In the past few weeks I have had around 5 surveys land on my desk or come in through email. All of them are about what the particular company or organization should be doing. As though we were to write their mission statement for them.
I understand that organizations change and new challenges arise.
I understand that organizations must hear their constituents.
I understand that organizations plan ahead.
But, is there a time at which there is overload? And is that time now?
I watched an interview where one person finally out and said, “Too many open houses and surveys.” They wanted the organization to get on with their work.
And so we become jaded – and no surveys get sent in. I’m not sure if this is a matter of a leaderless society. Or perhaps the risk of stepping out without first surveying the ground is too great. Or perhaps our society has lost the moorings of truth that is anchored beyond ourselves, and we can only live with majority rule.
Whatever the reason, I just shredded another survey!
Surveys and questionaires are the purview of a corporation’s/business’/political party’s media department, that part of the organization that advances the entity’s public persona. I have seen the birth and growth of these departments from within and I will admit that perhaps I am a bit jaded when it comes to analysing their effectiveness.
I consider them to be, for the most part, a somewhat cancerous growth in a company, justifying their importance to the bottom line by perpetuating some corporate myth that they made up based on their concept of what the company should be and then backed up by judiciously choosen survey figures. In the end there is not much that they do that is based on reality.
SO… shred away brother dear! You’ve saved a tree and while not feeding into the big hungry mouth of laziness that spawns surveys instead of just getting on with business.
P.S. Yes, companies do need to let us know what they do and how they do it, but there was a day when word of mouth worked great!
Okay, I should really have my PR department check over my releases before I press “Submit Comment” and that way I wouldn’t become known as “Bib Sis”!!! (:
Maybe we should take a survey to see which name sticks better – If you were my little sis I could see Bib Sis working!