Doug Pinkham is traveling this week, but we are delighted to welcome our guest blogger, Nate Garvis. Nate is a former chairman of the Public Affairs Council and president of a strategic consulting firm.
September 15, 2010
It's hard to believe, but it's been more than a decade since the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto (http://www.cluetrain.com/index.html) was unleashed on the Internet. If you haven't read it, you might want to. And if you have, perhaps you might want to read it again.
The 95 theses focus on how your organization operates within a conversation: a conversation between your business and your customers, a conversation between your business and its employees and a conversation between your business and the regulating community. And that's just the start.
"Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed," reads the opening. "As a direct result, markets are getting smarter - and getting smarter faster than most companies."
Here's a twist on an old saying. We all know your corporate behavior can follow the letter of the law or the spirit of the law. But, in addition, you need to consider whether your behavior might put you on the front page of The New York Times.
Of these three choices, guess which one is likely to have the longest impact? Violating the law is always a bad decision, and you'll pay the consequences. But strong companies recover from indiscretions if there's no pattern of misconduct. However, if you publicly brand your reputation with that violation or show contempt for sound values, you may never recover from the public outcry.
To be regarded as "clueful," you need to understand why laws exist and how they relate to public expectations.
Some might advise that simply getting a seat on the Cluetrain requires treating the law as basic rules of conduct. But upgrading to the premium seats on the train requires much more. You have to surprise and delight a watchful public, because merely being law-abiding is not the stuff of stellar reputations. It is expected.
Think of it this way: At its core, regulation is nothing more than a way to create predictable and accountable behavior that supports the common good. Writ large, there are many forms of regulation. There are contracts, industry standards, rating systems, procedural rules and laws to protect individual rights. These are all methods for persuading people to avoid bad behavior.
You may be law-abiding, but how is your organization's reputation reflected in the conversations that take place every day on the Internet? Do you follow your talk with your walk? Are you honoring the common good? In other words, are you acting like you have a clue?
Here's an example of one industry that figured out how to get on the Cluetrain: In recent years, the soft drink business has won praise by voluntarily removing beverages sweetened by high fructose syrup from school vending machines. Yes, this may have been a preemptive strike to prevent legislation that might have banned such products, but it showed leadership at just the right time.
By admitting that it played a role in childhood obesity, the soft drink industry found a way to help families and position itself as part of the solution.
Another thing about the Cluetrain is that it's generally not wise to jump on alone. Make sure you have everyone in your company on board. The New York Times isn't going to report that the "public affairs department of Widgets-R-Us, Inc., said xyz." But it will report that your investor relations department is telling a different story than your community relations department. Everyone has to be on the same page. Even if your company is acting in a publicly spirited manner, if you and those in your company aren't well coordinated, then all your good efforts may be for naught.
You must also be aware that there will be other "passengers" - and they can be very influential. As you consider groups involved in public policy issues, you need to decide if you want to be riding next to them. If a controversy breaks out and you're part of the story, chances are they will be part of the story as well. What do they think of you? How do they know you? How have you treated each other in the past? If you're not confident that others want you on the train, you may want to start making friends now. It's certainly preferable to invest in strong relationships before you face a crisis (and before the Cluetrain conductor asks if you have a ticket to ride).
It is easy to understand the intuitive wisdom of the Cluetrain Manifesto when you read it from a personal perspective. It gets tougher to follow the 95 theses when you must consider more and more voices that reflect many competing values. But those are the conversations that companies must have if they want to earn the public's trust.
It starts with creating an honest dialogue, both internally and externally. That's how firms move beyond being defined by what they do and instead by what they mean in the greater community. Pull that off and others just might give you that premium upgrade on the Cluetrain. All aboard!
Nate Garvis is president of Naked Civics LLC, a strategic consulting firm focused on common-good interaction and influence design for institutions across industry sectors. He is a former chairman of the Public Affairs Council and headed the public affairs function at Target Corp. for nearly two decades. Check him out at nakedcivics.com, or contact him at nate@nakedcivics.com.
