Articles
Lay Your Ego Down (The Lumineers’ Version)
By Joe Byerly I caught The Lumineers in Raleigh this week. During the show, Wes Schultz mentioned that he and his bandmate Jeremiah Fraites have been writing and playing music together for over two decades. If you are a music fan like me, you...
Ep 160- Surviving Separation: Deployments and Relationships with Dr. Galena Rhoades
Dr. Galena Rhoades, coauthor of Fighting For Your Marriage, returns to From the Green Notebook to talk with Joe about the strain that deployments, training, and time apart place on military marriages—and how couples can stay...
The Day I Took Command: Leading Through Crisis and Learning Command in Real-Time
By Joe Hap The call came late. My commander had been in a serious accident. Suddenly, everything I thought I knew about leadership changed. In an instant, I wasn’t preparing for command—I was living it. No ceremony. No speeches. Just a...
Ep 159: Army Directive 2025-18 with Sergeant Major of the Army
In this special Notebook Notes episode, Joe sits down with Sergeant Major Urzua and Sergeant Major Brady to discuss the Army Directive 2025-18, with a guest appearance from Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer. The intent behind the...
The Power of Patience
by CPT Benjamin L. Kenneaster Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing”. It waits on the right time to act, for the right principle and in the right way.-Fulton J. Sheen A Forgotten Principle An article from...
The Walls We Build
By Joe Byerly About a year ago, I got into an argument with my wife that spiraled way beyond what we were actually talking about. It began with a question about where to go for breakfast, but escalated into a full-blown shouting match. She said one...
The Tone Range Fan: A Tool for Leaders at All Levels
By COL Ed Arntson and LTC Erik Miller “We must strive to become experts in the human dimension. Wars are fought on land, by humans, and we must always work to become better at how we interact with one another to build trust and cohesion.” – GEN...
What is Power?
By Joe Byerly Two Army officers stand across from each other. Both are in their mid-50s. One slightly older, but only by a few years. Both wear stars on their shoulders. Both have commanded thousands of troops—the elder, tens of thousands. The...
Ep 158- Turning Groups into Teams: Lessons for Leaders with Dr. Colin Fisher
Author and researcher Dr. Colin Fisher joins Joe to unpack the invisible forces that shape teams—and why leaders ignore them at their own risk. From his book The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups Dr. Fisher shows...
Representing the Uniform, Even When It’s Not On
By Noah Jager When we wake up in the morning and put on the uniform, sometimes freshly pressed or other times rumpled and grabbed from a rucksack, we are expected to uphold the standards that come with our service. With the American flag strapped...
What Happens When Robots Gain Human Rights?
I recently read Annalee Newitz’s debut sci-fi novel, Autonomous. The page-turning book follows the story of Jack, an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, and the human/robot team hot on her trail after one of her latest drug hacks...
The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence
I recently picked up a copy of Amir Husain’s The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence. The book reminds me of Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead, published in 1997 when VHS was king, everyone went to Blockbuster, and the...
Our Year of War: An Interview with Lieutenant General (RET.) Daniel Bolger
Last month I had the privilege of reading LTG (RET.) Bolger’s latest book Our Year of War: Two Brothers, Vietnam, and a Nation Divided and it quickly became a page turner. The book not only tells the story of Chuck and Tom Hagel and...
What Are you Reading?
Are you looking for something to read for professional development? If you have been following this site for awhile, you know that I like to read. Matter of fact, I like to read ALOT. And at any give time, I’m reading between 3-5 books. They...
Introducing Legacy Magazine
While the content of From the Green Notebook is focused on the professional growth of service members, I love supporting those connected to the military who venture out to launch noteworthy initiatives. In this case, a group of spouses came...
The 2017 Ultimate Summer Reading List
By Joe Byerly Last summer I reached out to friends from around the national security community and asked what they were reading. The collective list became a hit, and for me personally, became the bulk of my reading material for the remainder of...
When War Comes Home: An Interview
I heard about American War back in December, and finally got my hands on a copy a few days after it was available for purchase. After reading the first couple of pages, I was hooked. It wasn’t only the subject matter that pulled me in,...
The Truth in Fiction: An Interview
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with author Mike Bond and discuss his latest book Assassins as well as the importance of fiction to military professionals. If the interview piques your interest, I encourage you to check out his book...
2016 in Books
By Joe Byerly Every December I share a list of books that I’ve read throughout the year with the hope that readers will check them out and consider adding a title or two to their libraries. This list is a testament to my amazing network...
Preparing Your Team for Atlantic Resolve
By LTG Frederick “Ben” Hodges For those leaders of rotational brigades who will participate in great training exercises and opportunities with our European Allies, I do not want you to view your mission in isolation....
