Yesterday I discovered a book on the web. The Cluetrain Manifesto is downloadable from www.cluetrain.com. It is a business book written by four co-authors on how corporations need to pay more attention to human values. The book is premised on 95 theses. Thus far, I have read the Foreword, Introduction and the theses. Even from this short reading I see some applicability for the Diocese of CNY.
From the Theses with Comments
4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural and uncontrived.
This just isn't how things in the Diocese of Central NY are done these days. Take our diocesan convention - it was highly scripted and controlled by agenda, the bishop and the chancellor. The few places that there were for "the human voice" were at small hearings or on breaks. Another example is the sexuality committee that was put together for the dcny. It was stacked with liberals and one conservative priest. When objections were raised to this, a conservative lay person was added. That made the balance something like 6 to 1 rather than 12 to 1. That's not an open conversation - that's a conversation controlled in order to get the desired outcome.
16. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, and no longer speaking to anyone.
Where does the diocese turn when it needs to communicate important information? Lately it has been turning to a public relations firm. Case in point: the statement that was issued after the emergency meeting of clergy last January.
26. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are afraid of their markets.
Hello? Why does the diocese hire a p.r. firm? Are they afraid of speaking the truth and what might result from the truth?
38. Human communities are based on discourse - on human speech about human concerns.
There used to be something called diomail; it was an open conversation, but now it's gone. The diocese prefers control of information to open conversation. Now we have dionews and it is controlled by the diocesan office. Human speech about human concerns happens now in different ways, like this blog and private conversations and emails.
44. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore.
Like dionews?
45. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation.
Like the defunct diomail?
47. While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge. They need to resist the urge to "improve" or control these networked conversations.
You mean like shutting down diomail?
51. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.
Interesting.
52. Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies.
Exactly. The problem is that the dead don't realize that they are dead. They believe that they are just doing effective management.
That's enough for today. I'll add to this at another time.
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