Hail to SEAL Team Six -OR- When Social Transparency is a Bad Thing

Recently I find myself in many discussions about America’s state of readiness for various information operations, cyber warfare, and defense and counter cyber-ops. 

Rarely do I find myself arguing against the movement towards increased transparencies offered by social media or questioning the motivation of those who pioneer the use of technology to push the envelope of what we communicate and how quickly we can relay information.  This is one of those rare times.

As often happens in such conversations with so many folks ranging from the super-techies to direct action operators and all the administrators who insert themselves into the process, the talk eventually drifts to how POTUS and our political masters view the area of overall unconventional operations.

A colleague from the UK recently pointed out that the US seems to be showing somewhat of new and bolder, tougher face to the World with regards to our willingness to openly project force and engage in special operations to achieve and implement facets of our foreign policy.

Specifically POTUS highlighted Team VI and the bin Laden operation, as an example of both this new willingness to assert our policies, unilaterally if necessary, and of a closer kinship between the Executive and our special operations community. 

Essentially the assertion goes something like this, “Because POTUS praised Team VI for the bin Laden mission, therefore President Obama understands, supports and is a closer ally of our special operators, more so than any President since President Kennedy.

I believe that the actions of this President’s administration demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the capabilities, dedication and ongoing sacrifices made by Team VI, JSOC and the entire special operations community and their families.

POTUS has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of support for those he puts in harms way and in my opinion has more than once “hung our operators out to twist in the wind.”  Time and again this administration seems to be more than willing, almost eager to sacrifice our operators’ and their families’ safety for fleeting political expediency or even worse, for a brief sound byte.

I could not agree more that in SEAL Team VI, DEVGRU and all of JSOC we have the finest and best trained warriors in the history of military operations and in the World today.  My admiration and support for these men knows no bounds and their sacrifice is legion and something none of their political masters could ever match. 

If you have any doubts about the dedication and capabilities of our SEALs read anything written by Captain Couch, a retired Navy SEAL, best selling author and writer of the Navy SEAL movie Act of Valor, or for an all-to-real account of SEAL operations see PO First Class Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, about Operation Redwing. There are also books written by SEALs, Howard E. Wasdin - SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper and Eric Greitens’  The Heart and the Fist.

In short, it is my belief these men are not only America’s finest warriors but they are in most cases also our finest people.

I am glad that Washington is showing the World America has not forgotten our duty nor lost the resolve to project force where and when needed.  I cannot however stomach the Obama comparison to Kennedy.

President Kennedy, a veteran himself, created the SEALs from the UDT operators and since that time those men who earned the Trident have shown that decision to be a brilliant one by achieving results most of us can not even dream of undertaking.

On the other hand, President Obama, who felt being a corporate hatchet legal dog was more important than serving his Country, put all the lives of VI operators and their families in danger after the 5/11/11 mission and rendered the intelligence gathered largely useless. Additionally and on a separate occasion he allowed other Team members to face courts martial for allegedly striking the wanted terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed, for which they were all acquitted of all charges!

I am no one important, I speak here for no organization, I’m simply an American and in my opinion, President Obama is no friend of the Navy SEALs nor is he fit to command the caliber of men who are US Navy SEALs. 

The President’s referral and use of the 5/11/11 mission in the SotU address made me feel unclean and while I was pleased these men were recognized for their prowess, dedication to duty and incalculable sacrifices made daily, I feel relatively confident in betting they’d prefer to be left alone to do their work far away from the public’s eye and knowing at the very least their families and loved ones are safe from the ineptitudes of their civilian political masters.

Extending A Social Mindset Throughout Your Organization -- OR -- Does This Count as Social Media?

The short answer is; YES!  

And your BIG PR AGENCY and high-priced in-house counsel probably missed the opportunity.

Don’t be overly harsh with them, they’re trained to think in traditional and linear media models and modalities. But, make no mistake they are generally VERY good at performing within these traditional modalities.

Of course the problem is, we live in a very different and new business reality which even the largest PR agencies struggle to comprehend.  We're living and communicating in a true social biosphere now. Real people, real conversations in real time; that’s a social biosphere, and believe me it scares the hell out of your PR agency and in-house PR managers.

Not to worry, no one abandoned the postal press release overnight either, or the press release itself for that matter. There’s help out there, consultants like Outlaw Communications but more importantly look within your own organization as the following story illustrates.

In the social biosphere that is business today everything your organization does and says or is thought to have done or said or is perceived to have done or said along with anything anyone remotely connected to your organization has ever done or said, will count with someone somewhere. 

I’m exaggerating but only slightly to illustrate how important the seemingly most insignificant encounters can be to your organization’s social wellbeing.

I recently met with some folks from AFLAC in a mismanaged recruiting SNAFU gone horribly wrong, perpetrated by an outside consultant.  Ah, those horrible consultants, we’re always mucking up someone’s business. In this case it turns out to be true, well almost were it not for a socially tuned-in AFLAC recruiter who found and capitalized upon a social opportunity despite it being WAVED (Yes WAVED) in front of senior PR staffers.

At any rate after what rapidly descended into an experience worthy of Twitter Tattling, this single dedicated AFLAC representative took it upon herself to not only fix a situation but turn it into a social media opportunity for her company.

The traditional PR machine failed here and did not realize the potential social impact as an influencer began showing negative signs within AFLAC’s social biosphere. 

Another company representative, responsible mostly for recruiting, (how social is the recruiting function nowadays?), managed to recognize the potential damage already begun within AFLAC’s social biosphere and took immediate and successful steps to change the interaction. 

A socially healthy organization is much like any other healthy animal, the social mindset must be pervasive and inclusive, not because this is the future I see, it is but, because it is and will be and also happens to be the future I see and BIG PR continues to miss and ignore.

And if the fact that your traditional PR Agencies and in-house counsel, for which you spend tens of thousands of dollars monthly, is in complete denial about the social biosphere, doesn’t keep management up at night… you need to find other work for the sake of your shareholders and stakeholders.