The Flattening Communication Pipelines

There aren’t many people in the world who you couldn’t get a direct communication pipeline to these days. By “direct communication pipeline,” I mean a one-way (or two-way) piece of communication with no intermediaries. For example, I can mention @realDonaldTrump on Twitter or I can email satyan@microsoft.com to get in front of Microsoft’s Chief Executive. We live in an amazing time.

Note: I didn’t say either of these guys would respond to me, but that’s irrelevant. We still have a communication pipeline that goes at least one-way.

I got to thinking about this because there’s talk about removing some of the administrative layers in front of our President, Donald Trump. In short, why does he need a Press Secretary or Chief of Staff when he’s just going to contradict or berate them after he changes his mind?

It’s a good question, and one that applies to many leaders: why are we separating ourselves from the people we lead?