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To blog or not to blog, that is the question

Many internal communicators are still undecided about whether to blog or not. And with good reason. Blogs are email. Email transfers information that does not always communicate (i.e. transfer meaning or understanding). Email is not human communication with meaning (e.g. sincerity or lack of it) created by body language, facial expression, eye movement, and tone of voice.

Internal communication is about influencing employees’ behaviour. Your ability to do this depends on the quality of relationships at all levels and throughout the organisation. Obviously, employees are far more likely to change their behaviour as a result of discussions with someone they trust who listens to their concerns, than as a result of reading something on screen.

Even so, this is not an argument for communication only from the immediate supervisor face-to-face. Immediate supervisors are the preferred communicators for local issues and personal performance feedback. But my research shows that when it comes to major change, communication with senior executives, especially the CEO, is crucial to success.

Which brings us back to blogs. These are essentially online discussions. They are probably the next best thing to personal or small group discussions (or personal phone calls). If employees want interaction with the CEO about major changes, and the CEO can’t have small group interaction with most employees, then it may be worth maintaining a CEO blog. But the CEO must be prepared to put in the time and effort personally over the long haul (either permanently or for the duration of the change program).

In one 800 employee organisation with 80 remote global locations, employees said they loved getting emails from the CEO, but said he should write them himself. Embarrassed communicators worked out that eight of them had authored the CEO’s emails.

Relatively few employees may read the CEO’s blog and even fewer bother to engage in dialog, but chances are they will be opinion leaders. So it may well be worth the effort. In smaller organisations it may be a better use of the CEO’s time to get out and about to engage employees in groups of no more than about 40 or so (to allow meaningful interaction). Incidentally, while employees may love big events, these correlate very weakly with satisfaction with communication.

I once visited Ted Kunkel, former CEO of Forster’s, on the eve of a big trip. He was off to run 15 interactive sessions with no more than 50 managers in each. I calculated he was going to talk with 10% of his workforce. Hopefully the managers were then better able to spread his message more broadly.

I’m staggered that some CEOs make visits to remote company locations to met government officials, clients and executives, but don’t bother to talk with groups of employees. I was once told by a bank CEO’s assistant “Mr F does not visit branches”.

So recognise that blogs may not transfer meaning or understanding, let alone change behaviour. And don’t encourage blogs at the expense of senior people engaging in personal interaction with the people of the organisation. You need to ensure this whether or not executives blog.

Rodney Gray
Employee Communication & Surveys
Sydney, Australia