The Old Steam Ginny

The old guy who has worked in communications for too long got pulled up short today.

Less than five minutes after alerting a select group of organizational leaders that an important contract announcement was coming, it was Twitter-alert heaven.  Twitter followers suddenly knew more than we did. The media was calling while the news release was still being hammered out. Along with the giddiness of a major announcement, there was suddenly an overwhelming sense of trying to make the old steam ginny turn over one more time.

But the question is, when an organization believes there are certain interest groups who should get their information directly from the source without external mediation, how does it cope with the immediate transparency of a new information disemination model that practices from the opposite view?

Well, the simple answer is that it does or it fails.

Finding a balance between the expectations of the elite--whoever they might be and for whatever reason--and the realities of digital citizenry's real-time participation presents huge challenges to our traditional view of information...well, call it what it is...control.

So, does this mean the end of privilege? Does it mean lowering the expectations of those who rightfully believe they should be accorded certain information because they are "in the know" or perhaps even properly have rights as primary clients? Is this a good, bad, or unimportant consideration?

If the media is truly the message, then perhaps we need to rethink how we, as organizations, plan and execute those communications we consider to be important. Maybe we need to get over ourselves and redefine what is truly important. Perhaps we need to change not just the way we operate but the very expectations of those for whom we operate.

Otherwise, we will spend the remainder of our lives stoking an aging but one-time efficient firebox that in today's reality only belches air-polluting black clouds into what might otherwise be pristine air.