By Bull Winkle
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – Walter Nesbitt, a strategist at the U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) N5 Plans, is improving morale and effectiveness in his directorate by signing off emails with his own pithy thoughts.
Nesbitt, a Navy GS-15, said that he likes how motivational quotes on emails enhance connections and warmth in an impersonal world, “like vanity license plates on a car, or a set of truck balls.”
“I used to quote great military thinkers like Adm. Husband Kimmel or Gen. Custer,” he said, “but frankly I’m just as smart as them. They knew nothing about multi-domain operations, and they’re dead.”
For a time, Nesbitt closed emails with his original saying, “Never fall in love with your own ideas – or other people’s ideas!” “It enhanced trust and teamwork,” he said.
Nesbitt added “Let’s avoid analysis paralysis” to his email signature block after throwing the line at a recent staff meeting. “The catchy rhyme hooked everybody,” he recalled, “and the simple beauty of it made it stick to the wall.”