I’ve long respected the Army for their prudent engagement of blogs and bloggers — and wished the USAF would wise up and follow suit (though I’m not holding my breath). Here’s another great example of smart leaders doing smart things.
While most of the Army is still wringing its hands trying to figure out what to do about blogs and other social media, the two-star general overseeing 19,000 U.S. soldiers scattered across 17,000 square miles of southern and central Iraq has decided to start blogging himself and holding online chats with his troops.“There are some concerns by some people, based on the nature of our hierarchical organization, who feel this is inappropriate — going around the chain of command,” Major General Michael Oates, the commander of the Army’s Task Force Mountain, tells Danger Room. “It is not in fact going around the chain of command; it allows us to connect to the chain of command in ways we have not been able to experience before.”
Read the whole thing.
Back when I was actively enganged in “Army stuff” we would talk about the “generation gap” in Army leadership. Mostly in context of embracing and employing the newest over-the-counter technologies.
In this case it is embracing new communication methods.
In short, the general “gets it”.