the emoji imperative 🔮

today's grand digital experiment

Throughout modern history, communication styles have adapted to meet ever-changing cultural preferences and communicative technologies. For example, Ernest Hemingway’s concise writing style has been attributed to the author’s time as a war correspondent, where a reliance on the telegraph and Morse code prioritized unambiguous, terse sentence structures that could be easily decoded1. Similarly, be it email, text message, or even the long-forgotten pager – all media change the way humans communicate. If you are patiently waiting for a text back from a member of the always-connected Generation Z, you already intuitively understand that technology does more than simply allow for humans to send and receive different content in new ways. Rather, our collective (and quite grand!) digital experiment has changed the way humans think about communication that underlies all human relationships. A preview of the seismic changes ushered in by computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools appeared way back in 1989, “[technology-based workplace interactions remove] irrelevant interpersonal and theoretical issues by focusing attention

on the process and content of problem-solving discussion."2

the emoji imperative

At a time of widespread workplace and societal disconnection, the emoji, as an emotion and symbolic complement to text-based language, provides a means to rectify a system, the digital workplace, which is so ubiquitous that many overlook its very existence. As people communicate and attempt to build relationships through the limitations of computer-mediated communication (CMC) within the workplace, the path forward needn’t be a stumble through the communicative darkness.

Of course, not all communicative revolutions are as instantly visible as the telegraph and the encoded sounds and decoded symbols of Morse code. One such example is the humbly singular (even when plural) emoji. While some may say the emoji is simply a temporary smartphone-esque feature, others might argue that emoji have simply been overlooked in a cultural moment full of mind-blowing technological advancements. This author 😏 will later argue that the symbolic nature of an emoji orients human cognition towards an organization, teams, and peers. Once relegated to the cool guy with sunglasses (😎) or a thumbs up (👍), an emoji is a bridge to overcome perhaps text-based computer mediated communication’s (CMC) most obvious problem: Expressing intent and emotional context alongside the sometimes-harsh dichotomy of the written word. Perhaps more powerfully for modern organizations, by injecting symbolic and metaphor-based connection into the workplace — a key communicative and organizing process utilized by humans since the beginning of time — the emoji (and its derivatives the react and the custom emoji) provide outsized value to leaders and interns alike. Finally, in this expose of the emoji, workplace optimists will learn from the dance through organizations and with and around social, technical, and relational contexts that underly all workplace communication. In a manner of speaking, analyzing how the modern soul communicates within a modern organization via a new and largely untapped communicative mechanism, the emoji, practitioners and leaders alike will come away with entirely new perspectives and opportunities.

Why the emoji? Why now?

If this journey sounds sort of important, well, it is. If changing the way your company thinks about communication and behaves in the quiet spaces of the digital workplace, this research and industry-backed guide contains the micro-topics and step by step decision points to implement small wins that inspire confidence. If you are an executive or simply need a simple and powerful way to frame the upcoming communicative revolution, this book provides a means of directing that change and winning all-important executive buy in. In an age of outsized technological advancements, humanity’s grand digital experiment has left many employees simply holding on for dear life. In the workplace, you have likely seen — even felt —  the steep price of digital isolation. Yet the lack of expression and connection within today’s companies is not solely due to mediating technology. As communication dances and weaves through the social and relational spheres that make humans such “unique” social specimens, we see a path towards a workplace of the future. As the emoji weaves and dances through the modern workplace, communicators will not just better understand evangelize a useful feature, but more importantly, will understand workplace communication in an entirely new way.

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Works Cited

1. Kielbowicz, R. B. (2022). The Telegraph, Bandwidth, and the News Story. Information & Culture, 57(3), 307-331. https://doi.org/10.7560/IC57304

2. Phillips, G. M., & Santoro, G. M. (1989). Teaching group discussion via computer-mediated communication. Communication Education, 38, 151-161.