The Nametag Manifesto - Chapter 15: The End of Hierarchy

July 24, 2011 2:42 PM

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“Everyone should wear nametags, all the time, everywhere, forever.”

That’s my thesis, philosophy, dangerous idea and theory of the universe.

My name is Scott, and I’ve been wearing a nametag for past four thousand days.

And
after traveling to hundreds of cities, a dozen countries, four
continents, meeting tens of thousands of people, constant
experimentation and observation, building a enterprise and writing a
dozen books in the process, I believe, with all my heart, that the
societal implications of wearing nametags could change everything.

This is my manifesto:

15. The End of Hierarchy

If everybody wears
nametags, greater equality ensues.

When only employees wore nametags, we treated them in a
patronizing way. We viewed them as servants to do our beer battered bidding,
not as fellow human beings stumbling through this world trying to figure out
who the hell they are.

But now we’re all on equal footing. Everybody is tagged. And
nobody can act condescending to each other because we’re all the same. There
are no more feelings of you serving me, I’m the customer you’re the employee –
we’re just here, together, as two human beings.

Nobody is indebted to each other. We communicate
citizen-to-citizen, peer-to-peer – as opposed to expert to follower or ruler to
servant. Communication is horizontal, not vertical, and thus, more reciprocal.
It’s not about access to information, but access to each other.

If everybody wears
nametags, no more inequality, no more bureaucratic layers and no more
patronizing.

# # #

You can read The Nametag Manifesto, in full, for free, right now, here.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your manifesto?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “7 Ways to Out Leverage Your Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting

[email protected]

My job is to help companies make their mission more than a statement, using limited edition social artifacts.