The LC on the DL

“I’m boring but overcompensate
With headlines and flash, flash, flash photography”

-FOB “The Take Over, The Break’s Over”

You know that guy, yeah, THAT guy, he talks in cul-de-sacs. He is revered for the things he says he knows and he keeps you guessing as to what genius will pass through those golden lips of his next. He doesn’t talk in circles or he would have been called out long before now. Oh no, he has mastered the art of cul-de-sac propaganda.

His followers are many and he showers a little bit of personal affection and candy coated generalizations on each person who flatters him. A lucky strike or two gets him a winner of a theory and his brain will break free of the monotony and doldrum of the mainstream of “alternate mainstream” thinking. Unable to sustain the feed he slips back into the routine.

Innovation - New Thinking - Transcend - On-demand

The hype and the vaporspeak; riding the coattails of the developers and the hackers and the DIY’ers. You need someone who gets it and he is your man. He is the 2.0 of middle management, a regurgitator with a silver tongue. Same message - modern model. He controls your thoughts by being intentionally vague with positive newspeak.

Hoards of squishy 2.0 groupies fall into their place in line to generate his adsense income. A MLM without the scam watches and Snopes entries. New perspective doldrum dished out in healthy helpings to the starving through every “new media” outlet possible and in person when manageable. The cul-de-sac propaganda machines are everywhere, cookie cutter copies of each other for each tech division imaginable. Live and in person for the generation of privileged early adopter kids like us.

In our “shared culture” can you spot the real from the dozens of fakes?

The standard model of the decision making process involves management and upper management discussions with a verdict passed down through the ranks. Managers act as representatives of their people and like every political system they don’t always bring their peoples’ best interests to the table. It may be because they don’t agree with the position of their subordinates, they don’t understand the position they are trying to support, or there could be ulterior motives for their position.

To create a system with checks and balances committees are formed and the conversation is broadened. Higher-ed has understood the importance of a broad conversation for quite sometime and if you have ever been a part of the decision making process in a higher-ed institution you are aware of just how broad the attendance in meetings can get.

The downside to these committees is that the more people you engage in the conversation the longer the process becomes. With high tech, new media, and the internet decisions are being made at the speed of light and a longer process can seem unnecessary to those not accustomed to the process. An open conversational forum is needed to allow for debate and a richer experience within the organization and among it’s participants. 

Change is about conversation. No matter what the final outcome or the original purpose of the conversation the people involved in it are richer because of it. They have learned new things and seen things from a fresh perspective which will overflow to other projects and goals.

Listen, be heard, and change something.