Kelly taught Somerville to speak his mind, lead by example, and treat communication as a central act of command. Somerville had spent his career in rooms where senior officers made decisions, supplying information and shaping the signals that carried their intent. Many of his early mentors had learned command before modern communications and were still working out how to incorporate the new flow of information he brought them. The apprenticeship was more interactive than learning by osmosis: Somerville watched commanders respond to uncertainty and helped translate their choices into orders. His Second World War performance emerged from this unusually long exposure to high command.
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Somerville learned high command by carrying information upward
The video's concluding argument presents Somerville's years beside senior officers as an interactive apprenticeship in uncertainty, information, decisions, and orders.