I don’t like Heathrow. Two reasons: I don’t want a Third Runway (I live in W4) and flying scares me. So, Heathrow’s initiative to give Alain de Botton access to the ‘secret airport’ immediately caught my eye. Like a good horror movie, anything flying related makes me look, even though I really don’t want to.
De Botton is getting untrammelled access to all Heathrow’s parts and people to write ‘A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary’. Although this is a re-run of the old ‘writer-in-residence-in-a-place-you-wouldn’t-expect-ploy’, the results in media terms have been fantastic.
But what also struck me is this: its power is grounded in an understanding of the age of transparency.
Heathrow recognises it can appear a secret, unfriendly organisation. This hurts its image and reputation so it has set out to do something about this.
As De Botton said in the Times, “It is an incredibly paranoid place, because it has to be. If you stand in certain places then a patrol car will come along and you will be arrested. It’s brave of them to have me, but it’s better for them to have a book that tells the truth than a glossy brochure that people will just throw away.”
Heathrow wanted to clean its windows a little so people could see in, a little further, a little better. The goal is that if people SEE behind the scenes and see and hear from our people they’ll build a better understanding of who we are and how we work and that will build familiarity and empathy with the corporation.
The communications also understands the need for authenticity: De Botton has been at pains to stress his independence. “If I see a cockroach coming out of Gordon Ramsay [the restaurant] then I’m allowed to write about it. No lawyers are allowed to vet it.”
This sort of communications, which harnesses the power of transparency, which is based around a credible collaboration is key to resolving many of the corporate communication challenges in an age of transparency.
Much as I dislike flying, and despite my past experiences at Heathrow, therefore, I shall go to T5 on Friday night to pick up my family from holiday with a more open disposition towards Heathrow and T5.