I haven't read The Credible Company yet, but that shouldn't stop you from reading it, especially if you've never read Roger D'Aprix before.

Reading D'Aprix is realizing for the first time that you really haven't known what you were doing in employee communication all these years while simultaneously thinking, "I've known all this all my life."

D'Aprix's at-once bracing and comforting combination of business realism and basic humanism will make you understand your work in the rich psychological, social and political context in which it rightly and properly belongs.

Just reading D'Aprix can transform you from a clever tactitian into a complete communication philosopher. (Even if you think you're a complete communication philosopher already.)

Have a read, and let me know. (I'll have read the book by then myself.)

You should know him; he wrote “City of New Orleans.” He died young, of leukemia, but he could make a guy’s roof leak. Especially a guy with a real leaky roof. The Murrays are off today to Ohio to see Granddaddy, back Monday.

The other day a colleague wanted to impress someone by sharing a compliment I had paid. But the person she wanted to impress had never heard of me, so my colleague referred to me as an "employee communication guru.”

I was embarrassed, until I remembered: This is how all gurus get made. I've made some gurus myself in this way, simply by calling them gurus in order to get other people to listen to what they have to say. (In some cases, getting them to pay to listen, at conferences.)

It’s the same reason that “connections” are so important in business—and always will be, Facebook and LinkedIn notwithstanding.

Using a “connection” smacks of cronyism, but a "connection" is usually just an answer to the question,

If he’s so good, why haven’t I ever heard of him?

Well, Chief, someone who you know has heard of him. (And actually, he’s considered something of a guru.)

Well, by all means, send him right in!