RaySadler.com

Late last year I was asked by Bill Seaver and Nathan Moore to join them as a part of their regular New Mediology Podcast. And in my first appearance (Social Media, Libel, Perceptions, and Good PR) I was introduced as being there to provide “a corporate perspective on new media”.

I didn’t like that label at first. It made me feel like some suit that was going to bah-humbug everything that was said. But I quickly came to realize that I wasn’t there to ruin the party, but rather bring my thoughts on how a typical larger business might respond to all things new in the internet world.

Some of you may not have had the opportunity to experience work life at a large company. So, because I think it describes it so well, I want to share with you the story of Dustin Curtis, Mr. X, and working in a big business.

Dustin Curtis is a User Experience (UX) Designer based in New York and San Francisco, that regularly has some great posts about website usability. Last year (sorry, I’m just joining the UX party) he posted an open letter to American Airlines about the (lack of) usability of their website. A really great post, with some great points, and written without having a typical corporate perspective.

To his surprise, he actually got a response from an internal American Airlines UX Designer. And, if you’ve ever worked for a company of any size, you will find what he describes to be all too familiar.

The group running AA.com consists of at least 200 people spread out amongst many different groups, including, for example, QA, product planning, business analysis, code development, site operations, project planning, and user experience. We have a lot of people touching the site, and a lot more with their own vested interests in how the site presents its content and functionality. Fortunately, much of the public-facing functionality is funneled through UX, so any new features you see on the site should have been vetted through and designed by us before going public.

However, there are large exceptions. For example, our Interactive Marketing group designs and implements fare sales and specials (and doesn’t go through us to do it), and the Publishing group pushes content without much interaction with us… Oh, and don’t forget the AAdvantage team (which for some reason, runs its own little corner of the site) or the international sites (which have a lot of autonomy in how their domains are run)… Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that AA.com is a huge corporate undertaking with a lot of tentacles that reach into a lot of interests. It’s not small, by any means.

Mr. X goes on to talk about many of the internal issues of working on a multi-faceted project in a big business. Many of which I agree with and have experienced myself. And Dustin adds a lengthy commentary at the end where he squarely blames the their CEO for allowing a “tasteless” culture exist at American Airlines. Both of them make some phenomenally great points. And while I believe the CEO of a company is a huge driving factor in the culture of a company, I’ll disagree with Dustin somewhat by saying that the overall deciding factor of a company’s culture are the employees themselves and how they respond to what’s going on around them.

Individual employees that strive to be greater than the “tasteless” culture they’re a part of will naturally draw together with and inspire others that seek the same thing. Excellence is attractive. It draws people in. It gives them something better to set their sights on.

Big corporate culture can be frustrating, difficult, and defeating, but in the midst of it, try to figure our what you can do that is exceptional. What can you do that will attract others that are tired of the norm? What can you set forth that people can look too for inspiration?

Create excellence. Redefine the culture.