I recently was struck by a very public conversation I have been hearing about. It is is in regards to a million and one details and has strings stretching farther than I could imagine, no matter how creative I think I am.

The most critical part of the conversation to me now is the publicity of it all. Both sides of the coin have always been very private groups. Never divulging too much more than they need. For this conversation, they have been hyper public. They have been leveraging public opinion against each other. Making points. Swaying intermediaries and everyone of course weighs in on the whole thing because everyone has an opinion and everyone else needs to give theirs too.

No one is stopping to ask if this conversation needs to be public. I have been more and more adopting a policy of dealing with things in the moment. This is practically a good policy for me right now, not necessarily permanent. If someone goes off the rails, it is better for me to wave a flag in the moment than wait. I know if I wait, I will never speak up.

I would never bring one of these situations up in a public forum to be discussed in the public court of opinion. I would betray my counterparts in these moments if I take private matters public. Private matters should be private for a reason. Nobody is better when I force a private matter into the public when it obviously belongs private. Personally, I would be immensely hurt if someone made my private matters public, hence I would never do that. What good can come from forcing private matters into the public? Do we really need so many extra opinions in conversations designed for private offices?

How do you deal with things? Do private matters come up too often in public? Do you deal with issues in a timely fashion? Does your reaction scale to the action?

Privately,

–JT