Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 74

with expressing complex ideas in bullet points.28 This
last point is particularly significant.
A Washington Post online editorial by Ruth Marcus
explains that after the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia
disaster, investigative task forces called out the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) use
of the presentation software “for special criticism.”29
Marcus quotes the final report of the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board and Yale researcher
Edward Tufte, whose work the board considered. The
report identifies a particular slide from an important
presentation and states, “it is easy to understand how
a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and
not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation.”30 The Board further identifies “the endemic use of
PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers
as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical communication at NASA.”31
Author Thomas E. Ricks, in his book Fiasco: The
American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005,
describes how under then Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, combatant commanders were
relying on PowerPoint slides as a planning and
communication tool.32 Ricks reports that in 2002,
then Army Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan received
planning guidance in the form of PowerPoint slides
prepared for Rumsfeld by then Army Gen. Tommy
Ray Franks when he was commander of U.S. Central
Command. Franks did not provide clear instructions
based on normal planning processes:
McKiernan … couldn’t get Franks to issue clear orders that stated explicitly what
he wanted done, how he wanted to do
it, and why. Rather, Franks passed along
PowerPoint briefing slides that he had shown
to Rumsfeld. … [McKiernan said,] “That is
frustrating, because nobody wants to plan
against PowerPoint slides.”33
Unfortunately, the PowerPoint trend that was developing under Rumsfeld shows little sign of burning out.

How Can the Army Ensure its
Leaders Use Communication Tools
Effectively?
All levels of the Army officer education system should expressly acknowledge the importance
of communication skills in leadership. Bundling
72

communication among other aspects of leadership diminishes the central importance of t