Enough of the Platitudes – Answer the Rest of the Question (Social Media Rant Alert)

Paul Harvey had a popular radio broadcast back in the day.  I used to listen to it on WLW out of Cincinnati.  His unique voice and speaking style earned him quite a following.  He was probably best known for his interesting and quirky stories that usually began with:  

“You know what the news is, in a minute, you're going to hear… the rest of the story."

To paraphrase and twist that famous line…

"You know the platitudes… but I doubt you’ll hear the rest of the story.”

Are We Entering the Age of Deep Thoughts and Shallow Actions?

Twitter has taught me is there is no drought of platitudes, quotes, pithy sayings and deep thoughts.  Blogs (including this one at times) are overflowing with big ideas, lengthy prose and well-constructed sentences about strategery.  Mainstream journalism is filled with interviews with big thinkers and wonderful accolades for leaders who have “vision.”  Business books now follow a familiar formula, chapter by chapter – start with a story, add facts, add two images, close by connecting story to your point of view and ask a question.

It seems to me that with all of our social media and traditional media all we get now is an ongoing stream of quick quotes hoping to elicit that famous stoner response – “Wow man, that’s deep.”

But no one wants to address the rest of the question…

Examples:  Searching SHRM Tweets

To pick an area I have some familiarity with I chose “employee engagement.”  Doing a quick twitter search for “SHRM10” and employee engagement I pulled a this sample of tweets:

• Employee engagement is the holy Grail! Trust, pride in corporate symbol, opportunity/well being=3 main drivers
• Massive collaboration to initiate and integrate sustainability. Direct employee engagement at innovation rather than competition
• Al Gore at #SHRM10 "employee retention and engagement key to future of business”
• The number one engagement factor for employees is that "senior management cares about me as a person".
• Cross departmental teamwork is critical to overall engagement.
• Leaders must have a compelling, positive vision with clear goals to build engagement
• engagement requires commitment
• competence, engagement, and now contribution of heart and minds key to talent mngt.

You get the idea.  So based on this information I now know…

• Pay attention to your employees.
• Teamwork is important to getting work done.
• Engagement is important for business.
• Leaders must have a vision and clear goals.

Is this new to anyone out there?  I’m guessing no.  

Knowledge Is Good

I saw that quote on the bottom of the statue at the beginning of the Oscar worthy movie Animal House.  At the time I think I was the only one in the theater that laughed but it has stuck with me until today.  Too me, that statement sums up a lot of what I'm seeing in all the media – but more so in social media.

I think many of us (and now there are many more due to social media) think it is more fun (and pseudo-productive) to tweet and say and blog platitudes than to really answer the tough questions.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that telling someone “engagement requires commitment" is like saying people need air.  I get it that – now tell me how to DO it.  

Maybe, like me, they don’t want to give away their secrets – after all the “how” to do something is much more valuable than the “what to do” – especially if the “what” is something that we know intuitively, has been proven to work, and has been a staple of good businesses for many, many years.

I just find it interesting that there seems to be so much value in big picture statements that really don’t get us anywhere.

Are the rest of you feeling the same way?  Are we too focused on sounding smart versus acting smart?

And is social media creating the opportunity for this?

Or is that just a deep thought with no action?  I’m thinking it is.  Oh well.  Gotta go tweet that.