The notion is that people may be more free to say things they wouldn't say
with attribution, things like, "We all know this won't work, but nobody
will say so," or going way back, "The Emperor has no clothes!"
All this makes sense to me, but if anonymity is such a valuable idea, we
don't need fancy electronic meetings rooms, we could have been doing this
with with low-tech devices all along.
This has come up on the net. There are elaborate "anon servers" which
enable you to send email messages anonymously (no one has ever sent an
anon msg to learning-org.)
I'm doubtful. Fred Kofman says it well, "Anything that is said is said by
someone, ideas aren't just hanging out there in the air." I'm much more
inclined to attack the problem by making it easier for people to say
what's on their minds.
At the same time, as a consultant, I'm frequently in a role of
interviewing to collect data to be summarized without attribution.
What do you think about enabling anonymity in business conversations?
Good, bad, when should we use it?
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Innovation Associates, Inc. | email: rkarash@world.std.com
3 Speen St, Framingham MA 01701 | Host for Learning-Org Mailing List
(508) 879-8301 and fax 626-2205 | <http://world.std.com/~lo>