Most organizations during that time were tightening control, limiting information to "need to know." As someone who came from military intelligence, I completely understand that instinct. You hold information tight. You don't give out communication unless people absolutely need to know.
Carrie did the opposite.
Her team ended every discussion during COVID with one question: "Who else needs to know?"
Not "who has a need to know"—that's the control mentality I was trained in. "Who else needs to know"—that's the collaboration mentality that creates aligned action across organizations.
"The military is the greatest meritocracy perhaps we have in this nation. Everybody comes in at an equal level playing field and you get out of it what you put into it."
For frustrated high-achievers tired of navigating office politics, subjective performance reviews, and advancement based more on relationships than results, this matters. Defense sectors—whether uniformed service or civilian contracting—operate on demonstrated capability. Your work ethic, skills, and results speak louder than your network or pedigree.
John's own journey proves this. He didn't come from a military family with connections or a service academy background. He was a college kid inspired by Top Gun who joined the Navy Reserve as a corpsman—a medical technician—to pay for school at Arizona State University. He worked his way through five and a half years in the reserves before commissioning as a Marine officer.
And so, let's consider that we don't misread each other because we don't care. We misread each other because we've been leaning so hard into our own patterns — the way we connect, the way we process, the way we show love — that we never stop to ask what the woman across from us needs to actually receive it.
