Day 40: How Is This Acceptable?

Today marks Day 40 since I requested a Nextdoor study that company communications directed me to request from Jacob Chavis.

Today, I sent another email to:

Nirav Tolia, CEO

Jacob Chavis

Investor Relations

Press

The question I asked was intentionally simple:

How is this acceptable?

Forty days have passed.

Not forty days waiting for an answer I agree with.

Forty days without receiving the study.

Forty days without a response explaining whether the study is available.

Forty days without a simple acknowledgment.

At this point, this has become much larger than one report.

It's about communication.

It's about accountability.

It's about the culture an organization chooses to build.

As a shareholder, I don't expect every answer to be "yes."

I do expect organizations to acknowledge reasonable requests and communicate professionally.

A response could have been:

"Here's the study."

"The study isn't available."

"We can't share it."

"We're looking into it."

Any one of those would have moved the conversation forward.

Instead, today marks Day 40.

Some may wonder why I continue posting these updates.

The answer is simple:

Consistency.

If I believe communication and accountability matter, then I have to be consistent in asking for them. I'm not going to stop asking simply because the answer hasn't come. I'll stop asking when I receive a response or when there's nothing left to ask.

I've often quoted two lessons from a former colleague:

"We tolerate what we allow."

and

"We inspect what we expect."

Those ideas continue to guide my thinking.

If leadership expects trust from users, advertisers, employees, and shareholders, then communication is one of the first things to inspect.

I've attached the image that accompanied today's email.

Join the discussion at NielFlamm.com/blog. I welcome feedback.