Just about any piece of news you read about the economy is bad news these days and this article on the problems newspapers and the advertising business are experiencing and forecasting is no different.
What caught my eye though is this quote from Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, PLC:
“The real world won’t change for the better till 2010 when greed has overcome fear yet again.”
No matter how you look at that, it says so much and so little about human nature, doesn’t it?
If you’re like me, you’ve always suspected this was the subtext behind many of the right-wing nutballs. Dennis Prager, at a rally for Miss Anti-American Hater, Michelle Bachmann, says that
“Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value.”
Yeah. Go back and read that again. I’ll wait.
Now, in case you think I’m off base here, watch the video. I’ll wait again.
I’m not sure Prager is being an idiot, or just saying what he really believes. In my heart, it is the latter. That “all mean are created equal” line in the Declaration of Independence is probably being sluffed off by Prager as one of those Founding Fathers didn’t really mean “all men” thing.
Not only does Prager not know history (hint: The French got there equality ideals after our American Revolution), but I guess he just doesn’t care that he’s now exposed himself as a first class bigot. But then he was speaking on behalf of Bachmann.
They may be wingnuts, but there are folks listening and cheering. I’m just saying.
Our leaders need to step. Like yesterday. FDR got it. Friend Francine Hardaway sent this quote over Identi,ca and Twitter this morning. It is worth repeating, and repeating, and repeating.
In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with ...understanding and support of the people --FDR
I tried to turn the title of this post into some further Oscar Wilde-like word play but failed. Chris Brogan has been blogging his experiences at this year’s Gnomedex, and one of his posts, The Importance of Being Funny, is worth a chuckle or two. He talks about how being funny impacts storytelling, and it does.
Funny works. The guy or gal who can give us a smile in life will win fans for an an eternity. It often amazes me how folks who can be so freely hilarious in social situations completely lose their funny bone when it comes to conducting their business. And as Chris says, not everyone is funny, nor is every topic.
Noise. It can really bog you down. I know it does me at times. It's warm weather here in the Shenandoah Valley and when warm weather comes we frequently hold some small (one on one, one on two) meetings outside in front of the theatre to enjoy the weather. Unfortunately that brings noise with it. I'm not just talking about the cars and loud trucks that sometimes pass us by. Other employees and even some of our neighbors see us standing around talking and assume they can just walk up and chat. A polite, 'pleaseexcuse us we're in a meeting', usually does the trick, but the noise as already jumped into the conversation and interrupted the meeting flow.
Now, this isn't the passersby's fault. It is ours (or mine) for holding the meeting outdoors.
In my view there's a certain similarity here, though there are differences, with Robert Scoble's search for a noise reduction system whether it is brought to you by Twitter, FriendFeed, or pick your social network. Yes, I'm sure there will be some sort of noise reduction system in the future for these kind of things. The early adopters who have loads of followers will demand them, and the companies that build them don't want to see the Scoble's and the Calacanis's saying they've moved on because of too much noise.
But eventually, even with noise reduction systems, the only way to reduce the noise in any of these circumstances is to acknowledge it and know when to shut it off, whether it is Tweets, replies, comments, email, or what have you. It isn't easy, I know for a fact. I'm not talking about Scoble's first point here (choosing to remain ignorant) because that's a one way street to shutting yourself off, and as Scoble points out, all too well, can lead to those who do choose to swim in what's going on controlling the conversation in an ever decreasing cycle of cultural doom. I guess I'm suggesting that the best way is some sort of personal control and selecting when to swim and when to keep yourself on the beach, (or upstairs in the office.)
As my grandfather used to say,
"Just because the phone rings, you don't have to answer it. You do have a choice."
Doc Searls usually nails the coffin shut on whatever issue he's talking about and once again he does it here. Talking about branding and social networking, which is still a hot topic of late, he says:
Fourth, the thing companies need to do most is stop being all “strategic” about how their people communicate. Stop running all speech through official orifices. Some businesses have highly regulated speech, to be sure. Pharmaceuticals come to mind. But most companies would benefit from having their employees talk about what they do. Yet there are still too many companies where employees can’t say a damn thing without clearing it somehow. And in too many companies employees give up because the company’s communications policy is modeled on a fort, complete with firewalls that would put the average dictatorship to shame. If a company wants to get social, they should let their employees talk. And trust them.
I just dealt with one of the world's craziest and most hated companies, Comcast, on a customer service issue. I got zero satisfaction from the front line employees I first dealt with, and in fact found the way I was treated very insulting. No surprise there. It is Comcast after all. I didn't stop there and ended up getting communications sent to the customer retention department and the local regional office late last night. I got calls from both this morning, assuring me that they would work out the issue. And the issue was resolved. But you could still sense the script and not a real communication attempt happening through the phone.
When you ask someone a question that takes them off the script you can hear the pause and the wheels turning. What I loved, though was one off the cuff comment that was made by one of the troubleshooting reps, and it echoes Doc's point quite well here. The guy said, "sometimes we have to break through a department's firewall to get things done here."
Apparently that's his job. I guess from a business standpoint, when you have to set up a customer retention department or some other kind of troubleshooting mechanism, then you've missed the point somewhere. All the branding and social networking can't save you once that happens. Because sooner or later the script will run out and there are no answers.
"There are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming, freestyle, backstroke. The waterboarding could be used almost to define some of the techniques that our trainees are put through, but that's beside the point."
Someone once said, we get the bozos leaders in office we deserve. In this case, I'm not so sure that holds up.
I just finished the Sunday Morning Reading post, headed over to Twitter, and saw that Hugh MacLeod posted this on GapingVoid: Blogging is Dead? According to Whom? For some reason, the things Hugh is writing about lately are resonating strongly with me and this continues that streak. I'm not sure if I'm scared by or attracted to that, or both.
In any event, he's correct. The only light is a greenlight. Those who keep running helter skelter to the next big thing unfortunately mistake the green in that greenlight for quick piles of cash.
As my grandfather used to always say, if it is a Human Race, what the heck does the finish line look like?
Recent Comments