Just been reading a thought-provoking post by Evelyn Rodriguez on her Crossroads Dispatches blog.
Core concept:
The compartmentalization of business and “the rest of life” is breaking down. How we treat acquaintenances, family, friends, and colleagues can’t be night-and-day different from how we’d treat prospective or current customers. Yes, this seems entirely obvious. But the entire business world has been to date about compartmentalization. I understand what Margaret Heffernan meant when I heard her say that when Bernie Ebers (formerly of WorldCom) breaks down in church and appears contrite, she believes him because the Bernie Ebers that goes into church and the Bernie Ebers that goes into work are different persons.
I’m not going to analyze Evelyn’s commentary here, just continue to read it and think about what she says. Provoke your thinking – go and read it. Oh, and take note of this:
Spend a day reading nothing but press releases and you will want to puke. Or perhaps in the stunned silence you will want to cry.
I’ve spent quite some time this morning reading press releases, some of which are drafts (and all of those have tracked changes – see this great commentary from Tom Murphy’s PR Opinions today on that subject). At the moment, I’m hovering between these two states. And 50% of me is a PR person!
Crossroads Dispatches | We Lived in a World of Cultured Messages