Since this will likely be my last post for 2011, I have decided to write it in the form of a wish for 2012; The Jester is due for a comeback.

What is a Jester?

“In ancient times courts employed fools and by the Middle Ages the jester was a familiar figure. In Renaissance times, aristocratic households in Britain employed licensed fools or jesters, who sometimes dressed as other servants were dressed, but generally wore a motley coat, hood with ass’s (i.e. donkey) ears or a red-flannel coxcomb and bells. Regarded as pets or mascots, they served not simply to amuse but to criticise their master or mistress and their guests. Queen Elizabeth (reigned 1558-1603) is said to have rebuked one of her fools for being insufficiently severe with her.” -Wikipedia

Where should the Jester work?

Specifically I think Jester’s should be employed by all senior public servants

Why do we need to bring back the Jester?

1. There is far too much ego in the senior cadres of the public service
2. Rank is taken far too seriously in the public service in general. Senior leaders are humans. They go home at night to their families.
3. The most senior ranking public servant in the room is almost never challenged (this problem occurs at every level)
4. “Group think” is dangerous. Someone needs to be hired whose job it is to  play devil’s advocate in a senior leader’s office, full-time.

I was driving north on Bank street this morning here in Ottawa and hit a massive patch of black ice right before a busy intersection. My ABS kicked in right away and I went into survival “summer tire” skidding mode for a few long seconds. Luckily my brakes were new and I had already started braking well before I hit the black ice in order to slow down for the upcoming intersection. My car came to diagonal stop right on the white line. The car behind me managed to almost do a 360, but somehow recovered and veered into the right turning lane as if that’s what the driver was trying to do all along. I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed a pile of cars approaching about 150 feet away. At this moment the light turned green for me so I decided it would be wise to get out of the way and keep going. When it was safe to do so I pulled aside (way past the intersection) and decided I should probably notify someone about the black ice since it was an accident waiting to happen.

And therein lies the issue: Who should I call?

I remembered hearing rumours that 3-1-1 (City) is an automated directory. No time for that. I was already late. I figured, the black ice before an intersection was quite serious so I decided to call 9-1-1. I was quick and to the point so as not to waste their time, however sure enough they pointed me to 3-1-1. Ok fair enough. I called 3-1-1 only to be greeted by the automated bot asking me if I would like service in french or English. I chose English. I was then read out a list of City Service options. None of them matched. I stayed on the line  in order to try and connect to an actual person. I waited, and waited, listened to the music, then realized this was ridiculous and hung up.

Just out of curiosity I then called 2-1-1 (one of my past client’s), which is a service that provides  information and referral to community and social services. The wonderful thing about them is that a “human” Certified Information and Referral Specialist always answers the phone. Sure enough, the kind gentleman apologized and referred me back to 3-1-1, since my concern was simply not part of the 2-1-1 mandate (and rightly so).

I called 3-1-1 again with no luck. At this point I gave up.

So now I ask you, what did I do wrong? I wanted to help, I tried to help, but was faced with a blockade. Should the other services have jumped in? Should there be another X-1-1 service for “not yet serious” emergencies? This really got me wondering how many potential accidents could have been avoided in the past if only citizen warning calls got through to someone.

Our own reasons were as follows:

• We were paying $40 a month to listen to telemarketers, the only people who didn’t know our cell #’s.
• The concept of “calling” someone long-distance can be done on any device connected to the internet, at zero cost (or nearly zero cost if calling a landline).
• There are plenty of large , physical handsets that can be purchased if  ”shoulder-hold” nostalgia kicks in.

Let me explain what I mean. Here’s a brief history of Facebook from my own personal experience.

I joined Facebook sometime in mid 2006. It was only open to colleges and universities, quickly followed by cities.  Up until that point, the main conversation platforms for myself and my close friends other than in-person conversations, email and the phone were tools such as ICQ followed by MSN chat. Within a few months the majority migrated to Facebook even though it was a step back (lack of chat feature initially) at the same time it was a step forward (social element: 2-way, one-to-many platform, photo sharing, etc…).  

Keep in mind that at this point there were absolutely zero “professional/business” accounts other than those disguised as personal profiles. None of my professional contacts knew about Facebook. Facebook was not indexed by search engines in any way. The conversations were still “real”. Virtually nobody had adopted their chatting behaviour to fit the “you’re always on the record” mindset of social media (even though clearly that would have been wise as many are finding out now). It was still thought to be just another private conversation platform which housed content that was purely between the user and his/her “friends” , which at the time were actual friends.

In my case I could  post a public status update message inviting “everyone” to a party or gathering because the 40-50 people I had listed as my “friends” were my close circle (and their significant others) that I had known for 10-20 years. People could respond back to the group on my wall without clogging my email, i didn’t have to worry about bounce backs, the content was relevant to all of us, and the interactivity was brilliant. This is the Facebook I liked. This was the reason why I initially joined.

Then April 16th, 2007 happened (i.e. the Virginia Tech Massacre). To me this was a turning point. The  mainstream news reporters covering the shootings were creating Facebook profiles in order to be able to use Facebook as a live information source to track student reactions and the shooter’s path in real-time. The marketing industry’s ears perked up and eyes widened. Businesses trying to reach the youth segment did a double take. Facebook? Why aren’t we on there?

It took a tragic event for Facebook to reach the tipping point of user adoption.

The rest is history. Anyone over 13 could join. Advertising was introduced. Businesses started creating groups, then pages. Brands joined in. Parents joined in. Grandparents joined in. People you avoided in the physical world joined in. Shameless self-promoters joined in. And a whole slew of others. Then the process repeated itself in over 100 countries around the world. It’s mandate has expanded considerably as a result of its dynamic culture and adaptability to the changing environment as well as financial pressures (i.e. initial drive towards profitability).

There is nothing wrong with this. As a business, Facebook has done ridiculously well given the low life expectancy of competitors in the space. I just think it has become too many things to too many people (jack of all trades, master of none).

What drove me to write this post however was the realization that my own behaviour and use of Facebook has drastically changed. All of my personal friends still have profiles, we still use it for invitations/RSVP’s, we still post something up once in a while (usually pics or a YouTube video we just want to share), however most of  the “real” conversations have moved.

Where to you ask?

Private , closed networks on our smart phones. First it was SMS, then BBM or iPhone chat. The problem was a lack of a standard and easy group chat functionality. Now that nearly all of my close friends have smartphones (except for one) we’re using cross-platform social chat apps designed for that exact purpose. In our case “What’s App” ended up winning over a few others we tried. We’ve essentially come full circle. Back to a core group of friends that I can keep in touch with 24/7 (at the same time) without worrying what my client/grandma/4th cousin thinks.

Kids and teens figured this out a few years ago when their parents started “Facebook creeping” on them. They were and still are SMS’ing like mad well before the smart phone wave came in. The personal profiles, photos and conversations you see on Facebook are increasingly going to be projections of how people want to be perceived as opposed to reality. This was bound to happen given the rise of the digital footprint and importance of the personal brand. I’m just worried that the foundation on which Facebook was built on is starting to crumble. Can the new layers build a new foundation in time, or have they already done so?

There are plenty of ways to approach this one, however I usually like to keep my response simple. Rather than saying something abstract (albeit true) such as “the ROI of social media engagement is that your organization will still exist in 5 years”, I usually prefer to throw the ball back in the question issuers court: What are your objectives?

I compare it to someone asking me “how will we know if we have achieved success on the telephone?”

Lot’s of education left to be done across all sectors…