At Ragan.com today, I have a piece on the purpose of employee communication, past and present. I was moved to adapt it from a speech I gave a couple of years ago as my long response to a roaring conversation in IABC's LinkedIn group.
Roger D'Aprix started that conversation with the provocative question, "Is Our Profession Intellectually Lazy?"
"He forgot to mention morally bankrupt and emotionally dead," begins my answer Ragan.com.
I'd love to contine the conversation with you: here, there or anywhere. To kick it off, here's a response I got from a communication veteran I've known for many years.
Thanks for your column. The sad reality is, Dave, I have pretty much given up. What made your column so worthwhile for me was your description of employee communications as a place that in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, became a haven for ex=journalists (like me).
A place where we cared about messaging and innovative ways of fostering dialogue and motivating people to a new way of thinking, rather than trying out the latest gizmo.
I have wondered if I just wasn't operating in the right locales recently. But the fact is, in the past 3 years alone, I've worked with a whole host of Fortune 500 firms.
Maybe 20% of the time the experience felt remotely like what corpcom felt like to me in the 1990s even. Mostly, it was a bunch of goofballs checking their Twitter feeds and laughing about what Miley Cyrus did last night on the MTV Awards while I am asking them what 3 strategic messages are most important to them at the moment. And getting blank stares in return. From people making $55,000 – 90,000 a year. Plus benefits.
Sad but true. But thanks to your column I now know although I may be feeling out of touch at least I am not hallucinatory.
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