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When Perception Becomes Reality...A Discussion of the Strategic Communication Process

Mark LaityChief Strategic Communications

SHAPESupreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

false

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So what’s the

problem?

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Perception becomes reality...

• ‘BOCCA DELLA VERITAS’ – THE MOUTH OF TRUTH

• PERCEPTION BECOMES REALITY

If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences

‘The Thomas theorem’. WI Thomas, 1923

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Perception becomes reality...The STRATCOM MINDSET ...success is in the mind

• If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.‘The Thomas theorem’. WI Thomas, 1923

• Machines don’t fight wars. Terrain doesn’t fight wars. Human’s fight wars. You must get into the minds of humans. That’s where the battles are won.

Col John Boyd, USAF military theorist and thinker.

• Wars today cannot be won without media. (Media) is directed to the heart rather than the body. The weapon is directed to the body. If the heart is defeated the battle is won and body is defeated.

Abdul Sattar Maiwand,administrator of the ‘Islamic Emirate Website’

• Winning the battle of perception is key…we win when the people decide we win.General Stan McChrystal, former ComISAF

• We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is in the battlefield of the media. And we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of our Umma.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a letter to al-ZarqawiMark Laity

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Perception becomes reality...THE AIM:

• To put information strategy at the heart of all levels of policy, planning and implementation, and then, as a fully integrated part of the overall effort, ensure the development of practical, effective strategies that make a real contribution to success.

• Trying to shape the INFORMATION battlefield – the new frontline……matching actions and words…recognising every action sends a message…knowing actions don’t always speak for themselves and need shaping…getting the operators to value information effects as naturally as

artillery or airpower

• With soft power we live in a world of greys and probabilities, with no monopoly on power. We must abandon the delusion of control for the reality of influence - and adapt our systems and mindsets accordingly.

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Perception becomes reality...

The Insurgent/TerroristWhat can we learn?

- StratCom driven - Fast- Fluid and flexible- Network based- Sustained messages- Simple messages- 24/7 on the ground- Cultural awareness - Strong narrative

The Media Challenge- Bad news- Speed- Quick to decide- Attention span- They’re everywhere

+ social media......everyone’s weapon

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Perception becomes reality...It’s not what you say that matters… …it’s what

they hear

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‘Tell me how this ends...’* *General David Petraeus

ISAF????“Our so-called allies behave to us just as

the British did to Shah Shuja....They tried to do exactly as they did in the

19th century” (President Karzai)

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‘Tell me how this ends...’* *General David Petraeus

Themes: ANSF TO THE FORE – PRESSURE THE INSURGENCY – TRANSITION – UNITY OF EFFORT

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Tell me where this goes...

...safeguard the freedom,

common heritage and

civilisation of their peoples,

founded on the principles of

democracy, individual

liberty and the rule of law.

Washington Treaty, 1949

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Perception becomes reality...

SimplifyingShortening

SharingSustaining

Staffing

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Perception becomes reality...1. SIMPLIFYING !!! – don’t confuse complex with clever

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Perception becomes reality...1. SIMPLIFYING !!!! – don’t confuse complex with clever

Rather than try to outbid the enemy with complicated

schemes, one should on the contrary try to outbid

him in simplicity

Clausewitz

Simplicity is the ultimate sophisticationLeonardo da Vinci

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more

complex. It takes a touch of genius to move in the

opposite direction

Albert Einstein

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Perception becomes reality...SIMPLIFYINGSimple doesn’t mean easy, but it helps make the hard jobs clearer. For example – Counter-Insurgency pared down to its bare essentials...

“What is counterinsurgency?....here it is in a nutshell; this is a competition with the insurgent for the right and the ability to win the hearts, minds and acquiescence of the population.”

David Kilcullen “28 Articles”

1. WE ARE RIGHT – and share a view of what is RIGHT...

“Insurgent bodies feed off disaffection from whatever cause….The truth was not necessarily important: dissatisfaction is a sentiment, and feeds off perceptions.”

Op Banner: An analysis of military operations in N. Ireland

2. THE ABILITY TO WIN – which in COIN is mostly about WILL...

“We won’t be there forever...but this is a test of wills and the enemy has to know that we have the will.”

General David Petraeus, June 2010

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SIMPLIFYING is a MINDSETHe and his team gathered in the boardroom to brief the new DVD-burning programme.

They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various window and menu options

Then Steve comes in. He picks up a marker and

goes over to the whiteboard…

…He draws a rectangle. “Here’s the new app. It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it.”

