More than Meaningful

The largest corporations have the toughest issues because they have more people, processes and channels to deal with. The pressure is to process and policy themselves to success, because they can't just sit down and talk to a couple of employees and solve a problem like a small company could do.

I read that a corporation wanted to make things "meaningful" to its reps, employees and suppliers. I think that's a good start. Whatever we do should have meaning. But that's still not enough.

Something can make sense and have meaning, but that doesn't mean we'll do anything about it. A person may understand the importance of say, a playoff game in the NFL. If the team doesn't win, they're done for the season. But that doesn't mean that person will attend the game or even watch on TV.

The same with an initiative at a corporation. Employees may understand it. Maybe they think it has meaning for the enterprise. But does that employee care enough to do anything about it? Is he or she buying in?

We need more than meaningful communications. We need to engage our suppliers, employees and reps, they need to want to play a key role. That's the challenge - and we can't let go of it.


Barry LaBov
LaBov and beyond
www.labov