A Lesson in Communications from Sun's CEO : Sun Communicators' Group Blog

Monday Aug 27, 2007

A Lesson in Communications from Sun's CEO

The change of Sun's stock ticker symbol to JAVA today has me thinking a lot about communications practices and change acceptance (what works well, what doesn't, etc.)

Seems that everyone has something to say about this particular change (which is very apparent on our internal mail list across our blogger community!) Ironic, though, that many of these bloggers are taking time to 'voice their opinions' via an email list vs. their own blogs.

So, given all of the hoopla about this announcement, here's the communications lesson that I think can be learned from our CEO: If you choose a 2-way communications vehicle for a big, change-related announcement, stick with that vehicle and listen confidently to the feedback.

While a standard corporate media release and internal email were included in the communication mix for the announcement of this change, the real (juicy!) detail was in Jonathan's blog. This gave him an opportunity to give background to and explain his decision in a very transparent way. (something you don't see in typical mundane corporate announcements.)

Via his blog, Jonathan also provided an open forum to provide feedback. We would not have seen this just 2 years ago. (And, I wonder how many other CEOs let 'real' comments even be displayed on their own blogs?)

With nearly 400 comments submitted since last week's announcement (many not so positive), I can only imagine that our CEO is reading (listening) to all of this feedback. (Remember, Listening is key for effective communications!) BTW - I really like it that we have not seen an entry yet to defend his action - this shows confidence and willingness to take a risk. It's a big reason why I continue to work at Sun.

A good communicator listens and absorbs/processes information before opening his/her mouth (or tapping his/her fingers against a keyboard.)

I'm looking forward to seeing how Jonathan responds. (No doubt, it will once again allow for plenty of interactivity!)

Posted at 09:38AM Aug 27, 2007 by sandyb in Best Practices | Comments[3]

Comments:

IMO that there was a lot of venting on an internal email alias before it happened in blogland. I think this is exactly the kind of issue where everyone has a knee-jerk reaction (and in this case, a negative one). Its fair that its getting vetted out internally before its dumped onto the unsuspecting masses.
As you said (a very good point, BTW, IMO), much of blogging in this regard, even from Sun, has been negative. Tho the tone of these comments is far more "balanced" than in the internal emails. Thats just a bunch of highly intellectual and professional engineers who are immensely passionate about their work giving a measured, thoughtful, considered and honest reaction.
I like the point you made (I made a reference to the change in my own blog and I hope that my neutral to slightly skeptical reaction is how it came across) about openness. It is a cultural value for Sun. Like you, I too value it immensely

Posted by Vijay Tatkar on August 27, 2007 at 10:13 AM PDT #

I tend to agree that the communications strategy was good. I don't think I would have bothered on any other corp blog site, but I submitted my comment on Jonathan's blog because I felt that it might make a difference.

Having said that, the actual decision was still bad. :-)

Posted by Volker A. Brandt on August 28, 2007 at 03:30 AM PDT #

We are one of the top 10 conglomerates in Malaysia. currently we are using Sun Communicator suite. as of now, we are probably one of the largest install base of Sun Communicator suite of products in this country. Due to the unstababilty of this products, we have ended up with lots of operational issues. as a customer, we would expect Sun regional support center will respond to our calls. On average, the Sun communitors will hang for easily 2-3 times where some of the srvices will jusr been killed off withot us noticing it. Today the systems has down fior 4 times. when we trying to get help from Sun Malaysia, the respond from Sun support center in Malaysia is not keen to provie onsite support even we are more than happy to pay them on timne and material basis. i am extreamly disappointed with the support from both you singapore office and malaysia office. Therefore i would appreciate if the US HQ can do something about the above. i can be contacted at +6017-333-866. please go thru the url above, it will give you fair ideas what biz we are in.

Thank you
Gavin

Posted by Gavin Hoh on July 01, 2008 at 07:20 AM PDT #