you? In what way is it a metaphor for who you are? What
message does your environment give to people who come
there? Do you know?
Anything outside of us constitutes our environment. This
may include the buildings, the style of the offices, the
surrounding area. However, it also includes the materials used
by the company: the stationery, for example, and the way
letters are written and addressed.
I received a letter from one of my long-standing suppliers on
which my name was misspelt and which arrived in a window
envelope with an address label stuck over the window.
I cannot be sure what this means or why the company has
done it unless I ask. Nevertheless, it forms an impression. I make
unconscious judgments about the company based on these
details, just as I make judgments based on someone’s nonverbal
behavior. For example:
❏ Is it losing the personal contact it has had with its customers?
❏ Is it watching costs or cutting corners by using up old supplies?
❏ Is it unconcerned about its image or unaware of how it may
be perceived by its customers?
❏ Is it careless?
❏ Is it cutting corners in the training of its staff?
❏ Is it under such pressure that it is losing touch with the details
of the business?
❏ Doesn’t it care about its customers?
❏ Are staff failing to communicate with each other within the
business?
Every detail reflects something of the inner workings of that
company. As Peters and Waterman said in A Passion for Excellence,
coffee stains on the flipdown trays of an airplane mean the
company doesn’t do its engine maintenance right.
Ultimately the details are an expression of the person who
heads up the organization. The external signs are a statement
about how they communicate their values and what those
values are. The external signs are also an expression of the
relationships the leader has with the people who work with
them. The external symbols point to the coherence or internal
METAMESSAGES 143