{"id":7313,"date":"2017-07-16T09:37:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T09:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2022-01-27T10:37:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T10:37:40","slug":"perception-is-reality-i-say-reality-is-perception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/2017\/07\/16\/perception-is-reality-i-say-reality-is-perception\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception is reality? I say reality is perception!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since learning about the philosophical debate of perception vs. reality in philosophy class years ago, I\u2019ve been fascinated by the topic and its applications across many areas of our lives. According to the teacher, it all started with George Berkeley, who in 1710<\/a>\u00a0started a discussion\u00a0around sensory perceptions that has over the years been referred to as this now famous question:<\/p>\n

” If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?<\/strong>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That debate, of whether something that is not physically perceived actually happens or not, has since grown in scope and significance, drawing in other philosophers as well as the scientific community, including such notable thinkers as Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. And the topic is of course not limited to Western philosophy \u2013 it also exists in Buddhism, Hinduism and other philosophies and religions.<\/p>\n

It was many years later, in the 1980\u2019s to be exact, that this debate took on a whole new meaning when the American political strategist Lee Atwater said simply and succinctly: \u201cperception is reality\u201d. What had been practiced for years in the worlds of marketing, communications and politics was now more clearly and openly proclaimed: reality matters less than people\u2019s perceptions of it, especially when it comes to selling products and politicians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reality vs. perception in the world of reputation management<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

A decade later, when I started working in the field of corporate branding, I was learning the art of helping companies identify and articulate their true identities \u2013 and that had a lot more to do with reality than perceptions. But later on, as I expanded my field to include reputation management, I found myself often using Atwater\u2019s famous truism. Lately though I started asking myself: does it still hold true in today\u2019s world?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that with the advent of social media, reality has become a lot harder to hide \u2013 or in other words information on \u201cnegative reality\u201d that company bosses aren\u2019t aware of or wish to contain is a lot harder to keep secret. Be it tweets from rogue employees<\/a>, YoutTube videos that go viral<\/a>\u00a0or Facebook boycott campaigns<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 more and more companies are finding that facts are often revealed to large segments of the public quickly and unexpectedly. And this is not just limited to unhappy employees or customers venting on social media \u2013 it\u2019s also a result of more confident and competent actions these days by NGOs<\/a>, whistleblowers<\/a>\u00a0and law enforcement agencies<\/a>. In all these cases, social media of course still play a crucial role \u2013 spreading the story fast and far, making any containment attempts doomed to failure.<\/p>\n

When one sees these developments, and the impact of the VW Dieselgate<\/a> scandal on the company\u2019s reputation and market valuation, surely it\u2019s fair to ask: is it really worth it for companies to cheat, engage in dubious practices, mistreat employees or customers and so on, in the hope that \u201creality\u201d will never be revealed and hurt \u201cperceptions\u201d? It could be argued that for every VW there\u2019s a dozen other automakers that engage in similar practices but simply never got caught, and whose reputations therefore never suffered \u2013 but don\u2019t these cases show that even if the truth doesn\u2019t come out, the risk is just too great?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shaping reality is harder than shaping perceptions<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The answer of course is that it\u2019s more complex than that. Reality is not black and white, and can often be told in different ways by different parties. Reality in organizations often involves many people that cannot be fully controlled by, and many actions that cannot be fully known to, those in charge. But one thing is certain: while many businesses see the concept of reputation management as a perception-shaping exercise, the truth (pardon the pun) of the matter is that the weight is shifting towards spotting and fixing \u201cbad reality\u201d wherever in the organization it may lurk. It\u2019s good practice to have crisis management plans in place, but companies will increasingly find that they cannot build and protect reputations without proactively trying to improve the reality of their businesses \u2013 from the quality of the products and the integrity of the business, to the way they treat stakeholders and keep their promises.<\/p>\n

I still admire George Berkeley for stating that \u201cto be is to be perceived\u201d as early as the 18th century. But I propose a new motto for corporate reputation management in the 21st century: reality is perception<\/strong>. Whatever you and your company do will eventually be known to the outside world and will shape people’s perceptions of you. This doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s no longer important to consider stakeholder perceptions \u2013 it is, in order to better understand their expectations from you as a business, and the gaps between their perceptions and your reality. But it does mean you should focus on making your reality better, and better known \u2013 rather than on creating false perceptions. Take this to heart, and you\u2019ll have a better chance of enjoying a good reputation and a successful business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
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If you are interested in this topic you might like the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coronavirus vs. Corporate Reputation – what’s the connection?<\/a><\/p>\n

Business integrity: an oxymoron?<\/a><\/p>\n

The forgotten stakeholder of crisis management<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of trying so hard to be loved, companies should focus on 3 simple things<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ever since learning about the philosophical debate of perception vs. reality in philosophy class years ago, I\u2019ve been fascinated by the topic and its applications across many areas of our lives. According to the teacher, it all started with George Berkeley, who in 1710\u00a0started a discussion\u00a0around sensory perceptions that has over the years been referred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7512,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions\/7512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupcaliber.banyodev.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}