Will humility save The London Evening Standard?

The Guardian reports on the launch of  LES’s rebirth strategy. Will it work? I hope so. I love the fact that they have decided to be humble about it. I’m sure taking into account the decline the newspaper industry LES couldn’t afford to be arrogant with its re-launch, but this is a great example of a conventional institution showing that they genuinely care about the opinions of its audience.

Whether it all comes off I think is entirely down to the ongoing editorial policy, but as I pointed out in a comment on my blog yesterday, listening to conversations, both external and internal (within your community) is a great way to ensure your content is relevant and continues to be so. Be guided by what conversations are taking place outside of your bubble, but also look at what is underneath your nose.

When we look at things like http://twitter.zappos.com, www.mystarbucksidea.com, and (sorry!) Dell Ideastorm, these companies are tackling customer negativity head-on, solving problems in public and making the necessary changes in public too – customers can see that their complaints and problems are being dealt with.

Very few businesses are doing this, so it is exciting to see such a traditional company be very noble, nay humble.

Humility is a crucial aspect of this “new web” and one of (in my opinion anyway) Obama’s greatest qualities. He can openly acknowledge errors yet lose none of his authority.

“True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.”

I think we’d all do well to remember that! Humility is not a sign of weakness, quite the opposite in fact.