The Widget Campaign: Information Relevancy

In my journalism days, I used to tell a story to outsiders to explain how news is generated. It still has great relevance to how information flows within and without an organization.

In the story, the publisher arrives one Monday morning and announces to the managing editor that at a cocktail party the previous Saturday evening, all the chatter was about Widgets. Maybe it should be looked into.

Managing editor calls in his assistants and indicates that the Big Guy wants something done on Widgets. Assistants go to the city desk and demand a serious campaign on Widgets.

City desk puts together a team and for the next week the paper features endless, award-aimed, stories about Widgets.

After about ten days and pages upon pages of Widget articles, the publisher informs the managing editor that his contacts are wondering why all this noise about Widgets.

Instantly, the cry goes out: No More Widget stories!

In many organizations with hierachical structures, information flow is similar to the Widget campaign. Information that flows from the top down the chain, or from the bottom up the chain, gets extremely distorted along the way.

Noise is accumulated and time is lost as the information stops at each level. Information flow is usually seriously impaired and the information that makes it is often very distorted.

Similarly, information flow for marketing and communications is often impaired inside and outside an organization.

Those in charge of information usually employ traditional information channels, i.e. public relations. But various corporate managers ride herd on and “add” to the information process.

The result is often a press release or information campaign written by committee that covers everybody’s butts, says absolutely nothing, and is numbingly dull. It invariably finds its way right into everybody’s trash can and the campaign falls flat.

But just as organizational information flow can often be speeded up and cleansed by using a network structure, use of social media networks can sometimes eliminate the clog and crud that is often a feature of corporate information campaigns.

Dissemination through different channels demands that the information be relevant to the user. This in turn often forces the deliverer to speak plainly, have a point, and tell a logical and interesting story.

Explore posts in the same categories: communications, organizational information

Tags: communications, information, information flow, journalism, marketing, plain speaking, public relations, storytelling, written by committee

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