Had a faithful reader send on the link to an interview with a guy on live TV who turned out to not be the person the anchor thought she was interviewing. The expression on the poor guy’s face when they introduce him is priceless (he turns out to be a cab driver waiting for an interview). Take a look. What is perhaps the saddest thing about the whole interview is that the interviewer never even seems to realize that the guy has no idea what he’s talking about, and his responses don’t tip her off.This probably says more about us as an audience than it does about the interviewer (or the producer). We’ve becomed so accustomed to messages that don’t say anything that complete babble doesn’t even set off alarms. I talked with a friend tonite who shared that the higher-ups in his BIG corporation don’t even share their opinions with one another, much less the company at large or the public, for fear that they could be held to them or passed over based on them. What a shame. I’m not usually in a position to respond the way I’d like to statements like:”We need to empower our employees to improve our time to market, so that we can provide a value-add 24×7 to our most treasured resource — our customer.“”We must leverage our domain experts across the enterprise to improve our year-over-year revenue stream and sustain our core competencies.“If I could respond, I’d stand up and shout: “Would you actually say something, please?” Unfortunately, the politics of the business world tend to dictate who wins and loses, and the high-paying, high-power jobs at the top are (for unknown reasons) desired enough that people are unwilling to stand on principle for most anything. Which in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad, but masquerading drivel as content becomes the standard, and we’re all subject to having to listen and pretend that we are inspired by statements that mean absolutely nothing. I don’t believe people who have nothing to say should be allowed to speak in the corporate setting. But we’d have lots of hour-long meetings of silence if that was enforced, and our “leaders” would be exposed as politicians and not leaders. If you’re fortunate enough to work for a leader who has vision, communicates purpose, and believes in what they’re doing enough to make a stand, then please follow and support them.As a matter of practice, try to outline the next corporate drivel you attend — you might be shocked at how little is said.
The point is: have one.
Timing is everything. Steve Crescenzo blogs today at http://blog.ragan.com/archives/stevesblog/2006/05/crap_in_the_ann.html about his annual Corporate Rhetoric Awards Program (C.R.A.P.) and what people really say/mean. Worth a look.