Articles
This Is an Every-Service Problem: Space Power and the Risk of Fundamental Surprise
By Catherine R. Cline The United States is unlikely to be surprised in space in the traditional sense. It tracks launches globally, monitors orbital behavior in near–real time, and maintains an unmatched catalog of space objects. If surprise is...
Waiting for Favorable Conditions
By Joe Byerly They checked the news first thing in the morning. Then again at lunch. Then one more time before bed. They waited for life to return to something that felt recognizable. It was hard to believe that leaders could be so casually...
Ep 172: How Work Stress Hijacks Your Life with Dr. Guy Winch
Dr. Guy Winch, bestselling author and psychologist, joins Joe to discuss his newest book, Mind Over Grind to explore how job stress quietly spills beyond the office—and into our evenings, our sleep, and our relationships. What starts as a...
Ep 171: Bring Your Own Pencil: The Leadership Lesson of Coach Bill Walsh with Griffin Brand and Dan Casey
Griffin Brand and Dan Casey, co-authors of Bring Your Own Pencil: Bill Walsh’s Playbook for Winning at Anything, join Joe to explore preparation, leadership, and what separates sustained excellence from short-term success. It’s Super Bowl...
Commander, Don’t Give Up Your Voice!
By: James J. Torrence We have an authenticity problem, and everyone knows it. The troops know it. The junior officers know it. The staff officers definitely know it. And deep down, our senior leaders know it too. Everyone sounds the same. Every...
My Daily Circle of Reading
By Joe Byerly Each morning, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy got up and read his notebook of personally-curated passages from his favorite books (he later published this as A Calendar of Wisdom). In his diary, he wrote, “I felt that I...
To My Fellow “Subjects of Investigations”
By Danita Darby In 2019, I hit a professional and personal breaking point. I was investigated as a “toxic”, or counterproductive, leader. I attempted suicide that year too. I survived both—and what followed was a long, humbling healing process....
Ep 170- Making the Call: Military Intelligence, Judgment, and Command with Lieutenant General Tony Hale
Lieutenant General Tony Hale, the Army G-2, joins Joe for a conversation on military intelligence, judgment, and decision-making in modern war. Drawing on nearly four decades of service, Hale reflects on the evolution of the intelligence...
Ep 169- Open Doors & Hidden Worlds: The Power of Curiosity with Brad Meltzer
On the release of his latest thriller, The Viper: A Zig and Nola Novel, Brad Meltzer joins Joe for an in-depth conversation on writing, curiosity, service, and the often-hidden moments that shape a life. From bestselling thrillers to...
Twenty Years in Fourteen Lines
By Joe Byerly The man handed me the document fresh off the printer. “Make sure you keep this in a safe place,” he said. “This is your proof of service. Probably the most important document you’ll ever own.” I looked down at the still-warm DD214,...
Identifying Bias in Your Workplace? Read Kim Scott’s Just Work
by Aidan Looney As a West Point Cadet, I often hear that the academy is a leadership laboratory. Cadets are given the space and opportunities to experiment in leadership and learn how they want to lead before going out to the operational...
Three Hockey Books On Leadership
By Dan Sukman If you want to go somewhere fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go together. – Glen Sather Sports often serve as a metaphor, and in many cases as a testing ground for real life. There are lessons we learn playing youth...
Book Review: Phil Jackson’s Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
By Ryan Kranc and Megan Jantos Editor’s note: This piece is published to coincide with Army Leader Exchange’s second annual #MarchMasters competition. Click here to vote for From the Green Notebook or other leader development content...
Book Review: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
By John Geracitano Having three kids at home, time has become my most valuable commodity. This may be why the bestselling book Four Thousand Weeks resonated with my halfway-complete journey of an approximate 80-year life. In a sea of...
Why We Should Read Fiction
by Addison McLamb I recently spent an hour looking at lists of “top leadership books.” There were a few books on psychology, some on strategy, and some on decision-making. Most were published in the last 5-10 years. None of the lists included any...
What Reading Taught Me About Living in 2023
By Joe Byerly Essayist Maria Popova recently wrote, “To look back on a year of reading is to be handed a clear mirror of your priorities and passions, of the questions that live in you and the reckonings that keep you up at night.”...
AI Picked 25 Books Military Leaders Should Read
by Jasper AI (with oversight from Joe Byerly and Jack Hadley) A Note from Joe and Jack: Recently From the Green Notebook leadership has been playing with artificial intelligence (AI) tools for artwork, branding, and social media posting. To assess...
4 Reading Recs For Holistic Self-Development
by Jack Hadley Military professionals’ reading for self-development tends to fall into two general categories. First, well, military professional reading. This genre is flexible, but generally includes things like A Message to Garcia (and other...
A Father-Daughter Book Club Review of Slaughterhouse-Five
by Amy Padilla My father is a retired Marine Corps Major General and a combat veteran who gave over 37 years of his life to the service. He is now living his best life in Woodland Park, CO, enjoying retirement and lots of time with family. A big...
What Reading Taught Me About Living in 2022
By Joe Byerly Lesson #1: The finish line is never fixed Several authors warned about the dangers of hitching our happiness to goal achievement. Too many of us spend years doing things we don’t enjoy while sacrificing the things that bring us...
