Finding our Voice

I got my first issue of Good Magazine the other day I’ve enjoyed reading it. First off its got a good sense of humor. But I also appreciated the optimistic, action oriented tone of the work.

One piece that particularly caught my attention was “Doublespeak: Do companies really give a damn?" by Jonathan Greenblatt, founder of Ethos water. It’s an editorial about authenticity, and how sometimes corporate communications has it and sometimes it doesn’t. While it brought back painful memories of a few weeks ago when Tim Bray chided me for an unreadable quote of mine in a press release, it really hit home in the context of our upcoming corporate social responsibility (CSR) report.

How do we make a report like this sound authentic? What makes it sound like we mean it, and what makes it sound like we don’t? In short, what is Sun’s “authentic voice”?

I don’t have a great answer yet (I suppose the proof will be in the pudding), but its causing some interesting discussion and experiments to take place. More to come on this in upcoming posts…