Gossip is good

Let's put aside for a moment all those forms of lying that go under the heading "gossip." That's largely the stuff of TV shows. In fact, research is uncovering that while gossip is not journalism, a lot of it is based in fact. That's why it's good for us.

"Gossip not only helps clarify and enforce the rules that keep people working well together, studies suggest, but it circulates crucial infomation about the bahavior of others that cannot be published in an office manual." The New York Times (See Link for more.)

Gossip is the other half of spin. Leaders and others in power manage information to have an effect. In fact, we all do, even us individual contributors. Gossip counterbalances that information: personal, where spin is abstract; saucy, where spin is bland; revealing probable motivation, where spin is cloaked in organizational passive voice.

The challenge I've always faced as a consultant is how much is the right amount of gossip. Habit shows that I shy away from the personal; people's emotional lives are inscrutable and two programmers and two business analysts are not going to figure it out. I am willing to listen to and store up the professional: "you'd better have your ducks in a row before that meeting;" "it'll go just fine, but you won't get a word in edgewise;" "She's keen to get promoted." This gossip is based in fact, helps me influence people, and guage some of the obstacles ahead. This is gossip I share with others who are trying to have a positive effect.

Then there's the black and tarry gossip that I hate and do battle with by putting my finger in a dyke holding back a sea bile. "Oh, honey, stick around. That's the kind of good idea sure to get you stomped." "You better cc the world on that, CYA-wise." "She won't do it. You'll learn." This is kind of gossip that comes from having learned the lessons of the organization at the bottom of the sewage sluice. I don't blame people, but the shred of fact in this gossip is, "Nobody gives a damn about my ideas, and nobody is going to give a damn about yours either.

I think consultants have a responsibility to influence people to try to change. Gossip works in our favor. We have to give folks better tools than just saying something can be so, but they haven't even heard that in years. They don't trust us to tell the truth. After all, we're consultants. But we are telling the truth: You can change things. You should make good, hard, big decisions rather than easy, small ones.

Repetition is the purest form of learning, and that's another reason gossip is good.