You wouldn’t expect a broken lens to take a perfect picture, it will take one, but it will come out looking like half the image it could have been, even if the person processing the image isn’t making a mistake.
A lack of clarity is a very real and present danger in publishing, without leaders and working environments that provide clarity products fail their audiences, and businesses fail their employees; breaking the duty of care that is legally afforded to them, which results in stress and anxiety in the workplace. This is not acceptable in any circumstances.
Without a working environment that aspires to deliver its product or service with clarity of thought and vision at all levels, the only result can be a failure to meet the product’s maximum potential.
Clarity must come in 4 areas to avoid failure:
- Clarity of communication:
Communication chains must be clear and open. Nobody must be hidden and nothing covert. - Clarity of strategy:
A strategy needs to be unambiguous, focused and forthright. - Clarity of planning:
Planning must seek to deliver on the answers the strategy is finding for the business. - Clarity of execution:
Plans must reach those who execute them in a clear framework so all objectives are met.
A lack of clarity in any of these areas will play havoc when trying to deliver a media product. Decisions will be hard to make, then misunderstood and not executed correctly.
It is not a clear management strategy to keep people in the dark, avoid talking to them and conduct one’s self in a manner other than that which leads to amicable understanding.
Media products are complicated, they require editorial, commercial and technical input. Due to this complex nature the need for clarity in operational procedures is vital to assure products meet their full and unadulterated potential.
Let me be clear:
A lack of clarity is a fatal black hole, which will swallow up everything in its path and end in disaster for publisher and audience.