By the way, note he mentions others by name (Spencer Ackerman, for example) when presenting Navy social media. It is a technique that can be described as public social networking. I honestly believe Captain Werner is the right man, in the right place, at the right time - because he is constantly networking. I believe the way networking is part of his personality is not only why he is good with social media, but why he is good at teaching social media.
The video is worth listening all the way to the very last question, which I think is a great question. I had to turn the volume up to hear the question, but the question deals with the process of turning classified information (operational information) into declassified information (operational information released by the Navy) presented to the public.
Watching the movie will you help understand the rest of this post...
Captain Werner gives the Navy answer, but I think the question carries with it a lot of depth for thinking about information flows and information uses in the modern information domain. It really is one of the most important questions facing the Navy today, and is not a question specific to social media. Stated another way, the question is:
How does the Navy align information with operations in a way where actions and information are congruent so that the message is delivered in context and the reader is informed as intended?
The question is about strategic communication, and the exposes the currently missing operational doctrine in the Navy where information is leveraged as part of an influence enterprise that tells the story of naval affairs, rather than simply informing the audience of a Navy action. The original question asked in the video could have also substituted the word "network" for "process" and hit the nail on the head.
I've often said that it isn't that the Navy doesn't have a credible story to tell, rather it is that the Navy doesn't know how to tell a credible story. Navy information today is always specific to a Navy action, and what happens is information crosses the classified-unclassifed bridge on any subject, from operations to acquisition etc., becoming a piece of Navy information that fits easily into a category:
strategy - operational - tactical - doctrine - acquisition - training - development
A lot of folks often wonder where the Navy narrative is. Well, an organization like the Navy requires many pieces of information to build a narrative from - and right now a lot of things the Navy is doing does not have an information component that makes the transition from classified to unclassifed. It is also important to note that the Navy also has a lot of information that does make that transition, and those pieces do fit into a category.
Should any piece of information in those categories not align with the narrative, then the problem is the narrative itself, the activity described in the information, or the absence of information that feeds the narrative.
But right now problems with the narrative doesn't actually matter, because the narrative doesn't exist. Worse, the Navy doesn't have anyone even trying to articulate a narrative for the Navy, yet. For example, on any day someone can find articles on navy.mil, Facebook, or any number of other official locations that are well written pieces of information and easily fit into the categories above. What you will not find is a network crafting the individual pieces of information the Navy puts out into a coherent and articulated narrative that tells the story of the US Navy today.
It has been suggested that the role of using pieces of information in a network is the responsibility of the Unified Combatant Commanders, or N3/N5, or maybe N2 should do it, or the role should be the CNOs to do. The answer, of course, is YES.
In order for a global organization like the Navy to 'operationalize' information at all levels into a narrative, the Navy is going to need to organize the pieces of information and assemble those pieces into a network that form a narrative. The Navy isn't there yet.
Like I said, when I look where the Navy is today from just 2.5 years ago, I am stunned by the rapid pace of progress, because impressive strides have been made in very a short time. Listen to Captain Werner describe what they are learning along the way with experience. There is a learning curve that directly impacts existing organizations, and fortunately the Navy is steady in making progress.
Change in an organization the size of the Navy will take time. I believe the next big change to watch for is when the Navy transitions from teaching processes and how to leverage various tools for organizing information in pieces; and begins to develop a global operational information network that takes all these various pieces and networks those pieces of information into an influence enterprise delivering a coherent narrative that tells the US Navy's story.
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