We can all use a reminder to simplify at times.
The ClueTrain Manifesto is an impassioned call to action that urges its readers to, among other things, simplify their decision making process.
I appreciate the authors’ message concerning the need for simplification in our lives. But when I encountered the title of Chapter 6 (EZ Answers), I realized why I was having such a difficult time digesting the material. The tone the chapter’s title inflects represents the challenge to my understanding of the Manifesto. If the solution is as easy as you say it is, than how did we get into this veritable mess that you so obviously get such joy out of describing?
If I may be so bold to offer a suggestion— if you want people to listen to your message, don’t make a point of harping on their continued and unforgivable ignorance around every turn of your argument. Your message is important. It can add value to my business and my life. So don’t yell at me for not already knowing it!
I can’t help but find irony in the Manifesto’s overarching emphasis on conversation and voice. Knowing the significance of those two components, the authors chose to speak at us in a tone of superiority and managed to riddle their argument with insults. And yes, they formulated their opinions as an argument— an interesting choice considering the virtues of discussion and tone that they claim to be extolling.
Throughout the Manifesto, they also take exception to the perceived need for professional correspondence and writing, and insist that we need to feel empowered to assume a more personal voice, even in our corporate communication. Fittingly, the Manifesto doesn’t take on a very professional tone. Is it a coincidence that I’ve had a difficult time hearing the authors?
If you can sift through the confrontational rhetoric, the message is hard to argue with. Themes of corporate transparency and authenticity permeate the Manifesto. And addressing the need to reorganize traditional corporate hierarchies and adjust to the decentralization of time will be paramount for businesses in the Social Web.
And kudos to Levine, Locke, Searls, and Weinberger for practicing what they preach and making the book available in its entirety online.
After all, one should never have to pay to get yelled at.
Fundamentally, the Manifesto is a call to action. And I give them credit… they have certainly succeeded in soliciting a response from this reader. It’s called anger. Only it’s not directed at the egomaniacal power hungry megalomaniacs that ruthlessly rule our corporate landscape, but at them.
So let me see if I’ve heard you correctly… we’re stupid for having made the mistakes we’ve made, and, oh by the way (just a little salt for the wounds), it’s so easy to fix that we must be brainless not to have figured it out on our own.
Awesome. Can’t wait to converse with that voice.
MEDIAtion Way Station 