Some say that plain text is best. Who am I to complain? When something as simple as 140 characters is enough on Twitter to convey a message, or 160 characters for a mobile text message? We can communicate a lot with very little – and a very simple medium: plain text.
So why are there so many contrasting opinions about using rich text in communications? Especially email?
Email has become one of those communications tools that seem to raise the ire of the “plain text is best†crowd. Some folks just don’t appreciate the HTML emails or fancy formatting others put into their signatures. I’ve seen some folks get downright angry towards these emails, and you can always tell who these folks are as their replies always come back in plain text.
While I won’t pretend to understand the controversy, I do think the plain text crowd is more “no nonsense†and just likes to get about their business. Whereas the rich text crowd probably tends to be heavier on the creative side, and likes to communicate with a bit of aesthetic value.
As we move further into the future, of course, rich text becomes easier to integrate into more communications mediums. The utility of plain text will remain though, as the lowest common denominator for any publishing platform as their job is to simply distribute information – and all that really needs is text.
It’s an interesting time we live in. Economic turmoil, changing social norms, 100 year old publishing businesses crumbling, and new media powerhouses being established. You’d be hard pressed to give our present era a pass and claim it to be not as important as <fill in your favorite era here>.
Along with these incredible times are some challenges for every business, and everyone that works in them. The reality is that the past decade has brought incredible change in our communications and social structures because of digital communication. Included in this is the first generation raised entirely within the Internet, and mobile communication revolution of advanced technology.
This generation has experienced the freedom of wireless connections from an early age, and rediscovered the power of text communications. The “kids†in this generation have expanded their mental and reflex capacities through vigorous sessions of online, multiplayer, interactive & collaborative games. These folks have no stigma about being online, and this generation comes prewired for online social interaction. They have the ability to actively team-build without preamble and pep talks, can do business virtually without the need to meet in person and can work with folks on the other side of the globe as easily as they work with people in the next cube.
This is the youth movement of today, and they’re entering your business right now. These young folks are part of the largest workforce to enter the American business landscape since the boomers. They are your new entry level employees and they know what’s up. They’re smart, fast to learn new things, and anxious to prove themselves. With the Baby Boomers retiring and GenX/Y moving up, these folks coming out of college are bringing a revolution in relationship management with them.
It’s hard to be a medium or large corporation these days. The demands are not small, with expectations of investors, disappointing market performance, employee needs, government regulations and oversight… there’s almost no time left for the most important part of any business: customers.
Of course, that’s where the current craze around social media comes in. The expectation is that any company can use all sorts of free tools to stretch marketing and PR dollars, and maybe make the customer feel more welcome picking up your brand at Wal-Mart.
But that whole scenario is bound to bust as surely as your pick of economic bubbles.
The reality is that to really engage using social media and realize honest benefits requires more than a passing interest in new shiny things. Social media requires real openness, and if you’re not willing to be open, people can tell.
The power of this new ideal comes from the willingness to have an open culture. That means that there are no artificial barriers between departments, positions, business units, or people. It means that interacting with the public is a part of every position, not just the domain of marketing, PR, and an occasional press release from the CEO.
Openness means that the C-level is talking in public forums alongside the shipping department, or accounting, or human resources. Bringing openness to a culture means that everyone is able to talk about nearly anything.
With that being said, it’s ok to still have intellectual property and protect that. You’re right in protecting developing business plans, or new products, or several other types of information an organization holds and makes money from. However, beyond that, an organization can talk openly about the challenges it faces, or hold up a consumer enthusiast group as a model, or any such thing that shows a human side of a company.
Sometimes we, that is companies, worry too much about what the competition may think. Organizations can get wrapped up in being too professional. Being open about things doesn’t take away from any of this. When done from a position of transparency, and honest intention of open interaction, a company can grow a much more loyal consumer base, and open source their own PR army. But that’s another post.
We’ve all been there. You’ve got a great idea that you wish you could find a way to share with the appropriate team at your company. You’re not able to, because you’re not part of that team. Or that department. Heck, it’s not even a field you’ve specialized in or worked in much, but you’ve got that idea – a good one – and you’re sure that it’ll help in some way.
How do you share that idea? How do you get a chance to talk to folks on that team or present that idea without someone saying “gee that’s great†and then ignoring it because you work in another part of the company? How do you make your voice heard?
Unfortunately this is all too common in corporations today because of various institutionalized barriers. Different departments, protective fiefdoms, overzealous paperwork, and draconian process and procedures. These all contribute to the problem we have today of large, slow, companies that make incremental improvements rather than large bold ones.
Cut Out The Middle Man
This is where cutting through the organization from another angle is beneficial, and while it’s not a new idea, its facilitated by social media tools. Call them “Enterprise 2.0†or some other Gartner approved term if it helps you out, but it’s all web 2.0 tools and with social interactivity built into the technology.
These new tools foster that important cross-organization conversations that help promote sharing the institutional knowledge that is part of each employee. Allowing them to forge new relationships and new communities within the organization.
This lets people – the most important resource of any organization – to feel more welcome to share and trade ideas, just like sharing anecdotes and stories. The workplace becomes less rigid in it’s communication allowing everyone from the bottom up, or the top down, to be more receptive to comments, ideas, questions, and suggestions coming from other parts of the organization.
Getting There
Getting to that point is a lot of work, and simply making the executive decision to try something new is a large step in the right direction. That first step is a doozy though, because its all about trust. Not just trust in a new CFO, or in a Director of “This Or Thatâ€. Its trusting every employee at every level. Trusting that they’ll do the right thing. Trusting all those intelligent folks that were hired to do those jobs in the first place.
That’s the first step… the next is almost as hard. Accepting feedback. But that’s another post.
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Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
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