Jun

28

We Are All Watching

June 28, 2007 |

Thomas Friedman has a very interesting column on the blogosphere in the New York Times today (sorry - it’s behind the paywall, but you can listen to it by subscribing to this feed):

Three years ago, I was catching a plane at Boston’s Logan airport and went to buy some magazines for the flight. As I approached the cash register, a woman coming from another direction got there just behind me — I thought. But when I put my money down to pay, the woman said in a very loud voice: “Excuse me! I was here first!” And then she fixed me with a piercing stare that said: “I know who you are.” I said I was very sorry, but I was clearly there first.

If that happened today, I would have had a very different reaction. I would have said: “Miss, I’m so sorry. I am entirely in the wrong. Please, go ahead. And can I buy your magazines for you? May I buy your lunch? Can I shine your shoes?”

The column is a review of Dov Seidman’s “How,” in which Seidman argues that ‘how’ one does things these days is more important than ever before and about the importance of transparency.

Word of warning for the college aged:

For young people, writes Seidman, this means understanding that your reputation in life is going to get set in stone so much earlier. More and more of what you say or do or write will end up as a digital fingerprint that never gets erased. Our generation got to screw up and none of those screw-ups appeared on our first job résumés, which we got to write. For this generation, much of what they say, do or write will be preserved online forever. Before employers even read their résumés, they’ll Google them.

But, if done right, transparency provides us with opportunities:

How can you outbehave your competition? In Michigan, Seidman writes, one hospital taught its doctors to apologize when they make mistakes, and dramatically cut their malpractice claims. In Texas, a large auto dealership allowed every mechanic to spend freely whatever company money was necessary to do the job right, and saw their costs actually decline while customer satisfaction improved. A New York street doughnut-seller trusted his customers to make their own change and found he could serve more people faster and build the loyalty that keeps them coming back.

Of course, one might argue that doing the right thing has always been helpful - the consequences of bad behavior, however are now more severe than ever. There was a time where police agents could do whatever they wanted to - today, there is a snotty teenager with a cell phone video camera on hand, hell bound on ruining your career.

And if your planes don’t run on time, somebody who didn’t get his first-class upgrade is going to film that, too:

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