Communication

Military organizations, like most bureaucracies, have several common traits: 1) left unchecked, they grow over time, and 2) they fiercely protect their perceived turf. I’m here for a series of meetings that involve two sections of my headquarters. Let’s call them Apples and Oranges. I work for Oranges and I’m here with three other people from Apples. At the worker bee level, we all get along famously and are here to help each other with what we need to get done. Yet, our superiors see it differently.

Case in point: last week, Apples had the lead for the meetings. One guy from Apples, let’s call him Ed, nightly sent an email to both the chiefs of Apples and Oranges updating all on our progress down here. One night, I volunteered to write the email for Ed, sent it to him and told him to change the pronouns to appear he wrote it. Ed liked my summary, added a few notes of his own, and sent it to both the chiefs of Apples and Oranges. The next morning, the head of Apples wrote to a colonel and asked why “that guy from Oranges” wrote the update? He thought Apples was in the lead? The colonel then dutifully emailed one of my Apple co-workers and told him that they needed updates on Project Fruit Juice (which is the project we are all working on).

This week, I’m here by myself; the guys from Apples returned back to Baghdad. Let’s call the organization sponsoring these series of meetings the Fruit Stand and my headquarters the Tree (apples and oranges grow on trees). This week the Fruit Stand announced it wants to follow a certain course of action. I know this course is anathema to the Tree and let members of the Fruit Stand know. Understandably, the Fruit Stand was upset. I called back to the Tree and they said, “no way.” Clearly, the Fruit Stand and the Tree need to get together and decide. In the meantime, “that guy from Oranges” is stuck towing the party line. Can’t we all just talk about it...