Communication is Blood – Social Media Principle #9

“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate”

– Cool Hand Luke

9. Communication is blood  - Communication is the river upon which information flows.

The human circulatory system pumps blood through our bodies.  Blood carries:

• nutrients
• wastes
• oxygen and carbon dioxide
• hormones

Without it, we die.

Communication carries corollaries to these being:

• Raw Information
• Updates
• Direction
• Feedback

The circulatory system also does some work for you, as it includes:

• A system of blood vessels to distribute blood throughout the body
• Specialized organs for exchange of materials between the blood and the external environment; for example
  • organs like the lungs and intestine that add materials to the blood and
  • organs like the lungs and kidneys that remove materials from the blood and deposit them back in the external environment.

Historically, businesses have not treated communication like blood, it has been treated more like a resource.  A resource is a commodity.  These are held in one location and distributed – usually from a central authority.

Social media and Lean Management Principles have shown us that when people have information, they tend to do things with it.  When people have direction, they tend to move in that direction.  When people are given updates, they feel involved.  When they are given feedback, they tend to improve.

The modern business needs similar systems to ingest, purify, and distribute information.  This is a communication circulatory system.  This system works automatically and naturally.

See An Bui’s take on Communication is Blood.

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Blogged at Modus Cooperandi in Seattle, WA