“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper”. – T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men

Without a doubt the year 2010 started off with a whimper and a whine. We whimpered when we woke up in January to see that we had spent, drank and ate too much and cared too little for those with less than we had. It got worse when we turned up at our workplaces and found that the recession was still alive and kicking our businesses and that the ensuing twelve months would be just as hard as 2009.

But as time flew by, the year got interesting particularly on the communications front where it seems as if almost every month a CEO or some public official, suffering from the dreaded foot-in-mouth-disease taught us some valuable lessons in how not to communicate.

Let’s start with the irrepressible memory of Tony (where is he now?) Hayward, the erstwhile CEO of BP. Hayward committed gaffe after insensitive gaffe while the Deepwater Horizon rig spilt millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in late April. It was one of the largest environmental messes ever made, lives were lost and livelihoods were threatened. Louisiana shrimpers filed a class action suit against BP, the owners of the oil rig and Halliburton the world was in chaos but Tony “just wanted his life back”. Excuse me Mr. CEO, you came on camera and said what, when all around you was in disarray because of your company’s errors? Things got so bad that it was reported that a controversial artist, US sculptor Daniel Edwards, planned to shame BP bosses by presenting them with a bizarre statue of Lady Gaga made using oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill. The model, featured the singer as a naked version of patron saint of animals St Francis of Assisi, was seen standing on the BP logo, hugging an octopus and with an oil-drenched pelican in her hair. Now, I ask you? So, the number one communication tip for 2010: communications sensitivity classes for CEOs who have to speak in public because as sure as night follows day, their true feelings of detachment and disdain for the rest of us will come to light during a crisis. Trust me, no matter how much expert coaching they get, how they really ‘love us’ will come out but it is still worth a try.

We got some tips from some good stuff too – remember when, in October, through the wonders of technology we watched the Chilean miners being pulled to safety after what seemed like an eternity underground?

Remember the communications lessons we learnt from their leader Luis Urzua? Asked about his secret for keeping the men bonded and focused on survival, Luis revealed in one interview that, “You just have to speak the truth and believe in democracy.” Every day in speaking with the men, Luis tried to give the men a philosophical acceptance of their fate. “Every day [he] told us to have strength. If they find us they find us, if not, that’s that, reported another miner Richard Villaroel. Here, Luis taught us the importance of constant and truthful communication. Yes, there were divisions in the group and it was reported that five of them belonged to a different sub-contractor and has for a while separated themselves from the Luis-led group. Tip Two: Speak the truth so that when the crap hits the fan everyone will know that it was coming.

Back on the rock it seems as if every other company is being bitten by the social media bug as there are now all these local companies who out of the blue woke up and jumped on the band-waggon of social media. Where were they? As my good friend would say “all of an a sudden” the movers and shakers who had their noses up in the air about the impact of building on-line communication communities around their brands – ‘inexpensively’ via FaceBook and Twitter, had an awakening. Now everywhere you turn they are looking for you to become a fan or be their friend. Now they are “looking you” more ardently than the one-suit, one-tooth overly amorous beggar-Lothario lurking at the stoplight. Like it or not, social media networks are here to stay – so get over yourself and your well-worn out old style ways. Make good use of them if they suit your audience to propel your brand to the top of the food chain.

As we crawl through the minefield of the few remaining days of the year – it is clear that this twelve-month period is ending with a bang being heard and felt the world over. I will give you one word: WikiLeaks the outcome of this story will probably change the way information is allowed to travel or reside on the internet. Long story short: WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization, founded in 2006 by fearless leader/former computer hacker, Australian Julian Assange. It says it is a website that advertises itself as “providing an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists.”

According to msnbc.com news service, “WikiLeaks has published everything from Church of Scientology documents to U.S. Embassy cables, and passed along transcripts, secret videos and more. Its enemies have included everyone from British bankers to Kenyan politicians. Last month it began publishing hundreds of US diplomatic cables on line and since then its founder has been arrested after being in hiding. WikiLeaks’ huge online following are tech-savvy young people who have pitched in, setting up more than 500 mirror sites. Says the report: “There is a whole new generation, digital natives, born with the Internet, that understands the freedom of communication,” said Pascal Gloor, vice president of the Swiss Pirate Party, whose Swiss Web address, wikileaks.ch, has been serving as a mainstay for WikiLeaks traffic.”It’s not a left-right thing anymore. It’s a generational thing between the politicians who don’t understand that it’s too late for them to regulate the Internet and the young who use technology every day,” he added.

Where this story ends will perhaps determine the form that the world wide web will take in the future. Will our communications be policed by the www.cops.com? Let’s see lesson in store.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with ROCommunications Jamaica, specializing in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.