Thursday, February 03, 2005
Feedback
Earlier this week I wrote about a journalist and his suggestions for integrating citizens with a newspaper through blogging. I asked that anyone who had an experience of using a blog in a corporation to contact me. Well, someone did, and he had this to offer.
I've persuaded my company to adopt the blog. Oddly enough, it has not been an uphill battle. I joined a testing division of a top semiconductor manufacturing firm, where the new manager was faced with the task of making broad-sweeping changes to move the group from lowest in class to highest performing in a single quarter. Effective communications was a key player in creating a group morale that could sustain those goals; and I think that I've learned some things about corporate communications from being in the trenches here.
My manager sought opportunities to present factual messages, but with only a quarterly opportunity to hold court amongst all shifts, it made more sense to seek greener pastures. So I dusted off the abandoned news portal. This quickly dispensed with a constant daily barrage of e-mail bulletins that merely got deleted when information overload levels got breached. The blog from the manager, on top of that, was not a hard sell when he took into account how the same population could be reached at any given time.
We're still in a nascent stage with the project, but the results have been tremendous, namely, the gratitude from the staff for having clear communications channels, and access to the boss once again.
This is an interesting story, and I would much like to correspond with the individual who contributed it to thank him as well as to find out more about the communications challenge he is addressing.
If there are more stories out there, let's hear them. I am particularly interested in your tactical suggestions for how to make blogging work well in difficult environments.
I've persuaded my company to adopt the blog. Oddly enough, it has not been an uphill battle. I joined a testing division of a top semiconductor manufacturing firm, where the new manager was faced with the task of making broad-sweeping changes to move the group from lowest in class to highest performing in a single quarter. Effective communications was a key player in creating a group morale that could sustain those goals; and I think that I've learned some things about corporate communications from being in the trenches here.
My manager sought opportunities to present factual messages, but with only a quarterly opportunity to hold court amongst all shifts, it made more sense to seek greener pastures. So I dusted off the abandoned news portal. This quickly dispensed with a constant daily barrage of e-mail bulletins that merely got deleted when information overload levels got breached. The blog from the manager, on top of that, was not a hard sell when he took into account how the same population could be reached at any given time.
We're still in a nascent stage with the project, but the results have been tremendous, namely, the gratitude from the staff for having clear communications channels, and access to the boss once again.
This is an interesting story, and I would much like to correspond with the individual who contributed it to thank him as well as to find out more about the communications challenge he is addressing.
If there are more stories out there, let's hear them. I am particularly interested in your tactical suggestions for how to make blogging work well in difficult environments.
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