A Charge and a Responsibility

Recently, a spate of incidents have caused us all a little pause. 

• The miscommunication of emissions data at Volkswagen
• The responses to Ahmed Mohammed's clock
• The reactions to the Oregon Shooting

Pause that gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the veracity of our own operations as with others.

Not only that, but ask ourselves if we are living up to the responsibility that the public expects of us.  Each of these incidents, as with others, not only damage the reputation of the organization, but all of the other efforts of the organization.

For example, did you know that the problem with the Volkswagen engines applies to only one engine type, and not all of them (I was told there are 16 different engine types in production)?  However the perception is that Volkswagen lied about them all.

Or in the case of Ahmed Mohammed's clock - lost in the media narrative is the fact that the online community rushed to justice before we knew what was going on.

This rush to judgement also reared itself in the Oregon shooting where the call was for gun control measures when what is coming out is this was more of a hate crime than what has happened in the recent past with mental illness.

So what does this have to do with you and your Charge and Responsibility as an organization?

Everything.

Had Volkswagen been honest about the issue up front, and also explained the extent of their product lines, we wouldn't be seeing their cuts in prices and employees as a result.

Had people waited to see what Ahmed's clock really looked like, comments like Bill Maher's wouldnt have been so disconcerting.


Had gun advocates / manufacturers / owners spent a little time better explaining about guns and their impact, we might have had a better understanding of what occurred.

There is a responsibility that you take on as an organization - to the public at large - to have an understanding of what you do and how.  And even if you've said it once, you need to keep saying it to the public to keep your engagement top of mind.

Imagine if the Mortgage Industry - Lenders, the National Mortgage Bankers Association, and National Association of Mortgage Brokers - had not only taken on the responsibility of explaining the impacts of the different loans to the public, but collectively educated investors as to the depth and nature of securitizing mortgages could do when repackaged.

Would we have experienced that downturn so deeply?

That's not to say that it was their responsibility to do so, but instead that there is a missed opportunity in instances like this to provide resources to the community on the product you offer.

Along the lines of knowing what your priorities are, you should also know why they SHOULD be priorities to others.

Examining that component alone will help you see what your opportunities are to provide education to the community on what you do.

For example, THIS article about the Texas Instruments graphic calculator that we all used to use is still ubiquitous in high school math classes.  Now this article does attack Texas Instruments about the conditions around this calculator, but what is important here is about halfway down.

Texas Instruments has established a great amount of resources for its users surrounding this product:

• A group of teachers trained to teach other teachers how to use it in their classroom
• An annual conference for teachers on using the calculator
• An 800 help line to assist teachers and users with the calculator
• Partnerships with text book publishers on coordinating their use of the calculator

Now the article presents this as a self fulfilling monopoly on these calculators that exists for the purposes of securing their marketshare.

Despite those allegations, what Texas Instruments has done is create a cadre of resources around one of their offerings to ensure that people have a lot of understanding on the offering you make.  

How can you emulate that kind of understanding and resources around what you do?

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