A colleague of mine told me about a recent sales training that had a key point of befriending the gatekeepers, which has a place when there is a gatekeeper, but a very insightful sales person recently conveyed a truth about the evolving world, “there are no gatekeepers any more”.

With the many methods of communication today and the openness of the paths to that communication, very rarely is there a gatekeeper to contact the person you need to get to. Today’s corporate America does not employ a person to protect and ward off communication to the management personnel; rather the management is striving to reach out to more people to convey their message and information.

So what is the future of communications and how does the next generation communicate? I recently had the privilege of attending a lecture at a college campus and noticed that as everyone entered and exited the lecture no one talks to each other. Almost all had an mp3 player in and did not speak to their peers. What I came to find out was that they all had been communicating during the entire lecture via texting. This is the reality of how the next generation is communicating. Business needs to embrace these types of communications and work with how they communicate rather than change how they communicate.

With all that is said, how does corporate America begin to incorporate this into standard communications? It all starts with acceptance and a willingness to be open to change. In these tough economic time it is easy to fall back into old habit that have worked in the past, which also may still work. However, in addition, it is also important to spend time reflecting on the big picture and look at how innovation and evolution of your communications can lead your business to places it has never been.