I’m in love with mechanistic communication—is that so wrong?

It landed on my desk with a thud. Fed Ex. “It’s here!” I thought to myself, elated. I opened the package to find a copy of the latest Roger D’Aprix. book, The Credible Company, inside. When it comes to modern information practices, no one beats Roger D'Aprix. He was named by IABC as “one of the most influential thinkers in the communication profession in the last 25 years."

Actually, I already have a copy of this book on my desk. But this one is different. This copy I won (which always makes something more awesome) and it is inscribed by Roger. He wrote, “To Beth… May your work help further the cause I’ve tried to outline in this book. Always remember how sacred this work is to people who depend on us for truth of their lives.” Wow. That’s some deep stuff.

Some of the most powerful lines from Roger’s latest book come from its Epilogue. In the section “Changing Role of Communication” he writes, “In greatly oversimplified terms, there are two important and defining issues. One is the matter of trust in formal and official communications. The other is the profession’s growing love affair with mechanistic communication and the tendency to apply newer and newer technology as an end in itself, with slight regards to human needs in the workplace.”

I can’t deny it. I’m pretty sure I’m one of those professionals in love with mechanistic communication. But hopefully I know the difference of when high tech is best applied and how to complement communication plans with human touch. And I greatly admire Roger’s work, but when it comes to applying newer & newer technology-- my thinking may differ. I encourage communicators to be willing to "try new technology for technology sake." Some of this is healthy. It's experimentation. If we don't try, how will we learn how these new tools work? How will we learn what reaction they will get? How will we learn how tech tools should be complimented with other communication tools and processes? All of this is necessary so that we continue to move along the learning curve that will allow us to better apply the technologies that are radically changing our workplaces.  I believe this can be done at the same time as meeting human needs in the workplace.

Have you read this book? What do you think about Roger’s cautions about “being in love with mechanistic communications”? Haven’t read it yet? Write me a note, now I have an extra copy I can send you (not my autographed version of course, that one's all mine.)

Will you be ready for the next thing? Why learning Twitter today really does matter

Recently, I was having a discussion with a very esteemed colleague— a high-level communicator who has  quite a distinguished career. He asked me if I thought Twitter will be still around in 5 years. (Funny, I’ve heard this question a lot over the last few months...) Now, I don’t have a crystal ball but I know one thing for sure: whether Twitter is around or not doesn’t actually matter. From my point of view, it’s really about the progressive learning that’s happening right now, and being a part of it. For one, it seems clear to me that micro-blogging (made popular by Twitter) has forever changed expectations about length of messages, source, and delivery speed. As modern communicators, we need to be "in" on this sort of culture shift. Two, I’m pretty sure that by learning Twitter now, it’s going to be easier to adapt to "What Comes Next.” I can name several examples of where I’ve already seen this in my career. Not to date myself, but I learned page layout in PageMaker. That program is gone, but InDesign and other page layout tools are built on similar capabilities and expectations. I experience this again and again every time I get a new software version or download the latest App Store Updates. The knowledge of how things work is cumulative. Part of the reason why my colleague asked me the question about Twitter (I’m guessing) was that he had no intention of learning how to use it. For him--someone who’s close to retirement-- that’s fine. But for me, “not learning” isn’t an option. So, teach me more about Twitter (and SharePoint, and cloud computing, and …), and I’ll share what I know. Because, learning today really does matter. How about you? What do you think?