This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #8: In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.

Hierarchy is meant to provide structure and order. Instead,  it’s more often perceived (with any semblance of fact or not), as practice of obfuscation.

Hierarchy says, to the person attempting to get shit their job done, “You aren’t trusted enough to figure out the next steps on your own, so we need to make sure that the steps you’re taking are in our best interest before you can take them.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m insulted just thinking about that.

Again, we’re back to a trust issue. Much like companies are fearful of their customers’ and employees’ voices, they’re even more fearful of their actions and decisions.

Hyperlinks (as a means of communication, not just code) subvert this process by providing a window into what’s beyond the immediate scope, allowing customers and employees alike to make more informed decisions.

The importance of “hyperlinks” in business today isn’t that they have increased the amount of dialogue, and we’ll get back to that point.

The importance of “hyperlinks” is that they have increased the efficiency of honesty.

Hyperlinks of the digital and human variety have connected customers to other customers, employees to other employees, and in best cases, opened bi-directional exchanges between customers and employees of the same company.

And all of this dialog is open, candid, honest, and in the human voice.