaping the global political environment in ways that support and advance American national interests. In this crucial arena of the competition, however, Russia and China are running rings around us.”

The U.S. Government defines strategic communication simply as the synchronization of actions, images and words to achieve a desired effect. But what’s more important, and what Secretary Gates is talking about, is the mindset behind strategic communication, a national will to implement, and the application of people and resources to execute effectively.?

During the Gates tenure, the Department of Defense identified nine principles of strategic communication that are worth repeating and reinvesting in today. The first of these principles outlined below is “Leadership-Driven.” This is at the heart of what Gates is calling for, leadership from the White House, the Senate, and the Department of State.

·??????Leadership-Driven. Strategic communication is the business of leaders. Leaders must decisively engage and drive the strategic communication process. to ensure integration of communication efforts, leaders should place communication at the core of everything they do. successful strategic communication - integrating actions, words, and images - begins with clear leadership intent and guidance. desired objectives and outcomes are then closely tied to the organization’s major lines of operation. leaders also need to properly resource strategic communication at a priority comparable to other important areas such as logistics and intelligence.

·??????Credible. Credibility and consistency are the foundation of effective communication; they build and rely on perceptions of accuracy, truthfulness, and respect. Actions, images, and words must be integrated and coordinated internally and externally with no perceived inconsistencies between words and deeds or between policy and deeds. Strategic communication also requires a professional force of properly trained, educated, and attentive communicators. Credibility also often entails communicating through others who may be viewed as more credible.

·??????Understanding. Strategic communication requires a deep comprehension of attitudes, cultures, identities, behavior, history, perspectives and social systems. What we say, do, or show, may not be what others hear or see. An individual's experience, culture, and knowledge provide the context that shapes their perceptions and therefore their judgment of actions. We must understand that concepts of moral values are not absolute but are relative to the individual's societal and cultural narrative. Audiences determine meaning by interpreting our communication with them. Acting without understanding our audiences can lead to critical misunderstandings with serious consequences.

·??????Dialogue. Effective communication requires a multi-faceted dialogue among parties. It involves active listening, engagement, and the pursuit of mutual understanding, which leads to trust. Success depends upon building and leveraging relationships. Leaders should take advantage of these relationships to place U.S. policies and actions in context prior to operations or events.

·??????Pervasive. Every action, image, and word sends a message. Communication no longer has boundaries in time or space. All players are communicators, wittingly or not. Everything the Joint Force says, does, or fails to do and say, has intended and unintended consequences. Every action, word, and image sends a message, and every team member is a messenger, from the 18-year-old rifleman to the commander, from the intern to the president. All communication can have strategic impact, and unintended audiences are unavoidable in the global information environment; therefore, leaders must think about possible "Nth-order communication results of their actions.

·??????Unity of Effort. Strategic communication is a consistent, collaborative process that must be integrated vertically from strategic through tactical levels, and horizontally across stakeholders. Leaders coordinate and synchronize capabilities and instruments of power within their area of responsibility, areas of influence, and areas of interest to achieve desired outcomes. Recognizing that your agency/organization will not act alone, ideally, all those who may have an impact should be part of communication integration.

·??????Results-Based. Strategic communication should be focused on achieving specific desired results in pursuit of a clearly defined end-state. Communication processes, themes, targets and engagement modes are derived from policy, strategic vision, campaign planning and operational design. Strategic communication is not simply "another tool in the leader's toolbox," but must guide all an organization does and says, encompassing and harmonizing with other functions for desired results.

·??????Responsive. Choose the right audience, right message, right time, and right place. Strategic communication should focus on long-term end states or desired outcomes. Rapid and timely response to evolving conditions and crises is important as these may have strategic effects. Communication strategy must reach intended audiences through a customized message that is relevant to those audiences. Acting within adversaries' or competitors’ decision cycles is also key because tempo and adaptability count. An organization must remain flexible enough to address specific issues with specific audiences, often at specific moments in time, by communicating to achieve the greatest effect.

·??????Continuous. Diligent ongoing research, analysis, planning, execution, and assessment should feed strategic planning and action. Success in this process requires thorough and continual analysis and assessment, feeding back into planning and action. Strategic communication supports the organization's objectives by adapting as needed and as plans change. This process should ideally operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries/competition.

My colleague Matt Armstrong sums up the downside of not winning the strategic communication competition, “if you do not tell your story, someone else will.” As Secretary Gates said, the Russians and Chinese are running circles around us.

Hang in there for part two of this article where I’ll share my experience successfully translating these principles into action in the corporate world.

Read more at www.roberthastings.us

###

?

?

?[MO1]Is this too much name dropping? Or necessary to make the connection to which administration?