Category Archives: Staff Life

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17 Productivity Hacks for Your Military Staff

I bet that more than once a day, you let out a sigh of frustration at the absentminded staff activity that surrounds you…Your boss asks why you didn’t respond to his “urgent” email. THE NEW OPERATIONS NCO TYPES IN ALL CAPS (incredibly annoying). Someone prints 30 full-page copies of the 53-slide presentation because, “there are 30 people in the meeting, right?” And in that meeting, your unit’s update doesn’t make it to the slides, even though you sent them yesterday.

And those are just the ones you notice! There are probably dozens more inefficiencies, idiosyncrasies, and ineptitudes you aren’t even aware of that impair you and your staff’s productivity.

Having spent a few years in the Army staff machine, I offer these immediate adjustments to reclaim your sanity and reduce the needless, often well-intentioned but inefficient staff practices that keep you from getting more important work done.

productivity

The U.S. Army’s ‘Cyber Center of Excellence’, Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga., hosted a multi-service ‘NetWar’ to show, and build, cyber Warrior capabilities Tuesday, June 10, 2016. Georgia Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Tracy J. Smith.
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12 Tips for Showing Leadership During Your Staff Time

by James King

Staff officers are not often seen as dynamic leaders who are pivotal to a unit’s success in combat. Very few history books are written, and even fewer movies are made, about the exploits of a staff officer who saves the world. They are generally depicted as the bumbling fool or road-blocking bureaucrat who holds the hero back from accomplishing the mission.

staff

1st Lt. Daniel Barrow (left) and Chief Warrant Officer Todd Berlinghof monitor the track of a simulated storm – “Hurricane Herb” – during an exercise at the Florida National Guard’s Joint Emergency Operations Center in St. Augustine, Fla. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa.
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Advice for the Starving Staff Artist

by John McRae

I once had a senior rater observe that life for staff officers like the ones assembled before him consisted of 80 percent making the railroad run – that is, doing the standard and recurring activities common to military staffs around the world. The other 20 percent, he mused, was for pushing things forward:  innovating, dreaming, adding one’s personal mark in new ways.

I think that for most staff officers this maxim is true. For some of the most fortunate among us, however, the ratio is reversed:  20 percent boilerplate activities, and 80 percent new and different. Whereas their 80/20 peers are more like “Conductors”, the 20/80 folks get to be “Artists.” Approached correctly, it is an exciting opportunity that can result in a highlight of one’s career.

staff

Photo from NATO Rapid Reaction Corps – Italy Exercise Eagle Action, May 2005.
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Stop Creating Confusion and Start Providing Answers

There’s nothing more frustrating for a subordinate headquarters than to receive an order that lacks context on the situation or fails to provide the resources needed for execution. It seems that some people advance in their careers and forget what it’s like to serve at the lower levels. One example provides a good lesson on how higher leaders and staffs can enable their organizations instead of causing confusion.

answers

CAMP HIGASHI-CHITOSE, Japan (Dec. 3, 2009)- An aerial view of the combined operations/intelligence center, manned by the Northern Army of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Contingency Command Post of United States Army, Pacific and I Corps Forward during the early stages of Exercise Yama Sakura 57. Photo Credit: U.S. Army Sgt. Gerardo DeAvila, 124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

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6 Reasons Staff Officers Should “Surge on the Problem”

Good staff officers surge right away on mission analysis
after identifying a new problem or receiving guidance from the commander.

Even though the task suspense may not be pressing, they ‘get after’ the problem because doing so:

  • Defines the problem as a result of the design process
  • Getting After the ProblemGives the staff (and the commander) immediate perspective on the problem
  • Injects a surge of energy into the organization
  • Allows everyone to analyze the problem with the commander’s guidance and situational conditions fresh in mind
  • Results in a reference product (e.g. staff estimates, Mission Analysis Brief, or at least pages of notes)
  • Shapes immediate coordination/guidance to give subordinate headquarters.

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