He's a smart guy, that Chris Corrigan. I loved his observation a propos Fast Company blogging on gossip:
When I am working with organizations who complain that they have communication problems, I always ask about gossip. I ask how long it takes for a juicy rumour to propagate through the organization. People usually respond with some lightning fast time.I always point out that this means that there is no communication problem, the problem is that people are just not passionate enough about issues that are "communication problems." This always leads into nice discussions about working with more passion, rather than devising some useless set of easily broken communication commitments.
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Comments (2)
:-)
Thanks John!
January 23, 2004 21:39 Permalink for comment
Chris' comment's great, isn't it? I think there are a couple of related caveats though.
One is that the research he was (indirectly) referring to suggested that gossip was a tool for people determining or increasing their social status. So the communication comes with baggage.
The other is has to do with Chinese Whispers. Just because a rumour gets round a company quickly, that doesn't mean that the communication channels don't have "noise". Gossip can change the tone, mood and even content of the message.
Of you can be bothered, I made a larger (slightly rambling!)comment on it here
Still, thanks for the pointer :)
February 5, 2004 17:34 Permalink for comment