Improving Communication, Part 1: Reducing the Cost of Communication

Changing Circumstances
As a member of the 79th Military Police Company since 2002, I have watched as our unit activity level has dramatically increased. In addition to our routine annual training periods and noncommissioned officer schools, the 79th has sent numerous, volunteer deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. To say nothing of the many short-term missions we’ve accomplished at Fort Snelling and in California. All of these are tremendous accomplishments, and make me proud to be a part of this unit. But they have not come without consequences.

The True Cause
Perhaps the most notable result of our vigorous activity is that chain of command stability has steadily declined. With so many soldiers coming and going on various missions, our chain of command has gone from inconsistent to downright volatile.

Although this shuffle is a natural consequence of increased unit activity, and is not the result of any leadership failure, it has gone almost unnoticed as the true cause of one of our unit’s biggest challenges: The deterioration of communication quality. Recent events have illustrated the existence of this problem more vividly than I can. But unfortunately, its cause has been wrongly attributed to individual soldier failures, rather than being seen as the normal result of increased communication demands and decreased personnel stability.

Or, maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps all of our soldiers (NCO’s and officers) have just become lazy as of late. If that’s the case, the solution is obvious: Reprimand the unit for failing to communicate, and wait for things to improve. Of course, if laziness isn’t the real problem, we’ll be waiting for quite a while. So in the mean time, here is a thought to consider.

A Simple Formula
A few years ago I decided to join the 21st century and start using an instant messaging program. I was so determined to make its convenient features a part of my life that I set it to automatically sign-in when I started my computer. About six months later, shutting off the instant messenger had become a routine part of staring my computer. Why? Because far too many people had been bugging me far too often with messages of far too little importance.

Actually, the instant messenger had done exactly what it was supposed to do. It had reduced the effort needed to send a message so drastically that it was now considered “worthwhile” for would-be chatterboxes to annoy me with the most inane babblings. This story demonstrates a very simple formula: People send messages when they perceive that the value of the message is greater than the expense (effort) required to send it.

A Simple Solution
This formula has a very direct application to our unit communication. As changes to the company roster have increased, so too has the effort needed to maintain contact information between soldiers. When a soldier has something to say, but doesn’t have the appropriate email address or phone number, chances are the message won't get sent. Fortunately, there is a very simple solution to this problem: The company alert roster should be regularly distributed to all soldiers assigned to the unit. This will help build a robust communication infrastructure, reduce the effort needed to maintain open channels of communication, and mitigate the effects of a rapidly changing chain of command.

I know what you’re thinking:

"It doesn’t matter how much work it takes for soldiers to contact one another! If it’s their job to do it, then it’s their job to do it! It’s not the leadership’s responsibility to make everyone’s job easy."

If that really is what you were thinking, you’re right. It’s not the leadership’s responsibility to make everyone’s job easy. But it is the leadership’s job to make sure things aren’t harder than they have to be. After all, what kind of leader would make his soldiers swim upstream if he could just as easily change the direction of the river?