By Joe Byerly
We have all been there at some point in our military careers. We have woken up in the morning, looked into the mirror, and asked ourselves “Is this sh*t worth it?”
Maybe, you’re struggling with what you see as some arcane policy or process that makes your life frustrating. Or, you feel depleted by some work event that took the wind out of your sails. It is usually in these mirror moments that we feel the tension between our professional calling and the possibilities that await us outside the military.
Should we stay and fight or should we move on?
In 1970, Albert O. Hirschman published a treatise titled, “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty.” While the essay falls within the field of economics, it offers some food for thought to those talking to themselves in the mirror at 5am.
Hirschman compares two competing paths that members of an organization can take when the organization isn’t performing to a preferred standard. The first is a passive route, where people show their displeasure by exiting the organization, hoping that their exit will send the message that there is a problem and someone else needs to fix it. The next route is using their voice, which is the tougher of the two; a path that means staying and fighting to change whatever is broken within the organization.
This idea of choosing exit or voice has relevance for those of us who are passionate about being a member of the Profession of Arms, while at the same time wishing that aspects of the system could be better.
Publishing that voice in a professional journal or one of our online professional outlets is one of the best ways to stay and fight—to create change.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last two decades is that we do have a voice. The Profession of Arms doesn’t belong to any elite rank or position, it’s shaped and influenced by all of us. A well-formed idea can be infectious—it spreads. Our Army is not perfect. Whether it’s the professional education system, our doctrine, the promotion process, or a cultural defect, we all have things that bother us—things that could be better.
I’ve seen many promising leaders “exit” because they felt like their particular grievance was unchangeable, and that they didn’t have a voice. Or, even worse, I’ve seen people become apathetic and quit caring all together. Behind every gripe is an opportunity. Behind every challenge there is a solution to fix or manage the problem.
In 2013, I griped because we didn’t have an online resource to write and post leadership articles to share with friends and colleagues, so I created From the Green Notebook.
Was it nerve-wracking? Yup.
Did I know it would take on a life of its own? Nope.
Did I think it would have an impact? I hoped it would.
When it comes to identifying opportunities, don’t wait to speak up, because no one is going to ask you to. Just do it!
Is there professional risk in speaking up? You bet.
But we can lower that risk. Tone matters. If you publish that 5am conversation as is, it might not work out well. You have to go back, think about it, research it, refine it, and remove the curse words. Not every idea is going to be popular. As Ben Horowitz writes in What You Do is Who You Are, “Truly innovative ideas often look like very very bad ideas when they’re introduced.” You might get pushback, but that’s okay. Discourse doesn’t mean agreement.
The point is that you exercised your voice.
Recently, From the Green Notebook joined forces with the Harding Project, the Chief of Staff of the Army’s initiative to renew professional discourse, to re-energize that “voice” that we often don’t think we have.
The Chief is listening.
If you care, if you have ideas, if you have a gripe or two that could make this Army better, it’s time to put pen to paper and write. If you are looking for the perfect time to write, there’s never a good time, we’re always going to be busy, you have to make it.
Gripes, opportunities, challenges, solutions, whatever you have, get it on paper. Write for you. Write for others. Write for OUR Profession.
Joe Byerly is a US Army armor officer, a squadron commander, and coauthor of My Green Notebook: “Know Thyself” Before Changing Jobs. He is also the founder of From the Green Notebook and host of the From the Green Notebook Podcast.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
