Government leaders who are reluctant to allow employees access to social media must realize that message control in today's new-media environment is an illusion, advised Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.

"The organization's voice is just one of many consistently touching on subjects of core interest to its identity and activities...it would be a strategic error of the most basic nature to not do everything you can to empower your workforce to communicate on behalf of the organization," he said, according to a transcript of his June 6 remarks (.pdf) at the Institute for Public Relations' Strategic Communications Summit in Arlington, Va.

Roughead said the Navy is "irreversibly" committed to engaging in social media throughout the organization and has only recently come to realize the "demand for radical transparency" in external communications.

Rather than think of the medium as the message, Roughead claims the process is the message--a communication process that is closed and controlling appears contrived and renders it ineffective.

"When you empower your workforce to be communicators, you must understand that you won't always agree with what they say or perhaps how they say it. You can certainly set reasonable boundaries--we tell our Sailors not to disclose classified information, and we expect everyone to treat everyone else with dignity and respect. But you can't dictate everything your people say," said Roughead.

Navy is also using social media to better connect internally. In the wake of the Japan tsunami and flooding in Millington, Tenn., the service was able to better monitor who needed help. "Virtual listening didn't replace the regular reports I received on relief supplies, the number of families affected, or the extent of radiation in affected areas, but it certainly augmented them," said Roughead.

By having junior officers maintain blogs and Facebook pages, communities have grown to better support one another--helping to address attrition and retention problems, Roughhead said.

Integrating social media within a hierarchical organization is not without its challenges, however. Roughead said leaders must help the workforce navigate the blurring line between professional and personal, set policies that strike a balance between accountability and empowerment, and guard against the temptation of "making it about you," and not the organization.

For more:
- read a transcript of Roughead's remarks (.pdf)

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