FM 1: A Primer to Our Profession of Arms and to Professional Development
By: Michael Villahermosa In 2008 when I arrived at 30th AG, Replacement Battalion, I was handed the IET Soldier’s Handbook (TRADOC Pamphlet 600-4). For the next 16 weeks, I carried this dry read about the Army Values, Warrior Ethos, and using...
Reflections of a Specialty Platoon Leader (and Why You Should Do It)
by William Moorhead As an Infantry Lieutenant, your time as a Platoon Leader (PL) is the peak of your first four years in the Army. You will train for it, stress over it, and only begin to appreciate it once you are out of the seat and begin...
Don’t Let the Colors Touch
By Joe Byerly Wake upSlog down a cup of coffeeBrush teeth and shaveGranola barGrab my bagFlip the office light onEmailsPhysical trainingShowerMeetingsTrainingMore meetingsLast minute emergenciesEmergencies that shouldn’t be last minuteGrab my...
From Gatekeeping to Growth: Culture Change Lessons from an RTB Commander
by Jace Neuenschwander “I learned the hard way. Sometimes the best way to change a culture is to stop trying to change it.” A former Battalion Commander said these words to me, and his advice has stuck with me for years. This former Commander led...
Risk, Data, and Leader Presence: A Better Way to Combat Corrosive Behavior
By Kyle D. Popelka On a characteristically comfortable December day in southern Arizona, commanders and senior enlisted advisors from across Fort Huachuca gathered to discuss risk reduction and combating harmful behaviors within the force. Leaders...
What’s the Cost of Greatness?
By Joe Byerly A dozen eggs costs about $3. A value meal at McDonald’s? Around $5. A Friday night movie ticket? $17. These prices are tangible. We know them before we walk into the store, pull into the drive-thru, or pick someone up for a night out....
One More Play: Commanding at the Finish Line
By Joe Byerly Today marks one year since I changed command and then signed out on terminal leave from the Army. This morning, I reread my journal entry from that day—and decided to write a few reflections on that decision: to stay in the 20-year...
How to Become the AI-Empowered Iron Major
Partnering with Your AI-Teammate in the Mundane Trenches of Staff Officer Warfare By Jerry Champion It’s after 1800, and you’re knee-deep in your sixth meeting of the day. The chat thread in Microsoft Teams is growing longer by the second, sidebar...
My “Why”: The Army Family
By Mike Everett We’ve all been asked numerous times: Why did you join? The answer early in my career was “to pay off my college debt.” There may have been other reasons—the challenge, love for country, and a meaningful career. But, initially, the...
How to Quit Climbing the Envy Ladder
By Joe Byerly One of the pitfalls of ambition, if we’re not careful, is that we start looking outward too much, always measuring our life against the lives of others. They have a nicer house. A cooler job. A better car. Even their vacations look...
8 Reasons Why NCOs Should Write and Publish
By Alex Licea and Harlan Kefalas Whether it is flipping through the pages of military journals or reading articles on various military websites, we both notice one trend: Many if not most of the pieces we read are written by officers, both active...
Leadership in the Digital Age
How have blogs, social media, and the internet shaped leadership and leader development in the Digital Age? Join us at the AUSA Annual Meeting on October 3rd from 1330-1430 (EST) in Room 204 A&B as we answer this question! Even...
Writing in the Military: The Problem of Time
By LTC Scott Shaw In a recent article, US Army Major and Strategist Matt Cavanaugh states there are three reasons that military officers do not write and thus do not contribute to our profession: the failure to wield the pen, the failure to wield...
Harnessing Social Media for Military Power
In 2008, Scott Beale wanted to attend the Google party at South by Southwest Interactive (a 5-day conference featuring presentations and panels from rising stars and big names in the technology and entertainment fields); however, the line was way...
On Senior Leaders and Social Media: An Interview with Brigadier Mick Ryan
This post originally appeared at Small Wars Journal on May 26, 2015 Several years ago, I discovered the power of social media and its potential impacts on the military profession and us as individuals. From sharing articles and ideas to connecting...
Writing in the Professional Military: I tried it and was not attacked by sea monsters
This post originally appeared @ Tom Ricks’ Best Defense on 1/29/15. The maps of cartographers early in the Age of Exploration included an interesting element that affected early explorers. When drawing areas of uncharted waters, they...
Think, Write, and Publish: An Army Captain’s Perspective
This post is also available on the Small Wars Journal “Nail your whispers to the wall. Conclude the trilogy of read..think..and write. Is there ‘career risk’ in publishing? I suppose. Hasn’t hurt me too badly over the years, I’d...
A Charge to Veterans No Longer in Uniform
Below is a letter that General Jonathan Wainwright sent to Soldiers discharged from the military, following their service in World War II. As our military downsizes and many choose to leave the service, I think this letter reminds us of...
The Power of a Note
By Joe Byerly Tonight I read an article in the Army Times titled Nearly Half of Soldiers say Army isn’t committed to them and for whatever reason it made me think of a handwritten note I received almost 10 years ago from my Battalion...
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