Comments Policy

Post a Comment

Blogs are all about conversation. Minding Gaps is intended to resemble not so much a lecture hall as a coffee house. You should feel at liberty to speak up and speak out.

But without a few simple ground rules, the conversation can turn into a shouting match—more a bar-room brawl than a coffee-house colloquy. When that happens, good people with good insights inch away, and loudmouth bores elbow in. We prefer to discourage the loudmouth bores and to open our arms to the good people with good insights.

In this spirit, we have imposed just a few boundaries on comments. These boundaries are not intended to discourage comments. Rather, they seek to attract thoughtful, insightful comments that build on our posts and on other comments.

(NB: I have adapted these policies from Michael Hyatt's fine blog. If you have a blog yourself, you are welcome to copy or adapt this policy for your purposes.)

1. You may comment by clicking on Comments in the gray text below each post. You can log-in via IntenseDebate, OpenID, Twitter, or Facebook—or just comment directly.

2. Kindly identify yourself by your real name. I don’t hide, and neither should you. Public discourse is better served by public faces. We neither require nor suggest you include any affiliative information (employer, university, etc.) unless it is relevant and appropriate to your comment. Yes, we do know that The Federalist Papers were published anonymously; no, we don't think that's a good reason for anonymity in the blogosphere.

3. You may post follow-up questions. If you have a question, chances are you are not alone. Others are probably thinking similarly. Therefore, I would rather receive your comments on my blog than via email. It is a better use of my time to address everyone at once rather than answer several similar emails.

4. You may disagree with me. I welcome debate. However, I ask that if you disagree with me—or anyone else, for that matter—do so in a way that is respectful. In my opinion, there is way too much shouting in the public square to tolerate it here.

5. Please double check your spelling, grammar, and syntax. As my daughter can attest, I am just a tad obsessive-compulsive about those things. Sloppy writing reflects sloppy thinking. Also, if you cite a fact, make certain you have it correct.

6. I reserve the right to delete your comments. This is my blog. I don’t have an obligation to publish your comments. For our American readers, the First Amendment prevents the government from restricting your right to speak; it doesn't prevent me from doing so.

   Specifically, I will delete your comments if you post something that is, in my sole opinion, (a) snarky; (b) off-topic; (c) libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate my sense of decorum and civility or any law, including intellectual property laws; or (d) “spam,” i.e., an attempt to advertise, solicit, or otherwise promote goods and services.

7. You retain ownership of your comments. I do not own them and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By commenting on my site, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you will relieve me from any and all liability that may result from those postings.

8. You grant me a license to post your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. You grant me the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to a blog, in a book, a video, or presentation.

In short, my goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people. I believe this simple comments policy will facilitate this.

 

Suggest a Topic

We're always looking for additional topics or angles for new posts to Minding Gaps. By all means, feel free to suggest one, or two, or lots of them!

Just send us an email at tom@arceil.com.

Appropriate topics should be within the overall mission of Minding Gaps, as stated in our Welcome! post:

A little blog with big ideas, Minding Gaps strives to build strategic engagement by enhancing the way that corporations and other organizations think and talk about their purpose, situation, vision, values, direction, progress, priorities, goals, expectations and identity.

The more clarity, credibility, and community you can bring to these matters, the more engagement you will see. We will unpack and work through this challenge with you. You'll like the result: change and breakthrough performance that are simple, natural, foolproof, and almost inevitable.

Borrowed from the public-address warning in the London Underground, our use of "minding the gaps" refers to the need for leaders to close the myriad gaps that compromise the credibility of leaders and leadership. These are gaps between aspirations and reality, between rhetoric and fact, between expectations and experience, between visions and achievement, between official truth and ground truth, and most of all between leaders and followers. Unless and until leaders close these gaps, they cannot lead people to a better, brighter future.

In addition, keep in mind our five features, each appearing more or less regularly: 

• By the Numbers, published at the start of most business weeks, offers a relevant statistic that is noteworthy, alarming, misinterpreted, or otherwise deserving of explanation, comment, or clarification. We accompany it with thought-provoking questions or commentary for reflection and discussion. By the Numbers debuted on August 10, 2009.

• Quote/Unquote presents a provocative or noteworthy quotation, usually from a well-known contemporary or historical figure, on some aspect of leadership, communication, or business. When the headline includes the initials TJL, the quotation is attributable directly to the blogger, Thomas J. Lee; the text was either previously published or is original to that post. In most cases we also provide context, comment, or questions to stir discussion. Occasionally, however, the quotation stands alone. Quote/Unquote debuted on September 11, 2009.

• Interview is a forthcoming series of interviews with leaders on the trifecta of leadership, communication, and engagement. We'll talk with business executives, university professors, political figures, coaches (both personal and athletic), authors—anyone with a unique perspective. These interviews will often appear in multiple installments. We're working on the first two interviews; both are yet to be published.

• Query poses a question that we hope will lodge in your mind and that you will ponder at some length.To appear irregularly but not infrequently, Query aspires to be short, simple, and powerful. It will consist of a single question or perhaps two or three closely related questions—and that’s it, nothing more—intended to ignite or reignite a flame of introspection, reflection, exploration, and reinvention. We won’t belabor the point. We won’t build an elaborate context. We won’t try to manage your thinking. All we want to do is start or restart some deeper thinking about your role as a leader, your efforts to engage people, and the effectiveness of your communication. Query debuted on October 15, 2009.

• Side Roads is an irregular, infrequent feature that recognizes and celebrates passions, milestones, excursions, pleasures, relationships—everything that we ultimately work for. Side Roads will appear only occasionally and only on weekends. The rest of the time, we’ll stick to the mission of this column as summarized above. Side Roads debuted on August 15, 2009, with the blogger's personal recipe for pesto and returned on October 10, 2009, with the story of his climb to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.