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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, September 19, 2005 Posted by philgomes 12:02 PM Schwartz To Employees: "Do As I Say, Not As I Do?" Schwartz To Employees: "Do As I Say, Not As I Do?" Sun CEO and early corner-office blogger Jonathan Schwartz is, quite rightly, asking his employees to keep secrets. So I would like your support and participation in talking to your staffs to ensure that employees understand the harm that can arise from intentional leaks. I'm not asking anyone to be silent about our news, or to contain their enthusiasm (I certainly can't), just sensible when sharing unannounced company information. Let's introduce ourselves to the world on our terms, not someone else's. This is fine by me. Transparency and well-managed communications need not be mutually exclusive. I mean, I'm a very firm believer that any corporate blog — or sets thereof — must have policies that cover the nature of their content and the comportment of their authors, at least to the degree that their employee handbook doesn't already do so. But... I seem to be the only one to remember that, in what appeared to be a quick and playful nudge to Big Blue last year, Mr. Schwartz apparently thought nothing of marching down to his company lab, snapping pictures of its talked-about-but-not-yet launched Niagara CPU, and posting them online. Hey. He's the boss. A former client of mine used to ask "Is this a strategy or a status?" So, which was this? Outside-looking-in, it felt like the latter. Granted, Sun had been talking about this chip days and months before Mr. Schwartz's post. However, a taped-out, fully operational piece of silicon is a completely different story than a simple pre-launch discussion of its proposed functionality. (For those of you who listened to my podcast, this CPU was no mere "five-assed monkey".) I've always wondered if this post was part of a plan, or if Sun's PR department hit Mr. Schwartz's blog that weekend and just kind of threw up their hands. "Hey, Bob. The boss just blew our launch." "Lemme take a look. Oh, dear God..." "Maalox?" "Yeah. Make it a double." Readers know that I'm all for using blogs to achieve corporate transparency, but I also believe in managing communication. Again... The two need not be mutually exclusive. (Don't make me go into my "I hate to tell you there's no Santa Claus" speech!) Sun certainly made no secret of its Niagara plans but, nevertheless, it'd be kind of hard to tell employees to keep things under the hat when — for the sake of transparency, the comforting illusion thereof, or the need to give a competitor a blog-borne wedgie — something can show up on the boss's blog at any time for any reason. Again... "Strategy" or "status"? The answer to that question makes a very big difference in the case of Mr. Schwartz's post... and mine! Does anyone at Sun know the answer? If so, use the comment field below. Oh, wait... I forgot... Sorry... In any case, if I'm convinced I got this wrong, your answer will fly as high as this post. Thanks to CorporateBlogging.Info for the link. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes.com View my page on PROpenMic SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.