Broadening with Purpose: Making the Most of the Army’s Broadening Opportunity Program
By Lyndi Dix During my time in company command, I was approached by a few mentors who encouraged me to consider the Broadening Opportunity Program (BOP) as I began thinking about what came next. I knew broadening was a common next step following...
A Body of Work
By Joe Byerly We start each year with the best of intentions, and then life happens. Dry January becomes Damp January. The gym membership app turns into just another unused icon on the phone. Weekly date nights, diets, check-ins with family and...
The Courage to Face Where You Are
By Joe Byerly For the second year in a row, I’ve traveled to Dallas for the Military Appreciation Bowl in an effort to talk to young men and women about the opportunities for serving in our Nation’s military. The multi-day event includes...
Would You Do it in Secret?
By Joe Byerly When I look back on a career’s worth of decisions, I can trace most of my motives to three sources: necessity, passion, and ego. The first is straightforward. I did a lot of things because they were required of me. I moved across the...
A Leader’s True North – Start with the Golden Rule (Yeah, that one)
By CSM Scott Dinse A young leader has plenty of reason to be confused about what effective leadership looks and/or feels like. We have books, podcasts, experts, and even celebrities telling us what we should be doing and how we should be getting it...
Adjusting the Learning Curve to Mentor the Workforce of the Future
by Chaveso “Chevy” Cook Recruiting and retaining top talent, especially from younger generations, is a hot topic, regardless of the workforce context. From managing Millennials, Gen Z, and incoming Gen Alpha in our workspaces, to garnering their...
An Open Letter to NCOs: Reclaiming Developmental Counseling
By: Gustavo Arguello Let’s be honest: most leaders feel that they are stretched thinner than a supply sergeant’s budget at the end of the fiscal year. Between deployments, training exercises, training meetings, and the endless admin requirements,...
The View We Never Get
By Joe Byerly It’s like looking down from a mountain top and seeing it all. I know everything that’s going to happen to him. As he struggles through college algebra, I know he’s going to be just fine and earn his degree. As he wrestles with...
From So What to Therefore
This is part II of a two-part series for intelligence officers. Read part I here. By Louis Crist Have you ever been told, “Just give me the ‘so what’!” I saw this over and over again as an OC/T, watching commanders frustratingly critique their S2s...
Think Like a Commander
By Lou Crist Several years ago, during an interview, I was asked, “What is the most important thing an S2 does?” The question took me aback. After some thought, I answered that the S2 should impart their understanding of the enemy to the commander....
Stories That Win Wars: The Role of Narrative in Military Planning and Innovation
Tom Gaines In military strategy, critical thinking, adaptability, and effective communication are essential. Traditional military instruction, focused on logic, data analysis, and protocols, often falls short in preparing leaders for the...
Unlock Your Potential Through Journaling
By Melissa A. Czarnogursky “The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the process of association and discernment.” –Julia Cameron I had the wrong perspective on journaling. Throughout my military career, mentors...
Multitasking is Bad for Your Brain
This post originally appeared on The Quiet Workplace By Michele O’Hagan In today’s job market, multitasking is the norm. “Ability to multitask” is listed as a “must” in nearly every job description. We pride ourselves on our ability to juggle...
Check Out the Military Review’s Series on Professional Military Writing
By Rebecca Segal In every job we serve, we learn. Whether you’re journaling to sort through your thoughts or crafting an article to share best practices, writing is an important part of the growth process. At FTGN, we focus on sharing those...
Reflecting on Gratitude- It Will Change Your Life
By Joe Byerly For as long as I’ve been writing, I’ve mostly focused on the positive aspects of leading others. However, not every day as a leader is a good day. In fact, leaders often experience very dark days.One of the hardest days of...
May 3rd Prospective Writers Information Webinar
If you are interested in writing for From the Green Notebook, or curious to learn more, please attend this webinar on May 3, 2024. It will include information on FTGN’s history, background, audience, readership, and a Q&A portion on writing for...
A Text to Garcia: Business Rules for Work Texting
by Joon Lee “We do NOT use Signal as our primary means of communication!” my fellow staff officer exclaimed. I sympathized—in our years of service, we’ve embraced the tenet that “we train like we fight,” that we must exercise our tactical systems...
3 Reasons to Attend The Next FTGN Writers Webinar
By Kevin Cutright Editor’s Note: Sign up for our May 3rd prospective writers webinar here. Not convinced? Read this piece. I was one of about 15 attendees in From the Green Notebook’s webinar for prospective writers in early February. I...
Warrant Officers Need to Write Well Too
by Mike Lima It’s not just officers who need to know how to write—it’s warrant officers too. Warrant officers now have many roles, including staff officer positions and numerous duties as action officers. As a staff officer, the primary...
Communicating Your Intent: Overcome the Illusion of Transparency
by Dr. Yasmine L. Kalkstein and Brian Gerardi My (Yasmine’s) early experiences as a leader, despite effort and good intentions, were fraught with failure. One problem I ran up against were complaints about my lack of communication. My...
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