I was wondering about this as I read thru all of my RSS feeds this morning looking for hot news and updates relating to my business, my clients’ business, and the world at large.
Things have been changing in the world of news reporting. No longer are the TV news anchors and reporters our only source of information of news and events around the world. Now we have the internet and social media that provide us with an unlimited variety of perspectives and levels of detail about – everything – and often do it more quickly! I find that I am more informed now that I use twitter, RSS feeds, and a few online news aggregators as my ‘morning paper.’
As I was reviewing my ‘morning paper’ or more accurate, my ‘morning pages’ I began to think about how, as employees, we aggregate our morning news about work – at work.
Many organizations have formal communication strategies. But that is very similar to the old TV broadcasting method – controlled, one way, and not always timely. But there is always an informal network. The chit-chat at the water cooler or in the coffee room; the candid lunch conversation; the small group impromptu meetings; or the overheard phone conversation. Much of our organization’s culture, influence, and information sharing is done through these informal communication channels.
Does your day go something like this?
Walk into the front door of the building. Greeted by the security guard and / or the front desk associate. If there are guest expected today you may see a welcome sign in the lobby (news bulletin #1).
Next, you ask the security guard how his day is and ‘what’s new’…..he shares with you that there is a board of directors meeting today that will limited access to a certain areas of the building including the cafeteria (news bulletin #2).
You step onto the elevator and just as the doors are closing, one of the senior project managers races to the door just barely slipping through before the doors close. ‘what’s the rush?’ you ask. ‘There’s a project review meeting in 30 minutes and I have to deliver bad news about our findings so far. I have to get up to the sponsor before the meeting starts – she doesn’t know yet and I want to give her a heads up before the meeting.’ she replies as she waves a report around like it’s caught fire and she’s trying to put it out (news bulletin #3).
You’ve made it to your office door! Maybe you can actually enjoy that cup of coffee and a few minutes to get your head straight before the day starts. You stop to pick up messages from your assistant who promptly tells you the news about the VP of operations (gave his notice) and that your boss wants to see you in her office – now (news bulletin #4).
This is all before you even sit down to look at the agenda for the day.
We get our ‘news’ in streams from various sources. Our brains act as aggregators and try to pull out what is important and what is less so and what is the trend.
Wouldn’t it be great if your company had an internal RSS feed to aggregate the daily news and events like your google reader?
Just a thought…..
