Keep your Marines informed

Marines are inquisitive by nature. To promote efficiency and morale, you should inform your Marines of all happenings and give reasons why things are to be done.

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
Handing someone a task	Gives the task and none of the reason.	Says what to do and why, so they can adapt when the path breaks.	Gives a speech about context and they still cannot name the next step.
A decision that will change their week	Lets them find out when the work lands differently.	Tells them as soon as you can, including what stays the same.	Forwards every rumor so they spend the week decoding noise.
They have to act without you	Holds the picture in your head and answers one question at a time.	Gives them enough of the situation to do the job and to use their own judgment.	Dumps the whole file and calls that informing them.
You cannot say everything	Goes silent and lets them invent the story.	Says what you can, says what you cannot, and tells them when more will come.	Says past the limit after they already have the boundary.
You will be gone and the work will not	Leaves a task list with no picture of the situation.	Leaves the goal, the constraints, and who to ask.	Writes a manual so long that nobody can find the one decision they will have to make.
They ask why	Treats the question as resistance.	Gives the reason they need to do the job intelligently.	Opens a debate on every order, including ones that cannot wait.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

Officership Foundations, The Basic School
The published wording of this principle, in numbered doctrine order.
marines.mil
MCWP 6-10 Leading Marines
Doctrine that covers the leadership principles and the traits they rest on.
marines.mil
MCDP 6 Command and Control
Command and control depends on shared understanding, not on holding information.
marines.mil