Working at big co. just got duller

How predictable. A big I.T. company is telling it’s employees how to behave online….

IBM has just released ‘employee guidelines‘ for virtual worlds. The seven-page .pdf outlines basic principles governing how employees should represent IBM in the virtual arena.

Rules like these make me feel sad. It seems that the bigger the company, the lower the risk they want to assume. The trouble is, the more stakeholders/shareholders a company has - the bigger the potential risk.

Ok, in this instance it’s IBM, but I might very be writing about Microsoft, Oracle, Xansa, Cap Gemini or any other ‘big’ I.T. company. Market gorillas play it safe. They are protective, defensive and either instinctively behave in this fashion, or ‘learn’ to behave like this.
But the result of strategies like this? You become monotone, dreary, dull and predictable.

Two things that IBM’ers won’t do under this type of governance….

• They will never break ‘news’. Big companies want their employees to play safe. Safe = Boring and dull.

• They will never be ‘nearly libellous’. Unless you flirt with danger, you never dare a response. To me that seems like easy street. And easy street takes you nowhere, fast.

Acting ‘big’ in this way slows you down. And it certainly waters down what you are doing. And that is a very bad thing.

Whoever you work for (Big or small, but particularly if you work for a big company) be brave, tell the truth, be remarkable, break news, be transparent, be pithy, challenge convention, enter debate, admit your wrong, and lobby for what you think is right. And tear up the rule book.