Archive for September, 2009

The September issue of the Harvard Business Review carries an article by Paul Hemp entitled Death by Information Overload.  As the editor notes, it’s an entertaining read in which Hemp articulates the problem and its consequences before identifying some possible solutions.

The thing that struck me was the apparent lack of control the author feels any of us actually has over the problem. We are all unwitting victims of the communication monster we’ve created and simply have to live with the consequences. Yes, new technology can help us cope better but essentially, it’s all about coping. 

To a large extent, current communication practice means this is true. Many of us do feel as if we have very little control (as we do about many other aspects of corporate life) and that it is really someone else’s problem. But what if we suddenly started to take back some control and use tools already widely available and culturally aligned? What if we used instant messaging for those brief exchanges that don’t require a lengthy and apparently endless email trail? What if project or topic related communication was confined to discussion threads, open to all and providing a lasting record of past discussion? And what if people were required to subscribe to the content they want rather than simply having it pushed at them?

Technology no longer presents the barrier to a more manageable communication environment. The new barrier is our willingness as employees to step up, kick the email habit and make better use of the alternatives. It’s certainly more effort in the short term but the long term prize is definitely worth fighting for.

True story: At the height of the dot com years a friend fell in with the New Jersey punk scene. About the same time, the punk scene discovered blogging. Punks blogged about all sorts of things, but mostly they blogged about each other. It was lively and scurrilous and probably libelous; and like watching a slow motion cat fight, it was utterly gripping. Until it became hard work to read.

Following any particular conversation involved jumping between a dozen different blogs, chasing it through posts and comments from at least as many actors. It made me wonder why the punks didn’t just use a forum instead, but I was missing the point. The culture of the crowd was self-expression; forums tend to be topic-centric, blogs are people-centric. Whilst a forum would have been more efficient, it made much more cultural sense for the conversations to happen via blog posts and comments.

Collaboration tools are not all alike, and often approach the same ground from very different starting points (usually reflecting the heritage of their makers); some focus on people, some on files, some on converations, some on project management. All are perfectly valid approaches.

For communicators embarking upon the journey towards Enterprise 2.0 I think the blogging punks can offer us an interesting lesson: that a tool which is culturally aligned with a group has as good a chance of success (if not better) than one which meets all the requirements on paper but is somehow alien.

There’s nothing quite like a recession to prompt some fairly heavy duty introspection and our world of internal communication is certainly no exception. IC functions everywhere are assessing and refining their role, mainly to operate within narrower financial constraints but also to take more control over their destiny. Introspection is also de rigueur amongst consultants and I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in some fascinating discussions of late about the next big thing.

Contrast this though with the reality of what those outside our world expect. Ask your average leader or employee and news and channel management, communication of key ‘top down messages’ and a bit of two way comms thrown in for good measure remain the priority. In other words, getting the basics right and not pushing new frontiers.

So what is next? More of the same to keep our customers happy or a new world in which IC embraces the communication revolution happening outside the organisation? The answer of course is both. There will always be news and channels to manage, a ‘top down message’ to communicate and feedback to obtain and IC will continue to do all those things. But like it or not, a new world is emerging, one in which everyone has a voice and, crucially, the platform to make that voice heard. I believe our challenge is to create, promote and manage that environment so that information can flow wherever it is needed.

This is a new blog, launched to coincide with our new look and feel. Our aim is to provide our own personal views and stimulate discussion about how this new world is shaping up by sharing insights from our clients and other organisations. Enjoy!