Getting the Writing from the Wall to the Page

Imagine, as CEO or CIO of a large corporation or the leader of any organization, just imagine trying to mobilize half a million people to be on one page, in one place at the same time focused on the same goal. What channels might you use? How many managers would it take, how many speeches and memos? Could you do it in a day or two? Could you do it this afternoon?




Are you really still saying to your friends, “I don’t get Twitter”?

As innocuous, as simple, as absolutely idiotic as Twitter seems, it handles one very powerful thing with apparent ease – it creates a low cost channel for communication within and between groups.

What are you doing to open up communication within and between groups? Are you creating channels or are you cementing in silos?

Understand, I’m not advocating that you make everyone in and out of your organization get Twitter accounts. Twitter is like any other tool in that it is appropriate for some uses but certainly not for all uses. What I’m really pointing to are the lessons of Twitter, the way it has illustrated how communication channels are a key to harnessing people power.

Nicholas G. Carr has argued that “IT doesn’t matter” in a provocative piece with the same title. Indeed, it is not the particular technology that really matters. No doubt, GM is stuffed with great technology but that hasn’t saved it. As any musician knows and as Eric Clapton sings, “It’s in the way that you use it.”



Are you using technology to create channels and open up bottlenecks or are you cementing in obstacles and reducing flow down to things like disconnected numbers on hard to access pages? How will everyone get on the same page if they can’t even get to it or connect it to their own areas in a way that makes sense?

If knowledge is power, then information is like electricity and technology is the conduit. How well does your technology conduct the information that your people need to bring about your objectives? Does the information connect well between groups or is it difficult to translate? Do you have the structures in place so that you can get everyone on the same page?

This post isn’t really about Twitter. I’m really asking you to think about how to use technology to open up your organizational culture to the information that can energize and animate it.

Even now, strategic advantage is moving to the organizations that are led by people who ‘get’ the lessons of the Twitter revolution. Do you get it too? Or do you plan to wait and see, to wait until the application of those lessons isn’t a competitive advantage any more?