Chris Brogan says convincingly that the purpose and promise of social media is to "help everyone around you" and he gives some pretty good examples. I've been disappointed to see Toastmasters letting social media tools go pretty much unused as they get more introverted. The organization and members alike seem to be taking a narrower focus and remain pretty much apart from community issues. How about you? How do you think Toastmasters could get more active in their communities? What do you think the benefits would be?

The Cape Wind project just approved for the waters offshore of Massachusetts will pump $1 billion into the local economy and create clean, reliable wind energy for decades.

The BP oil rig in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is spewing millions of gallons of petroleum toward the coastlines of four states, incurring $6 million per day in cleanup costs and estimated to top $3 billion before it’s all over, not counting fines or damage claims from communities and the fishing industry.

Could there be any more dramatic examples this week of our choices as we invent and invest in the future of America’s energy supplies? Ironically, the current BP oil disaster spiraled out of control on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual observation that was created in part in response to a similar oil rig blowout in 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA.

 

Q. So what did you learn about large corporations?

A. Two really key things. One was that insecurity is incredibly damaging in a corporate environment. You end up making really poor decisions, a lot of things you do are based on fear, and eventually it will fail. When people are playing defense and they’re primarily focused on their own jobs, it ultimately ends up being a sort of losing strategy.

The second thing is that there’s a lot of time wasted in conversations that don’t happen face-to-face. When there are backroom conversations and dealings — as opposed to direct conversations — it’s less efficient and you get poorer outcomes. People could spend weeks building these political coalitions rather than just having a direct conversation.

The observation about back-room dealing rang true in my working life and still rings true for me today. I'd like to know whether the formal leaders of District 27 Toastmasters are aware of their members' needs and if they even care about them.