Change Happens. Deal With It.

Resisting change is useless. Accept it or put the client at risk.

It seems like only yesterday — and a lifetime ago — that the computer revolution began. In the 1970s, “dumb” terminals had their “brains” in large air-conditioned backrooms full of giant servers. Soon after came clunky personal computers. Since then, Moore’s Law has held true: Computer processing power has doubled every two years.

Today’s smartphones are more powerful and process information far faster than early full-size computers.

It took decades for laptop quality to improve enough that their sales exceeded desktops in 2008. By comparison, tablets leapfrogged both in 2010, just 2 1/2 years after the first iPad came on the market.

History, they say, is whatever happened before you were born. Entire generations are alive today who can’t imagine a world without computers, and they embrace new gadgets and variations of social media as fast as they are invented.

Some have been significant: They altered the nature and speed of commerce. Others less so: They simply provided new outlets to gossip and share tidbits about your personal life.

But all have made life less private.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously declared in early 2010 that the age of privacy was over and that “public” was the new default — the new “social norm” — for sharing personal information.

For most, it was a trade-off: Less privacy in exchange for a greater ability to keep in touch with others. Those who found it intrusive were in the minority, and it seemed there was no turning back the tide of those who compiled, analyzed, and sold information. Nor would anything slow the speed with which information was exchanged.

That the media today has greater access to information and more speed is the new normal for Crisis & Reputation Management. Complaining about it is less than useless. You deal with it. Anything less would put the client at risk.

For a deeper glimpse into our world, see our book on Amazon, A Lawyer’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting Your Clients In & From the Media.

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You can reach Roger Gillott and Eden Gillott directly at 310-396-8696.

Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.