‘Where can you set the example of thinking out loud?’

Hopefully as you execute the tenets of mission command you’re communicating intent clearly.  I heard GEN Milley talk once about how he forms intent – utilizing endstate, space, time, and terrain.  I think it gets to a lot of the art of mission command – communicating not only your spoken intent, but unspoken.  It starts to get back to the discussion we had in previous chapters about example.

I think in the book the author is using ‘thinking out loud’ to explore ways leaders can communicate without shutting down initiative, giving too much direction, or miscommunicating intent.  I think it’s another area where setting the right climate and establishing the right boundaries are key.  This seems like one of those questions without an established set of norms for a unit or an organization where the answer early in a leaders’ tenure is much different than later.