Simple can be

harder than

complex. You have

to work hard to get

your thinking clean

to make it simple.

But It’s worth it in

the end because

once you get there,

you can move

mountains.

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Perception becomes reality...2. SHORTENING

• “The length of this document defends it well against the risk of being read.”

Winston Churchill

• “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

Mark Twain3. SHARING

• Organisations need to be staffed so that they will prefer to share not fight over turf and territory.

• “It takes a network to defeat a network”General Stan McChrystal, former ComISAF

• “Share the credit… A man can achieve an awful lot if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

Anon

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Perception becomes reality...4. SUSTAINING• We didn’t fight the Vietnam war for nine years, we fought the same war for one year,

nine times.Variously attributed (also applied to ISAF)

• “...we have a tendency to deal with any new situation by reorganising. Also I learned what a wonderful method this is to give an illusion of progress while in reality it creates chaos, inefficiency and demoralisation.”

Attributed to Gaius Petronius, Roman civil servant, 66AD

• “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.”Albert Einstein

5. STAFFING

• No structure however poor can entirely defeat good people, but no structure however good can entirely make up for poor people.

• If a task hasn’t got someone’s name against it then it won’t get done. Keep it simple so you know who is doing what.

• …we at SHAPE are in very great danger of losing our clear and simple military purpose. The staff is immersed in details; the output of paper is enormous and I would say that half of it is not read and a good deal of it is not worth reading. The senior officers do too much work and have no time to think…

Field Marshal Montgomery (as the first DSACEUR)Mark Laity

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Perception becomes reality...Our PROBLEMS

Tactical/Strategic divideStovepipesHierarchyConsecutive staffingTurf battlesDirectiveInformMonopoly voiceMessagesZero tolerance/defect

Some SOLUTIONs?

vs Seamless flowvs All-inform/networksvs Community of interestvs Concurrent staffingvs Coordinate to effectvs Empowervs Engagevs Multiple advocatesvs Narratives & storiesvs Balance of advantage

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‘communication synchronisation...’ – so much less than StratCom

The Little memorandum• ‘SC...a means to synchronise communications

efforts...’• ‘SC plans mostly contained PA planning’• ‘most things previously termed ‘SC’ are in fact

PA responsibilities....• Communication goals should be managed...in

most cases (by) the PA office.’• ‘This process can be accomplished with working

groups and steering groups...’Mark Laity

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Perception becomes reality...• A crowded info space:

Public Diplomacy, PA, InfoOps, PSYOPS“Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.”

Steve Jobs

• There is nothing more difficult to carry out...than to initiate a new order of things....For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order; who does not truly believe in anything new until they actually have experience of it.

Machiavelli: The Prince

• StratCom – the way ahead for a new order?ACO Directive 95-2 on StratCom: In cooperation with NATO HQ, the coordinated and appropriate use of Military PA, Info Ops and PSYOPS which, in concert with other military actions and following NATO political guidance, advances NATO’s aims and operations. Mark Laity

Perception becomes reality...the goal• Process for sure…“a series of actions intended to achieve an

end.” BUT PROCESSES ARE NOT AUTOMATIC, THEY NEED DIRECTION AND

MANAGEMENT…this includes being a coordinator

• A policy advisor• A champion for all the information disciplines• A lead for education & training• A simplifier and creator of synergy• …but always a mindset. NATO Public Diplomacy chief,

Kolinda Grabor: StratCom at its very best is a mindset, an organisational culture My goal is a unified StratCom relationship from policy to planning to

audience and tool identification to action and evaluation in an ongoing living cycle

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Former coordination at operational level

Cmd Grp

DCoS Ops(J3)

PSYOPS InfoOps

PAO

Much more fun bits

Mark Laity

Key Leader?CIMIC/J9?

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Trend in operational level coordination...

Cmd Grp

StratCom

PAOSpokesman?

InfoOps PSYOPSKLE/JVBCIMIC

Spokesman?Planning

AssessmentsMonitoring

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Perception becomes reality...Perception“...the battlefield isn’t necessarily a field anymore. It’s in the minds of the people. It’s what they believe to be true that matters.”

Adm. Mike Mullen

Simplify“Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult… difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction …this is proof enough of the superiority of the simple and direct over the complex.”

Clausewitz, On War

Questions?

Questions?

Questions?Questions?

Questions?

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Perception becomes reality...STAFF

Rather than try to outbid the

enemy with complicated schemes, one should on the

contrary try to outbid him in

simplicity

Clausewitz