We have met the enemy and he is us: A possible 4-step recovery program for PME

By "Doctrine Man"


Best Defense guest
columnist

PowerPoint is dead. Long live PowerPoint.

From crowded operations centers in combat zones
far from our shores to the fluorescently-antiseptic hallways of the Pentagon,
no phrase will draw a nervous sideways glance quicker than "Death by
PowerPoint." Utter those words aloud in any environment and battle captains
descend into laptop defilade, staff officers scatter like cockroaches in
sunlight, and commanders at all levels sigh in frustration.

PowerPoint hailed the death of critical
thinking. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming: the
mind map from the ninth circle of hell, the
military's acquisition life cyclorama, or just about any
orders "briefing" which typically runs longer than the time required to produce
an actual order. PowerPoint has infected our military culture like a digital
zombie apocalypse, transforming our leaders into the intellectual equivalent of
the living dead. We have met the enemy and he is us.

In Richard Russell's Best
Defense post, he rightly identifies a problem rooted in
Professional Military Education (PME) and advocates a ban on PowerPoint as a
necessary first step in military educational reform. But PowerPoint isn't the
problem, it's just a symptom of a deeper problem years in the making.
PowerPoint is merely a tool; it's the tool behind the tool with whom we should
concern ourselves.

We suffer from a communication problem.
Stringing together a coherent, one-page information paper is a challenge for
many people; forget about a more in-depth "thinking" piece. And the average
mid-career leader would rather be subjected to enemy fire than speak in a
public setting. Banning PowerPoint doesn't solve the problem, it only
exacerbates it. The skill we once considered essential has become an elusive
silver bullet. Yet we have no one to blame but ourselves.

If we truly want to revitalize our military
education system, we should begin with the fundamentals. We often bemoan the
loss of the Army's Combined Arms and Staff Services School (CAS3), where young
officers spent weeks refining their writing, speaking, and presenting skills.
The feedback was honest, direct, and often brutal, but the end result was a
marked improvement in communication skills. When the Army scuttled CAS3 in
2004, we surrendered the one course that sharpened the fundamentals we so
desperately need today.

First, we need to learn to write. At every
level of PME, writing should focus on papers of increasing length and
complexity, with a requirement to write for publication. This requirement
should extend to structured self-development (SSD), with writing focusing on
experiential learning gained during operations. If we are truly a profession,
then "publish or perish" should mean as much to us as academia. This
accomplishes two objectives: One, we develop and refine our ability to
communicate our thoughts and ideas in written form; two, we collectively
contribute to the greater body of knowledge for the Profession of Arms.

Second, we need to become more adept at public
speaking. The only sure method to improve oral communication skills is to
exercise them regularly. PME courses offer a multitude of opportunities to
speak before a wide variety of audiences, but most of these opportunities lack
a formal feedback mechanism to help the speaker improve. The fine art of
speaking, like writing, is the ability to convey one's thoughts clearly and
concisely, logically and organized.

Third, we need to embrace professional reading
in PME. Some of our finest leaders issue reading lists, from the Air Force
chief of staff, General
Mark Welsh, to Major
General H.R. McMaster, the soon-to-be three-star and author
of Dereliction of Duty. Even the
Master of Chaos himself, General
(Ret) James Mattis proclaimed the necessity of
professional reading to leader development. Reading is fundamental. It is also
the shortest route to increased knowledge and improved communication skills.

Finally, we need to teach our people how to use
all of the tools in the communication kitbag, from social media to PowerPoint.
Whether communicating in 140-character bursts or 40-page monographs, on 5x8 cards
or PowerPoint slides, PME should set the foundation for our communication skills.
We shouldn't ban PowerPoint any more than we would ban the use of paper for
those who don't write well. Take the time to teach people how to use the tools
we have available, and to use them responsibly.

PME takes great pride in proclaiming that we
teach people how to think, not what to think. Teaching people how to think
begins with the ability to clearly communicate ideas, because therein lies the
essence of learning. Of all the "stuff" we cram into our PME courses, an
increased emphasis on communication skills should be non-negotiable. PME
shouldn't be the catch-all for every "shiny object" that comes along, it should
be where we shepherd and protect the essential skills we deem the most
valuable.

Richard Russell is right: We need to revitalize
our military education system. But let's treat the problem, not the symptom.

Doctrine Man is the pseudonym of a career Army officer,
strategist, and recovering doctrine writer. A graduate of the Army's School of
Advanced Military Studies, he logged three combat tours in Iraq while mastering
the art of PowerPoint with his online comic strip,
The Further
Adventures of Doctrine Man!! He recently published the second volume of his annual comic compendium,
now available on Amazon.