Years ago, I was taking the train to Montreal from Ottawa. Since I had lots to catch up on after 3 days with my client I scanned the car looking for a ‘quiet’ spot where I could make the most of my 2 hour trip. There was a nun about half way up the car. Perfect.
Little did I know… This nun was on her way home to Nova Scotia for holidays and she wanted to talk. She was simply bubbling over. Turned out she was the senior Sister at the Vatican Emissary in Ottawa. And, we ended up talking about how communication worked in the church. [Full disclosure I am Anglican not Roman Catholic.]
She told me with pride that the Pope could know what was happening in a small village pretty much anywhere in the world within 24 hours. Quite something since we were talking before the internet, social media and wide spread use of cell phones. In fact, the cell phone I was carrying that day – possibly the only one on that train – was bigger than, and weighed as much, as a brick.
The Sister went on to say that every day diplomatic pouches would leave the Vatican with important messages from the Pope and the Papal Curia to bishops and priests around the world. The pouches were officially sealed and could only be opened by those to whom they were sent. And every day diplomatic pouches filled with the details of parish and diocesan life were sent through the bishops and back to the Vatican where over 200 priests would review, organize and prioritize the incoming material to report to the Pope.
The information that sent from the ‘field’ wasn’t just facts and figures – numbers of baptisms, marriages, deaths – it was also very rich human stories of the community. This system apparently worked extremely well and must have played an important part in making the Roman Catholic Church one of the most enduring and powerful institutions.
In a world where we seem to all agree that transparency and authenticity is in. At least technically this system would seem to be ideal [more on this soon].
With all our surveying and data crunching how much do today’s institutional leaders really understand about the human concerns of the people that work for them? How easy is it for employees to have their concerns reach their leaders in a way that is institutionally meaningful. In your organization do you have the equivalent of the diplomatic pouch?
Tags: Authenticity, Knowledge management, Message control, Transparency, Trust
